High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a song called “Life Long Lamp” by Gar Samdup Tsering. The song is the title track of his most recent album that came out in October 2013.
Gar Samdup Tsering was born in 1988 and comes from the Tsolho area of Amdo. He is a member of the Makye Ame dance troupe, a group of singers and dancers associated with the well-known chain of Tibetan restaurants that started off in Lhasa and branched out to major cities in China.
On March 26, 2014, the Tibetan service of Voice of America reported that authorities in Qinghai Province had banned the sale and distribution of Gar Samdup Tsering’s album. A further report in English on exile Tibetan website Phayul.com from March 28, 2014 adds that several music shops were raided and the album DVD confiscated or destroyed. Despite the ban, this Gar Samdup Tsering music video can still be viewed on Chinese-hosted video websites such as Youku.
The lyrics for the song “Life Long Lamp” were written by Tsering Kyi, a well-known writer and poet from Labrang, Amdo, who is now a broadcaster for Voice of America’s Tibetan service based in Washington DC. In 2003, Tsering Kyi came to prominence by winning the Miss Tibet beauty pageant in Dharamsala but sadly more recently has been in the news due to her nephew’s self-immolation in Tibet. As a high-profile Tibetan female who enjoys popularity with Tibetans both inside and outside of Tibet, Tsering Kyi occupies a unique position in Tibetan society today.
This is music video number 48 translated by High Peaks Pure Earth since the Wednesday music video series started towards the end of 2012. Please go back and watch our other videos using this link: http://highpeakspureearth.com/category/music-from-tibet/
Below are the subtitled music video and translated lyrics of “Life Long Lamp”:
“Life Long Lamp” By Gar Samdup Tsering from HPeaks on Vimeo.
“Life Long Lamp”
By Gar Samdup Tsering
Lyrics: Miss Tsering Kyi
Composer: Gar Samdup Tsering
An image of heroic Gesar
Suffering unbearable pain in flesh and bones
Blazing on the lap of the vast land
Kinsmen, listening to tales of ancestors
May you sleep peacefully
Om Mani Padme Hum
Shaken by the thundering hooves of Songtsen Gompo’s cavalry
Unsurpassable life force glow like fire
A light of hope shines in a dark land
Kinsmen, raise the bones of the great father
May you sleep peacefully
Om Mani Padme Hum
Life ablaze in the lap of the night sky
Each flaming offering fades into the vast space
A life long lamp enters my mind
Kinsmen, searching for ancestors of flesh and bones
May you sleep peacefully
Om Mani Padme Hum
[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
I strongly request not to cover Tibetan lyric by English. You can put English somwhere up there… Please…
Thank you for your comment. We agree that these videos are very powerful. As a translations project, our audience for the music videos are people who don’t understand Tibetan, and the best place for English subtitles is at the bottom otherwise too much of the visuals are covered up. If you understand Tibetan, please watch the videos on YouTube or Youku instead and you’ll be able to see the Tibetan!