Gyalmo Tsawarong
རྒྱལ་མོ་ཚ་བ་རོང་པ།
We, the People of Gyalmo Tsawarong
Tengpa Wangmo
བསྟན་པ་དབང་མོ།
Autoplay
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu about the song
There’s a place in Eastern Tibet (Gyalmo Tsawarong): in ancient times, it was a border. When Vairochana went to Oddiyana and then returned in Tibet, he gave a Dzogchen teaching; in that period still many people were not very familiar with the Dzogchen teaching and there were many ministers of the government, etc., who were jealous of Vairochana. For a few years Vairochana was expelled from Central Tibet to Gyalmo Tsawarong, which is the place where Vairochana spent many years. Later, then, the government and the king - all of them (the government and the king) were sorry that they had acted wrongly. Dzogchen teaching is very important because Vimalamitra, Padmasambhava, etc. also arrived, then they discovered and then Vairochana returned. When Vairochana returned in Central Tibet, on the way he also met Pang Mipham Gonpo, the lineage holder of the Dzogchen Longde, so it is very important.
This song is saying: because many Tibetan people still, also Tibetans today, are thinking, “oh, Gyalmo Tsawarong is becoming Chinese ”. You remember few years ago, they had been a very strong earthquake near Sichuan. This is Gyalmo Tsawarong territory, so there the people are Tibetan but they were isolated for many centuries and so they also have a dialect and their dialect is very difficult for us to understand. But that dialect of the Gyalmo Tsawarong is really 100% the origin of the Tibetan language because still now in Gyalmo Tsawarong when they speak, it is how Tibetan is written, everything is pronounced. We lost this, we don’t say (things that way). For example, when we say “dre” [Drajyor dràs], “dre” it means “rice”, we say “dre”. But when you are writing it, you should write it this way “ŋbras” [Wylie ‘bras; Tibetan འབྲས་] then we pronounce it “dre”. Gyalmo Tsawarong when they are speaking, they say “ŋbras” so we cannot understand when we are communicating (with them).
So, in this song, is saying, at the end, repeating many times: “Gyalmo Tsawarong is the origin of the Tibetans, we are maintaining Tibetan Culture, we keep the Tibetan Culture without losing (it) etc.”. It is very interesting. That is the history, ok? Now you know.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Losar (February) 2017, Dzamling Gar, Tenerife, Spain
རྒྱལ་མོ་ཚ་བ་རོང་པ།
gyál-mo ca-va roŋ
We, the People of Gyalmo Tsawarong
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གཞས་ཚིག་ ནག་པོ།
གཞས་གདངས་ དཔལ་འབྱོར་ལྷུན་གྲུབ།
གཞས་མ། བསྟན་པ་དབང་མོ།
den-ba wáŋ-mo
ཕྱི་~འིཡི་ ལྕགས་~རི་ བརྟོལ་~མེད།
qyi~ĭyi jag~ri dol~med.
The outer iron walls are intact.
ནང་~གི་ ནོར་~ འོབུ་~ རྙིང་~མེད འེད~།
naŋ~gĭ nor~ ǒbǔ ~ ñíŋ~med ěd~.
The inner jewels are still glittering.
མེས་~ པོའི་~ འུ~འུ རྫོང་~འངཁག་ བཅོ་~བརྒྱད།
mes~ boi~ ǔ~ǔ zóŋ~ ǒŋkag jo~gyád,
The eighteen districts of our ancestors,
སེམས་~འེམཀྱི་ གཏིང་~ལ་ ཉར་~ཡོད འོད~།
sem~ěmgyi diŋ~la ñar~yod ǒd~.
Are preserved in the depths of our hearts.
གསེར་~གྱི་ འི~འི བུམ་~འུནཔའི་ ནང་~ལ།
sèr~gyĭ ĭ~ĭ bǔm~ǔnbai naŋ~la,
In the golden vase,
ནས་~འསཆང་ སྔོན་~མོ་ འཁྱིལ་~ འི~ ཡོད འོད~~~།
nas~ǎsqaŋ ŋòn~mo kyìl~ĭ~ yod ǒd~~~.
Swirls the bluish chang brewed from barley.
ཆང་~འང འངའདི་ ལས་~ཀྱི་ གསོལ་~འོ འོ~འོ ཆང་~།
qaŋ~ǎŋ ǎŋdì las~gyi sòl~ǒ ǒ~ǒ qaŋ~.
This chang is the brew of our karmic offering.
གཞས་~འདི་ འི~འི སེམས་~འེམཀྱི་ གཞས་~འས ཆུང་~འུང།
xás~dì ĭ~ĭ sem~ěmgyi xas~ǎs quŋ~ǔŋ
This song is a simple song from our hearts.
རྒྱལ་~མོ་ འོ~འོ ཚ་~བ་ རོང་~པ།
gyal~mo ǒ~ǒ ca~va ron~ba,
We, the people of Gyalmo Tsawarong,
སྨུག་~འུགཔོ་ བོད་~པའི་ རྒྱུད་~རེད འེད~འེད~~།
mug~ǔgbo bod~bai gyud~red ěd~ěd~~.
Are the dark red-faced descendants of the Tibetan race.
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གཙང་~འངཔོའི་ གཞུང་~ལ་ མདུད་~པའི།
zaŋ~ǎŋboi xúŋ~la dùd~bai,
Tied along the Tsangpo river,
དམར་~ཆུང་ སྲོག་~ འོགགི་~ ས་~ འ~ བོན འོན~།
már~quŋ sòg~ ǒggĭ~ sa~ǎn~bǒn ǒn~.
Are the red life-line seedlings.
མེས་~ པོའི་~ འུ~འུ གསལ་~འབྱེད་ སུམ་~ཅུ།
mes~ boi~ ǔ~ǔ sàl~ǎ gyěd sum~ju
The thirty Tibetan consonants of our ancestors
སེམས་~འེམཀྱི་ གཏིང་~ལ་ ཉར་~ཡོད འོད~།
sem~ěmkyi diŋ~la ñar~yod ǒd~.
Are preserved in the depths of our hearts.
དཀར་~ཡོལ་ འོ~འོ འབྲུག་~འུགམའི་ ནང་~ལ།
gar~yol ǒ~ǒ drùg~ǔgmai naŋ~la
The cup with the dragon design
འོ་~འོཇ་ དཀར་~པོ་ འཁྱིལ་~ འི~ ཡོད འོད~~~།
ǒ~ǒja gar~bo kyìl~ĭ~yod ǒd~~~.
Is filled with tea and with milk.
ཇ་~འ འའདི་ ལས་~ཀྱི་ གསོལ་~འོ འོ~འོ ཇ་~།
ja~ǎ ǎdì las~gyi sòl~ǒ ǒ~ǒ ja~.
This tea is the tea of our karma.
གཞས་~འདི་ འི~འི སེམས་~འེམཀྱི་ གཞས་~འས ཆུང་~འུང།
xás~dì ĭ~ĭ sem~ěmgyi xás~ǎs quŋ~ǔŋ.
This song is a simple song from our hearts.
རྒྱལ་~མོ་ འོ~འོ ཚ་~བ་ རོང་~པ།
gyál~mo ǒ~ǒ ca~va roŋ~ba
We, the people of Gyalmo Tsawarong,
སྨུག་~འུཔོ་ བོད~པའི་ རྒྱུད་~ རེད འེད~འེད~~།
mùg~ǔgbo bǒd~bai gyúd~red ěd~ěd~~.
Are the dark red-faced descendants of the Tibetan race.
སྨུག་~འུགཔོའི་ ན་~བཟའ་ རལ་~མེད།
mùg~ǔgboi na~sá ral~med.
The maroon robes are not torn.
ལྗོན་~པའི་ རྣ་~ འརྒྱན་~ བོར་~མེད འེད~།
jón~bai ná~ ǎgyán~ bǒr~med ěd~.
The copper earrings are not lost.
མེས་~ པོའི་~ འུ~འུ རྒྱུད་~འུདཀྱི་ བུ་~མོ།
mes~ boi~ ǔ~ǔ gyúd~ǔdgyi bǔ~mo
The maidens of the lineage of our ancestors
སེམས་~འེམཀྱི་ གཏིང་~ལ་ སྦས་~ཡོད འོད~།
sem~ěmgyi diŋ~la bás~yod ǒd~.
Are preserved in the depths of our hearts.
བརྩེ་~སེམས་ འེམ~འེམ ལག་~འགརྡང་ སྤེལ་~བའི།
ze~sem ěm~ěm lag~ǎgdáŋ bel~vai,
The lake in the heart of the mountain,
རི་~འིབོའི་ སྙིང་~གི་ མཚོ་~མོ འོ~~~།
ri~ĭvoi ñìŋ~gĭ cò~mo ǒ~~~.
Where our loving mind flourishes, hand in hand,
མཚོ་~འོ འོའདི་ ལས་~ཀྱི་ མཚོ་~འོ འོ~འོ མོ~།
cò~ǒ ǒdì las~gyi cò~ǒ ǒ~ǒ mo~.
That lake is the lake of our karma.
གཞས་~འདི་ འི~འི སེམས་~འེམཀྱི་ གཞས་~འས ཆུང་~འུང།
xás~dì ĭ~ĭ sem~ěmgyi xás~ǎs quŋ~ǔŋ.
This song is a simple song from our hearts.
རྒྱལ་~མོ་ འོ~འོ ཚ་~བ་ རོང་~པ།
gyál~mo ǒ~ǒ ca~va roŋ~ba
We, the people of Gyalmo Tsawarong,
སྨུག་~འུཔོ་ བོད་~པའི་ རྒྱུད་~རེད འེད~འེད~~།
mùg~ǔgbo bǒd~bai gyúd~red ěd~ěd~~.
Are the dark red-faced descendants of the Tibetan race.
རྒྱལ་~མོ་ འོ~འོ ཚ་~བ་ རོང་~པ།
gyál~mo ǒ~ǒ ca~va roŋ~ba
We, the people of Gyalmo Tsawarong,
སྨུག་~འུཔོ་ བོད་~པའི་ རྒྱུད་~ རྒྱུད་~རེད འེད~འེད~~།
mùg~ǔgbo bǒd~bai gyúd~red ěd~ěd~~.
Are the dark red-faced descendants of the Tibetan race.