Lovely Long-life Son! Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life ཨ་མདོའི་འབྲོག་ཕྲུག་ཅིག་གི་ལང་ཚོའི་གར་སྟབས། (original) (raw)

A Lovely Long-life Son! features graphic, real-life stories of Lhun 'grub (born in 1991) and his relatives, with memorable folksongs and photos from Mdo ba (Duowa) Town in the east of Qinghai Province, PR China. Two prominent genres of Tibetan folksongs - glu and la gzhas - are precisely categorized and vividly presented in both oral and Literary Tibetan, followed by the English translation and musical notation. The narratives, songs, singers, photographs, comments, and analysis depict the author's homeland from the 1930s to 2020, providing valuable materials to those interested in Tibetan folksongs, culture, education, love stories, community transitions, and social and cultural studies. -Tshe dbang rdo rje ཚེ་དབང་རྡོ་རྗེ། (Caixiangduojie 才项多杰) Qinghai Normal University青海师范大学 In A Lovely Long-life Son! Lhun 'grub, a native Tibetan, takes readers on a journey from his birth and through his childhood within the historical and social dynamics of his home community. This sets the stage for how he learned and performed songs and the songs themselves as sung, in Literary Tibetan and English translation. The performers, the settings for particular song genres, and the lyrics are described, with the music notation provided by Qi Huimin. Readers gain rare, intimate insight into singing culture and its significant role in local cultural identity while hearing Lhun 'grub’s concern for the marginalization of singing traditions in today's rapidly changing society. This is one of the few books richly detailing personal experiences with learning and performing Tibetan songs in a very local context and is a must-read for anyone interested in life-writing, the importance of cultural preservation, and Tibetan Studies. -Kelsang Norbu (Gesang Nuobu, Skal bzang nor bu སྐལ་བཟང་ནོར་བུ།) Lhun 'grub's well-organized collection of songs, life experiences, interviews, and stories in his autobiographical A Lovely Long-life Son! provide intimate insight into Amdo pastoral life in the 1990s. Featured songs include celebrating three-year-old children to eighty-year-old elders, communication between lovers, celebratory moments of reunion, and local entertainment. The lyrics and melodies typify nomad lifeways characterized by the intertwining of human and livestock lives with nature. Lhun 'grub is a gifted singer whose shared authentic experiences of learning, listening, and singing with locals empower and validate the transmission of these songs to future generations of pastoral people and bring back memories from my childhood and youth in Golok, a time when singing was tightly interwoven with daily life. -Rigdrol Jikar (Rig grol རིག་གྲོལ།) Victoria University, Australia A Lovely Long-life Son! Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life triggers concerns about the sustainability of Tibetan culture in this constantly modernizing society and the struggles of ordinary Tibetans to maintain their culture and identity. Lhun 'grub is fortunate to have been born and nurtured in his native culture with its joys and challenges. Unfortunately, the happiness Lhun 'grub experienced with song and singing will likely not be shared by younger Tibetan generations, including Lhun 'grub's children. Poignant accounts of his childhood, interviews with singers, beautiful lyrics, valuable music notation and commentary, and amazing photographs make this book invaluable documentation. -Klu rgyal 'bum ཀླུ་རྒྱལ་འབུམ། Lhun 'grub, born in a black yak-hair tent in Amdo in 1991, recalls his life of songs and singing occasions as an integral experience of being a member of a mobile pastoralist community herding yaks, sheep, and horses. In many ways, his early life differs little from that of his parents and grandparents. Three life narratives plus biographical sketches of other community members allow for a rich appreciation of the social circumstances in a frontier space where wolves and bandits were constant threats. Rifles, horses, and idealized manhood were no-nonsense responses to living on the periphery. His childhood memories and elders' accounts convey intimate knowledge of a culture of songs and singing that was, in sharp contrast to today's world, far more than mere entertainment. Lhun 'grub's portraits of singers are a meaningful tribute. Moreover, lyrics transcribed in multiple Tibetan formats with English translation, plus musical notation (by Qi Huimin), provide readers with an exemplary model of weaving songs, music, life, and memories into a precious tapestry of Tibetan community life. This book will greatly interest scholars and students of the Tibetosphere, Tibetan music, cultural preservation, local history, indigeneity, and the impact of globalization and modernization on once remote, traditional peoples. -Gengqiu Gelai (Konchok Gelek, Dkon mchog dge legs དཀོན་མཆོག་དགེ་ལེགས།) University of Zurich A Lovely Long-life Son! is an exquisite achievement in the genre of Tibetan ethnoautobiography, highlighting the impact of accelerating access to digital media and use. Exploring and documenting Tibetan traditional songs and the lives of their practitioners in an Amdo Tibetan pastoral community, this is essential reading for those interested in Tibetan traditional singing and the changing cultural landscapes of Tibetan pastoral lives. -Tshe dpal rdo rje ཚེ་དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ། University of Canterbury As the title suggests, Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life does precisely that in depicting Lhun 'grub's life through the celebration of songs and how they convey a wide range of intentions and emotions from lamentations to romantic love to praising religious personalities. Lyrics in oral and Literary Tibetan (Tibetan script and Wylie) with English translation and music notation (thanks to Qi Huimin) provide an invaluable resource of interest to readers and scholars of various disciplines. Born in 1991, before the ubiquitous presence of social media via cell phones, Lhun 'grub experienced a traditional education among Tibetan nomad community members as they maintained and enhanced cross-generational connections among people of varying social status (religious figures, political leaders, men, women, children, thieves) and connections with the surrounding environment and animals through singing. Of note is how antiphonal singing resembles Namuyi Tibetans' singing during weddings and gatherings of relatives - a powerful artistic, joyful way of communication transcending mere conventional linguistic expression. This book is invaluable. -Li Jianfu 李建富 (Libu Lakhi, Zla ba bstan 'dzin ཟླ་བ་བསྟན་འཛིན།) Qinghai Normal University 青海师范大学 Lhun 'grub's ethnographic description of his pastoral life, interlaced with traditional A mdo Tibetan folk songs, is a valuable record detailing songs, singing, and singers that now confront unprecedented challenges amid China's transformative modernity. Though some find Tibetan folk songs annoying, given their remarkable high-pitch and (to them) unfathomable lyrics, others who do understand may burst into tears when a good singer performs - testimony to the songs' expressive power. Meticulous contextualization of traditional folk song performance, meanings of songs and singing, ways of singing, song genres, and sketches of singers' lives give profound insight into the world of Tibetan singers in a fast-changing world. -Nyangchak (Snying lcags rgyal སྙིང་ལྕགས་རྒྱལ།) Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life is a beautiful ethnography of singers, songs, and life in an Amdo pastoral community. Lhun 'grub's own and other locals' rich accounts of their experiences introduce readers to a traditional herding society where songs were central to the communities' value system, serving a deep purpose beyond just entertainment. Song varieties are presented in rich social and cultural contexts through the intimacy of lived interactions with songs and singing. These lives, memories, and hopes demonstrate a major concern with the imminent loss of local song lore transmission. -Rin chen rdo rje རིན་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེ། Lanzhou University Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life is a profoundly personal ethnographic account with fine observations focused on Tibetan songscapes. Lhun drub's engagement with various Tibetan songs and singers from childhood to young adulthood, and his contemporary observations of how and why traditional Tibetan songs were learned, the performance contexts, the texts as sung and in Literary Tibetan, English translation, and music notation (by Qi Huimin) are extremely valuable. This book is beautifully written and intensely observed with thoroughly translated Tibetan song texts. Requisite reading for a better understanding of pastoral life in the last three decades. -Duojie Zhaxi (Rdo rje bkra shis རྡོ་རྗེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས།) Qinghai Minzu University