Music of Tibet

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For the album of chanting by the Gyuto monks, see Music of Tibet (album).
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General topics
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Specific forms
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Midi Modern Music Festival
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Regional music
dungchen
, Tibetan long trumpets, from the roof of the Medical College, Lhasa, 1938
Street musician playing a dramyin, Shigatse, Tibet, 1993

The music of Tibet reflects the cultural heritage of the trans-Himalayan region centered in Tibet, but also known wherever ethnic Tibetan groups are found in Nepal, Bhutan, India and further abroad. The religious music of Tibet reflects the profound influence of Tibetan Buddhism on the culture.

The new-age 'singing bowl' music marketed in the West as 'Tibetan music' is of 1970s US origin.

History

Western research into the history of Tibetan music has often focused more on religious than secular musics.

oral cavity.[3] The assiduous adoption and evolution of Indian Buddhist traditions and culture in Tibet between the 12th and mid-20th centuries – in a period when Buddhism had disappeared from most of the Indian subcontinent - allowed the Tibetans to perpetuate musical practices from India that would otherwise have been lost, and to develop them in distinctive ways.[2] Although Tibetan religious music can appear quite separate from the major traditions that emerged in Indian music, some of the musical instruments actually descend from Indian monastic and tantric Buddhist contexts, including, for example, the dril-bu hand-bell, the characteristic hour-glass drums called damaru, and the thighbone trumpet (kangling), as used in the practice of chöd.[4]

The Lama Mani tradition – the telling of Buddhist parables through song — dates back to the 12th century. The songs were performed by wandering storytellers, who travelled from village to village, drawing on their own often humble origins to relate to people from all backgrounds. Vividly illustrated Buddhist thangka paintings depicted the narrative and helped the audience understand what was essentially a teaching.

Tibetan "street songs" were a traditional form of expression particularly popular as a means of political and other commentary in a country that was previously without newspapers or other means of mass communication. They provided political and social commentary and satire and are a good example of a

bardic tradition, akin to that in medieval Europe or, more recently, the role calypsos played in the West Indies. As song lyrics in Tibet usually contained stanzas of 4 lines of 6 syllables each, the lyrics could be easily adapted to almost any melody.[5]

Secular Tibetan music has been promoted by organizations like the

Gesar
.

Musical instruments

Wind

Monk with Gyaling and hats. Key Monastery Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India
  • Dungchen
     (དུང་ཆེན་) or rag-dung (རག་དུང་) - long horn made of copper and/or brass
  • Dung-kar or dung-dkar (དུང་དཀར་, literally "white conch") - conch shell horn
  • Gyaling (རྒྱ་གླིང་) - shawm
  • Kangling (རྐང་གླིང་) or kang-dung (རྐང་དུང་) - trumpet made from a human leg bone, or sometimes wood
  • Lingbu (གླིང་བུ་) - flute made from bamboo, or occasionally wood
    • Dung-rus gling-bu - flute made from the leg bone of an eagle or vulture
  • Kha-wang or gugzi - Jew's harp

String

  • Dramyin or sgra-snyan (སྒྲ་སྙན་) - long-necked fretless plucked lute with 6 or 7 strings
  • Piwang (པི་ཝང་) - 2-stringed vertical fiddle
  • Rgyud-mang (རྒྱུད་མང, literally "many strings") - hammered dulcimer

Percussion

  • Chö nga or lak nga - double-headed drum, which is usually held by a handle in the left hand and struck with a curved stick held in the right hand
  • Damaru (ཌ་མ་རུ་) - small hourglass drum
  • Dhyangro - drum used by Himalayan shamans
  • Dril-bu (དྲིལ་བུ་) - handbell
  • Gyer-kha (གཡེར་ཁ་) - small decorative bell
  • Khar-nga (མཁར་རྔ་) - gong
  • Nga or rnga (རྔ་) - term referring to any drum or ritual percussion instrument
    • Nga chen or rnga-chen (རྔ་ཆེན་) - large double-headed drum, suspended in a frame and played with two sticks
    • Rnga-chung - small double-headed drum
  • Lda man (ལྡ་མན་) - a pair of kettledrums
  • Rölmo (རོལ་མོ་), also called buk chöl, bup chal, or sbub-chal - hemispherical cymbals
  • Silnyen or sil-snyan (སིལ་སྙན་ or སིལ་སྙེན་) - flat cymbals
  • Tingsha or ting-shags (ཏིང་ཤགས་) - small cymbals
  • Mkhar-rnga bcu-pa - set of 10 tuned gongs in a frame

Popular and modern

Street musicians. Lhasa. 1993
Mother & son playing lute. Lhasa 1993

Tibetans have a very strong[

Shakespeare's Hamlet
, set in ancient Tibet and featuring an all-Tibetan cast.

In the multi-ethnic provinces of

Yadong
, who both have reached outside the borders of China with their music.

The first fusion with Western music was Tibetan Bells, a 1972 release by Nancy Hennings and Henry Wolff. The soundtrack to Kundun, by Philip Glass, has helped to popularize Tibetan music.

Foreign styles of popular music have also had a major impact within the

Tibetan pop, popularised by the likes of Yadong (Tibet), Dadon (now living in the US), Jampa Tsering (Tibet), 3-member group AJIA, 4-member group Gao Yuan Hong, five-member group Gao Yuan Feng, are well known. Gaoyuan Hong in particular has introduced elements of Tibetan language rapping into their singles. Alan Dawa Dolma
is the first and currently only artist of Tibetan ethnicity to be active in both Chinese and Japanese music industry.

Tibetan dancing

Western representations

Although it is sometimes stated that '

shamanic Bon-Po tradition, the manufacture and use of bowls specifically for the purpose of 'singing' (as opposed to standing bells/bowls that are intended to be struck) is believed to be a modern and non-Tibetan phenomenon.[8] The historical records and accounts of the music of Tibet are silent about singing bowls. Such bowls are not mentioned by Perceval Landon (a visitor in 1903–1904) in his notes on Tibetan music, nor by any other visitor.[8]

Wolff and Hennings' seminal recording Tibetan Bells was followed by the development of a unique style of American singing bowl music often marketed as 'Tibetan music'.[9] This has remained very popular in the US with many recordings being marketed as World music or New-age music since the introduction of those terms in the 1980s.[10] 'Tibetan singing bowls' have as a result become a prominent visual and musical symbol of Tibet,[9] to the extent that the most prevalent modern representation of Tibet within the US is that of bowls played by Americans.[11]

Gallery

  • Musician at Tibetan Children's Village, Dharamsala
    Musician at Tibetan Children's Village,
    Dharamsala
  • Gyaling and dungchen at Takthok Monastery, Ladakh. 2010
    Gyaling and dungchen at Takthok Monastery, Ladakh. 2010
  • Gyaling. Tagthok Gompa, 2010
    Gyaling. Tagthok Gompa, 2010

See also

Footnotes

  1. JSTOR 834363
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 9789745240339
    .
  3. ISBN 9781526602749
    .
  4. JSTOR 43560853
    .
  5. ^ Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1982). Lhasa Street Songs: Political and Social Satire in Traditional Tibet. The Tibet Journal. Vol. VII Nos. 1 & 2. Spring/Summer 1982, pp. 56-66.
  6. ^ My date with a pop star, TravelBlog 15 March 2007
  7. ^ Erlich, Reese (2009-05-05). "Rock 'N' Roll At The Top Of The World". NPR. Retrieved 2013-03-16.
  8. ^ a b Gioia, Ted (2006). Healing Songs. Durham and London: Duke University Press. pp. 149–151.
  9. ^ a b Congdon 2007, pp. 197–198.
  10. ^ Congdon 2007, p. 125.
  11. ^ Congdon 2007, pp. 214, 215.

References

Media related to Music of Tibet at Wikimedia Commons

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