High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a new song from Tibet by singer Jampel called “Patriotic Martyrs”. The video first started appearing online last month, this link to YouTube shows that it was uploaded on June 24, 2013.
According to the title on the top left corner of the music video, Jampel’s album is called ‘The Pure Father Tongue of Tseda Jampel”. Even though his name as the composer and singer is only credited as Jampel, Tibetans tend to add their name at the beginning to show where they are from, in this case Tseda, a township in the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.
The song “Patriotic Martyrs” is clearly about the self-immolations in Tibet with many references to fire and flames in the lyrics. The line “The courage of Thupten Ngodup” refers to the first Tibetan self-immolator. Thupten Ngodup self-immolated on April 27, 1998 in New Delhi, India, and died two days later. Interestingly, Thupten Ngodup was the only self-immolator to be mentioned by name in the last message of Lama Soepa who self-immolated on January 8, 2012: “To all the six million Tibetans – including those living in exile – I am grateful to Pawo Thupten Ngodup and all other Tibetan heroes who have sacrificed their lives for Tibet and for the reunification of the Tibetan people.”
The word “Pawo” means hero and is a title given to honour Tibetans who have sacrificed their lives. In this context, the title also connotes a martyr. In the song, Jampel specifically mentions both pawo (the male form) and pamo (the female form) but, for the sake of brevity, in our translation we have only used one English word “martyr” to include both the men and the women.
High Peaks Pure Earth has been unable to identify the second name that Jampel mentions, Tashi Gyatso. It is possible that this is the name of an undocumented self-immolator. It is also possible that Tashi Gyatso was documented under another name, this would be common for a monk whose name changes upon ordination. It is also another possibility that Tashi Gyatso is a Tibetan who made a great personal sacrifice for Tibet in a form other than self-immolation.
This is the twenty eighth music video posted by High Peaks Pure Earth since the music video series started in November 2012. Below are the subtitled music video and translated lyrics of “Patriotic Martyrs” by Jampel. Be sure to go back and watch our other videos in the series using this link: http://highpeakspureearth.com/category/music-from-tibet/ And please come back next Wednesday for another music video from Tibet.
“Patriotic Martyrs” By Jampel from HPeaks on Vimeo.
“Patriotic Martyrs”
Lyrics: Drup Sonam Tsering
Composer and Singer: Jampel
In the world of tears decorously flowing
In the space of fire blazingly burning
There is the soul of a brave man of the grasslands
There is the fate of a powerless humanity
Be grateful
Be thankful
The courage of Thupten Ngodup
The courage of Thupten Ngodup
In the horizon of the life force carried away in the air
In the graveyard of flesh and bone burned in the fire
There is the honour of a patriotic martyr
There is the suffering of a separated people
Be grateful
Be thankful
The courage of Tashi Gyatso
The courage of Tashi Gyatso
In the Snowland of hope of years and months
In the world of patriots ablaze in masses
There is the life of a humble Tibetan
There is the call of a crowd rising up
Be grateful
Be thankful
The patriotic martyrs of Tibet
The patriotic martyrs of Tibet
[Translation by High Peaks Pure Earth]
For those unable to view the videos on Vimeo, there is also a High Peaks Pure Earth YouTube channel here with our music videos: http://www.youtube.com/highpeakspureearth
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Beautiful video. Was this filmed in China? That would be quite brave of Jampel.
Not in China but in Tibet which is under China’s occupation now since 1959. Thank you Anne for asking the question and appreciating the video.