The title means ‘Life of Tibet’. Like all the singers in this collection, this singer is from east Tibet, not central Tibet. She is very dedicated to singing about Tibetan culture. In 2011, when we had the Third Congress of Tibetan Language in New York City, at Columbia Uni- versity, she came and sang some songs including this one. It is a very beautiful song.

The meaning: My life is the white, snowy mountains. My life’s blood is the pure water of the snow. My name is Tibet, the Land of Snowy Mountains. I, child of Tibet, speak Tibetan. She repeats this two times. Why does she say this? Because the official language is Chinese. I love the spiritual teaching of Tibet. I love Tibetan culture. My name is Tibet, which has a spiritual path. I am a Tibetan child and I want to study Tibetan.

My name is the highlands of Tibet. I am a Tibetan girl and I love Tibet. My ancestors come from Avalokiteshvara. Historically, Tibetans say that they originated from a monkey manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, and for this reason, she mentions this history. The lineage of my family is  bur, that is, it descends from the lineage of the Tibetan kings. I like the way I am and I want to remain as I am.

More or less this is the meaning.

ངའི་~ ཚེ་~སོག་ གངས་ ~ རི་ དཀར་ ~པོ་ ཡིན །
ŋai~ ce~sòg gǎŋ~ ri gar~ bo~ yin
ŋai: means my, you can learn a bit of Tibetan like this! ce-sòg: life
gǎn-ri: snowy mountain
gar-bo: white
yin: it is
My life is the snowy white mountains.

ངའི་~ ཟུངས་~ཁག་ གངས་ ~ ཆུ་ དྭངས་ ~མོ་ ཡིན།
ŋai~ sǔŋ~trag gǎŋ~ qu dǎŋ ~mo yin
trag: blood
sǔŋ-trag: blood that maintains the body, that is life blood, that circulates gǎŋ-qu: water from snow
If there is a mountain, there’s also water. All the rivers originate in Tibet, because that is where there are mountains, and their source is there.
dǎŋ-mo: pure, limpid
So: my body is like a mountain, my blood like pure water.

ངའི་~མིང་~ལ་ གངས་ ~ཅན་ བོད་ ~པ་ ཟེར།
ŋai~ miŋ~la gǎŋ~ jan bǒd~ ba~ zěr
ŋai miŋ: my name
gǎŋ-jan: that posseses snow
bǒd-ba: Tibetan
zěr: says
I am called Tibetan, one who possesses snowy mountains.

ང་~ བོད་~པའི་ བུ་ ~ཡིས་ བོད་ ~སྐད་ བཤད།
ŋa~ bǒd~bai bǔ~ yis bǒd~ gad~ xàd
bǔ: this usually means son, but it isn’t indicated whether it is male or female.
When one says ‘bǔ-bo’ then this means ‘male’. But when people hear ‘bǔ’, it is usually thought of as a male child.
yis: from
bǒd-gad: language
xàd: to talk
I, a Tibetan child, speak Tibetan.
Why does she say this? Because nowadays at school and for any official thing that needs to be done, it’s necessary to know Chinese.

This is repeated again.

ང་~ དགའ་~ས་ བོད་ ~ བརྒྱུད་ ནང་ ~བསྟན་ ཡིན།
ŋa~ gá~sa bǒd~ gyúd naŋ~ dan~ yin
gá: like
sa: the things
I like this.
gyúd: something that is transmitted, that has a lineage
naŋ: internal
dan: teaching
Internal teaching means like the Buddhist tradition, Sutra, Tantra, all are ‘naŋ-dan’.

ང་~ དགའ་~ས་ བོད་ ~ ཀི་ རིག་ ~གནས་ ཡིན།
ŋa~ gá~sa bǒd~ gyi rig~ nás~ yin
rig-nás: culture
I like Tibetan culture.

ངའི་~ མིང་~ལ་ ཆོས་ ~ ལྡན་ བོད་ ~ པ་ ཟེར།
ŋai~ miŋ~la qos~ dán bǒd~ ba~ zěr
I am called Tibetan who possesses the Dharma

ང་~ བོད་~པའི་ བུ་ ~ ཡིས་ བོད་ ~ཡིག་ སྦོང།
ŋa~ bǒd~bai bǔ~ yis bǒd~ yig~ jyóŋ
I, child of Tibet, study Tibetan script

ངའི་~ མིང་~ལ་ མཐོ་ ~ སྒང་ བོད་ ~ པ་ ཟེར།
ŋai~ miŋ~la tò~ gáŋ bǒd~ ba~ zěr
I am called Tibetan of the highlands

ང་~ བོད་~པའི་ བུ་ ~ མོ་ བོད་ ~ལ་ དགའ།
ŋa~ bǒd~bai bǔ~ mo bǒd~ la~ gá
I, a Tibetan girl, like Tibet

ངའི་~ ཕ་~བརྒྱུད་ བྱང་ ~ སེམས་ སྤེ ~ འུ་ ཡིན།
ŋai~ pa~gyúd jyǎŋ~ ~sem dre~ hǔ~ yin
ŋai pa-gyúd: my paternal lineage, my origin
jyǎŋ-sem: bodhisattva, ‘jyǎŋ-jub sem-pa’
dre-hǔ: monkey
My paternal lineage comes from the bodhisattva-monkey Avalokiteshvara.

ངའི་~ མ་~བརྒྱུད་ ཤེས་ ~ རབ་ སིན་ ~མོ་ ཡིན།
ŋai~ ma~gyúd xes~ rab sin~ mo~ yin
ŋai ma-gyúd: my maternal lineage
xes-rab: prajña
sin-mo: this means the sin-mo that coupled with the monkey and then from this came a generation of sons. In reality, the monkey was Avalokiteshvara and the sin-mo was his consort, and the Tibetans originated from here.

ངའི་~ མིང་~ལ་ པུར་ ~ བརྒྱུད་ བོད་ ~པ་ ཟེར།
ŋai~ miŋ~la bur~ gyúd bǒd~ ba~ zěr
I am called Tibetan of ‘bur-gyúd’.
I am a Tibetan descendant of bur. So you must understand this a bit  historically, otherwise it isn’t easy. 
This is an ancient story. The  bur  is the lineage that comes from the area of Kongpo, it was there that the generation called  bur  originated. Humans (it is said) coupled with the class of the  masang  and then a son was born that also became the Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsempo. This lineage is characteristically called  bur , a mix of the  masang  and humans.