The title means ‘Red-cheeked Tibetans’.

The singer is very good. This song shows how the Path is – this is relative to following the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha – therefore it explains how the Tibetans consider the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, their point of view, behaviour and how they put these into practice. It is very profound, very important knowledge. You see, on this globe there is no other place where this type of song is sung. Therefore it is important that we know that they have this value. When I choose the songs, I like them if they mean something. We try to learn them and use them, they are not just nice melodies with superficial words. In Tibet, it is not that all songs are of this kind, there are a lot of love songs, and also songs in modern style, but for me they are of a secondary level, whereas the songs we sing are of first level.

In general, the adjective ‘dóŋ-már’ - ‘red-cheeked’ or ‘ruddy-faced’, is used a lot for Tibetans.

བསླུ་~ མེད་~ སངས་~ རྒྱས་~ སངས་~ རྒྱས་~ཀི ལམ་~ སྟོན།
lù~med~ saŋ~gyás~saŋ~gyás-gyi lam~don
lù-med: never deceives
saŋ-gyás-gyi: of the Buddha
lam-don: the path that shows how we can attain total realization, the path that the Buddha gave.
One who can show you the path. This is Buddha.

འཚེ་~ མེད་~ དམ་~ ཆོས་~ བགོད་ ~ ལམ།
cè~med~ dǎm~qos~ dród ~ lam
This is the Dharma that does not create problems for any sentient being, the peaceful path of not creating problems for anyone.

མཚུངས་~ སྤོད~ དགེ་~ འདུན་~ དགེ་~ འདུན་~གི་ ལྷ་~ གོགས།
cùŋ~jyod gé~dùn~gé~dùn-gyi lha~drǒg
Those who collaborate for your realization are ‘gé-dùn’, the Sangha of practitioners who collaborate in order to travel together and attain total realization.
These are called the Three Jewels: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, for the Tibetans, these are what they take refuge in.

གདོང་ ~དམར་ བོད་~ པའི་~ སྐབས་ ~ གནས།
dóŋ ~már bǒd~bai~ gyab ~ nás
All Tibetans take refuge in these It is repeated twice.

*****

སྡུག་~ ཀུན་~ འབྱུང་~ བ་~ འབྱུང་~ བ་~ཡི་ ར་~ བ།
dúg~ gun jyùŋ~ vai~ jyùŋ~va-yi za~ va
dúg: suffering
gun: all
jyùŋ-va-yi: of the origin za-va: the root
The origin of all suffering

ཉོན་~ མོངས་~ དུག་~ གསུམ་~ དག་ ~ བོ།
ñon~ moŋ~dǔg~ sùm~drá ~vo
ñon-moŋ dǔg-sùm are the three emotions 
drá-vo: really like enemies
When we are conditioned by the three emotions, we have infinite suffering, therefore it is always negative; but it also depends on whether people have or do not have capacity.

གཞོན་~ པའི་~ ནུས་~ མཐུན་~ ནུས་~ མཐུན་~ ཅན་~ པོ།
xón~ bai~nus~ tùn~ nus~tùn jan~ bo
Like young people, who are full of energy, if they have the capacity to understand, then emotions become the path, they are not always negative and to be discarded, there are the paths of transformation and of self-liberation.
There is not only the Sutra style teaching but also Vajrayana and Dzogchen. Even if the emotions are something totally negative, they can be transformed into wisdom if somebody has that knowledge.

གདོང་ ~དམར་ བོད་~ པའི་~ དམ་ ~ ཆོས།
dóŋ ~már bǒd~ bai~ dǎm ~ qos
Having this knowledge is Tibetan Dharma.

*****

བསམ་~ པ་~ བྱམས་~ བརེ་~ བྱམས་~ བརེ་~ རྣམ་~ དག ~
sàm~ ba~ jyǎm~ ze~ jyǎm ~ze nám~ dǎg~
Our intention and thoughts are linked to compassion. We always try to benefit others. We do not only say this or do it for our own interest. Our intention is very pure. Our mind is always connected to infinite compassion.

ལྟ་ ~ བ་~ སྟོང་~ ཉིད་~ རེན་ ~ འབྱུང་།
da~ va~doŋ~ ñid~ den ~ jyùŋ
The point of view of that which we learn and understand is that our true nature, as the Buddha explained, is emptiness, that everything is unreal. Nevertheless, at a relative level, we have a dualistic vision, but this is in relation to interdependence. This is our point of view, what we hope to be able to understand.
Remember that tawa, gompa, and jöpa are the three fundamental points, and understanding is knowing that everything is interdependent. Our point of view is understanding relatively what interdependence is, knowing that good and bad and everything is interdependent.

སྤོད་~ པ་~ གཞན་~ ཕན་~ གཞན་~ ཕན་~ གཙང་~ མ།
jyod~ ba~ xán~ pan~ xán ~pan zaŋ~ ma
The attitude that we apply is to put the benefit of others first, not our own.
If something can damage others, we do not do it, even if it can be advantageous for us. For example, if someone goes fishing because they want to prepare a nice lunch of fresh fish, it is egoistic, because they are thinking of their enjoyment, but the fish does not enjoy it: when they catch it, kill it, the fish suffers. We do not think of our sat- isfaction first, we think of the fish. This is an example of pure attitude for benefiting others. The attitude is trying to benefit others, always.

གདོང་ ~དམར་ བོད་~ པའི་~ ལྟ་ ~ སྤོད~ །
dóŋ ~már bǒd~ bai~ da ~ jyod~
This is the point of view and application of the Tibetans. It is repeated several times.
This is the essence of the point of view and the attitude of the Tibetans. This means how it is explained in the teaching: tawa, gompa, and jöpa, the point of view, attitude and how the consideration of our true condition is.