Rigpai Lingbu

རིག་པའི་གླིང་བུ།

Flute of Awareness

Tsewang Lhamo

ཚེ་དབང་ལྷ་མོ།

Autoplay

This song describes the life of Tibetans, what the scenery is like, what the mountains, the birds, the life of the nomads and the animals are like. It means that the Tibetans wish to live this way. It also shows that the teaching, the Dharma, is part of Tibetan life and that it is very important to them.

The title:
rig-bai: ‘of rigpa’, or it can also mean ‘intelligence’, therefore ‘of intelligence’
líŋ-bu: all instruments such as the flute that produce a nice, sweet sound.

རི་~ གངས་~ལྡན་ཞལ་~རས་ ~ དུང་~ ལས་~ དཀར།
ri~ gǎŋ~dán xǎl~ras ~ dǔŋ~ las~ gar
ri gǎŋ-dán: a mountain that has snow, because they do not all have snow 
xǎl-ras: the face of this mountain
If one has to say ‘a person’s face’ respectfully, one says ‘xǎl-ras’, otherwise the common term is ‘dóŋ-ba’.
dǔŋ: shell, conch shell
las: more
gar: white
The face of the snowy mountain is whiter than a conch shell.

རྫ་~ སྨུག་~ཆུང་དབུ་~རེ་ ~ མདུང་~ ལས་~ རྣོ།
zá~ mùg~quŋ wú~ze ~ dùŋ~ las~ nó
zá: rocky mountain, made of stones, which does not have snow
There are many of these, and some of them are really red coloured, not made just of rock but of many stones, and they are high. These are called ‘zá-ri’, whereas those with snow are called ‘gǎŋ-ri’.
mùg-quŋ: of a nice brown colour
wú-ze: peak 
dùŋ: ‘spear’ 
las: more
nó: sharp, acute

ནགས་~ གཡུ་~མདོག་ལོན་~ཚལ་ ~ རྒྱས་~ པའི་~ གནས།
nag~ yú~dòg jón~cal ~ gyás~ bai~ nás
nag: forest
yú: turquoise
dòg: colour
jón: trees
cal: many, rich with
forests rich with turquoise-coloured trees
gyás-bai: very developed
nás: place that has this
You see, it has described three things: the snowy mountains, the rocky mountains, and the forests.

ངའི་~ ཕ་~ཡུལ་གངས་~ལོངས་ ~ བོད་~ པ་~ རེད།
ŋai~ pa~yul gǎŋ~jóŋ ~ bǒd~ ba~ red
The Land of Snows, Tibet, is my homeland.
Grammatically, you cannot say ‘bǒd-ba’ for country, because it refers to a person, one should say ‘bǒd-sa-red’, but the nomads also use ‘bǒd-ba’ for country.

མཚོ་~ མཚེ~འུ་མང་~པོའི་ ~ ཡོན་~ ཆབ་~ བཤམས།
cò~ cè~u maŋ~boi ~ yon~ qab~ xàm
cò: lake
cèu: small lakes, ponds
maŋ-boi: many
yon-qab: water offerings performed in the temple
xàm: prepared
Lakes and ponds similar to the offering of prepared water performed in the temple.

སྤང་~ མེ་~ཏོག་ དཀར་~དམར་ ~ འདབ་~ བརྒྱ་~ བཞད།
baŋ~ me~dog gar~már ~ dàb~ gyá~ xád
baŋ: pastures, in the highlands there are pastures 
me-dog: flowers
gar: white
már: red
dàb-gyá: hundreds of open petals of white and red flowers that appear on the pastures.
It does not only mean hundreds of flowers.

བྱ་~ ཁུ་~ལོས་ མགིན་~རྔ་ ~ བརྡུང་~ བའི་~ གནས།
jyǎ~ ku-los drìn~ŋá ~ dúŋ~ vai~ nás
jyǎ: bird
ku-los: cuckoo
They call it like this, we call it ‘ku-ju’, in a more literal language. 
drìn: throat
ŋá: drum or something that makes a sound, so it is the sound of the voice, which is a bit of a poetic term.
dúŋ: that brings out that sound, that sings
nás: a place where the cuckoo always sings

ངའི་~ ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལོངས་ ~ བོད་~ པ་~ རེད།
ŋai~ pa~yul gǎŋ~jóŋ ~ bǒd~ ba~ red
This is my country, Tibet, the Land of Snows.

མཐའ་~ མུ་~མེད་ ཡངས་~པའི་ ~ རྩྭ་~ ཐང་~ མཛེས།
tà~ mu~med yaŋ~bai ~ za~ taŋ~ zès
tà mu-med: without end, limit, that means very big
yaŋ-bai: very spacious
za-taŋ: like the nomads’ land, full of grass and all the animals can eat freely
zès: lovely, the beauty of these pastures
So, what do we find here?

ར་~ ནོར་~ལུག་ སྟོང་~གིས་ ~ རེ་~ གར་~ འཁབ།
da~ nor~lug doŋ~gĭs ~ ze~ gǎr~ tràb
da: horses
nor: yaks; generally, ‘nor’ means all kinds of animals 
lug: sheep
doŋ-gĭs: thousands
ze-gǎr tràb: they enjoy themselves
The word ‘ze-gǎr’ also means to play, to run.

འབྲོག་~ སྦྲ་~ནག་ ཕྱུགས་~གཡང་ ~ འཕེལ་~ བའི་~ གནས།
dròg~ drá~nag qyug~yáŋ ~ pèl~ vai~ nás
dròg: nomads
drá-nag: who live in the black tent
The black tent is where the nomads live, it is not the one for traveling. 
qyug-yáŋ pèl-vai-nás: the place where the fortune of all the animals develops, increases
All of the animals multiply, nothing is lacking, otherwise the nomads could not live. This is my country.

ངའི་~ ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལོངས་ ~ བོད་~ པ་~ རེད།
ŋai~ pa~yul gǎŋ~jóŋ ~ bǒd~ ba~ red
The Land of Snows, Tibet, is my country.

བན་~ སེར་~མོས་ ལྔ་~རིག་ ~ ཆོས་~ དབྱངས་~ འཐེན།
bǎn~ ser~mos ŋá~rig ~ qos~ yáŋ~ tèn
bǎn: means ‘bǎn-dĕ’, that is Buddhists
ser-mos: monks who wear red and yellow robes, but one says ‘ser-mos’ 
ŋá-rig: five sciences
qos-yáŋ tèn: they study the five sciences
They sing these meanings.

སེ་~ ཁྱིམ་~པས་ མ་~ཎི་ ~ ཡིག་~ དྲུག་~ བགང་།
dé~ kyim~bas ma~ni ~ yig~ drǔg~ dráŋ
dé: the population in general 
kyim-bas: lay people
ma-ni: as in ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ 
yig-drǔg: six words – of the mantra 
dráŋ: recites

ཆོས་~ སངས་~རྒྱས་བསྟན་~པ་ ~ དར་~ བའི་~ གནས།
qos~ saŋ~gyás dan~ba dǎr~ vai~ nás
qos: Dharma, teachings 
saŋ-gyás: Buddha
dan-ba: teaching
dǎr-vai: that has developed 
nás: place
The place that has developed the teaching of the Buddhadharma, this is my country.
རིག་པའི་གླིང་བུ།
rig-bai líŋ-bŭ
The Flute of Awareness

                            ཚེ་དབང་ལྷ་མོ།

                                cewáŋ lhamo

རི་~ གངས་~ལྡན་ ཞལ་~རས་  ~   དུང་~   ལས་~   དཀར  ~ །

ri~  găŋ~dán   xăl~ras  ~   dŭŋ~  las~   gar ~  ,

The face of the snow mountain is whiter than a conch shell,

    རྫ་~   སྨུག་~ཆུང་ དབུ་~རྩེ་  ~   མདུང་~   ལས་~   རྣོ  ~  །

    zá~  mùg~quŋ wú~ze  ~  dùŋ~   las~   nó ~  ,

    The peak of the brown rocky mountain is sharper than a spear,

ནགས་~གཡུ་~མདོག་ ལྗོན་~ཚལ་ ~   རྒྱས་~  པའི་~   གནས  ~  །

nag~   yú~dòg jón~cal ~  gyás~   bai~  nás ~  :

Trees and plants abound in the turquoise forests:

    ངའི་~   ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལྗོངས་ ~   བོད་~  པ་~   རེད  ~  །

    ŋai~  pa~yul găŋ~jóŋ ~  bŏd~  ba~  red ~.

    This place is my fatherland, Tibet, the Land of Snow.

མཚོ་~  མཚེ~འུ་ མང་~པོའི་ ~  ཡོན་~   ཆབ་~  བཤམས  ~  །

cò~   cè~u maŋ~boi  ~   yon~   qab~   xàm ~  ,

The many big and small lakes are like water offerings,

    སྤང་~  མེ་~ཏོག་ དཀར་~དམར་ ~  འདབ་~  བརྒྱ་~   བཞད  ~  །

    baŋ~   me~dog gar~már  ~ dàb~   gyá~   xád ~  ,

    White and red flowers blossom in the meadows with myriad petals,

བྱ་~  ཁུ་~ལོས་ མགྲིན་~རྔ་ ~   བརྡུང་~  བའི་~   གནས ~  །

jyă~   ku-los    drìn~ŋá ~   dúŋ~   vai~   nás ~  :

Cuckoos warble melodiously:

    ངའི་~   ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལྗོངས་ ~   བོད་~  པ་~   རེད  ~  །

    ŋai~  pa~yul   găŋ~jóŋ ~  bŏd~  ba~  red ~  .

    This place is my fatherland, Tibet, the Land of Snow.

མཐའ་~   མུ་~མེད་ ཡངས་~པའི་  ~   རྩྭ་~   ཐང་~    མཛེས  ~  །

tà~  mu~med yaŋ~bai ~   za~ taŋ~    zès ~  ,

Beautiful grasslands, vast and endless,

    རྟ་~   ནོར་~ལུག་ སྟོང་~གིས་ ~    རྩེ་~   གར་~    འཁྲབ  ~  །

    da~   nor~lug   doŋ~gĭs ~   ze~ găr~   tràb ~  ,

    Thousands of horses, yaks and sheep play joyfully,

འབྲོག་~   སྦྲ་~ནག་ ཕྱུགས་~གཡང་ ~  འཕེལ་~  བའི་~  གནས ~  །

dròg~  drá~nag qyug~yáŋ ~ pèl~ vai~ nás ~  :

Nomads with their black tents and their cattle prosper and flourish:

     ངའི་~   ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལྗོངས་ ~   བོད་~  པ་~   རེད  ~  །

    ŋai~  pa~yul   găŋ~jóŋ ~  bŏd~  ba~  red ~  .

    This place is my fatherland, Tibet, the Land of Snow.

བན་~  སེར་~མོས ་ལྔ་~རིག་  ~  ཆོས་~  དབྱངས་~    འཐེན  ~  །

băn~   ser~mos ŋá~rig ~   qos~   yáŋ~    tèn ~  ,

Buddhist monks sing melodiously of the five sciences,

    སྡེ་~   ཁྱིམ་~པས་ མ་~ཎི་  ~   ཡིག་~   དྲུག་~   བགྲང་ ~  །

    dé~   kyim~bas   ma~ni ~   yig~  drŭg~   dráŋ ~  ,

     The lay people chant the six-syllables Mani mantra,

        ཆོས་~   སངས་~རྒྱས་ བསྟན་~པ་ ~   དར་~  བའི་~   གནས ~  །

        qos~   saŋ~gyás   dan~ba    dăr~  vai~   nás ~  :

        The Dharma, teaching of the Buddha, flourishes:

            ངའི་~   ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལྗོངས་ ~   བོད་~  པ་~   རེད  ~  །

            ŋai~  pa~yul   găŋ~jóŋ ~  bŏd~  ba~  red ~  .

            This place is my fatherland, Tibet, the Land of Snow.

                ངའི་~   ཕ་~ཡུལ་ གངས་~ལྗོངས་ ~   བོད་~  པ་~   རེད  ~  །

                ŋai~  pa~yul   găŋ~jóŋ ~  bŏd~  ba~  red ~  .

                My fatherland, Tibet, the Land of Snow.

                    བོད་~  པ་~   རེད  ~  །

                        bŏd~  ba~  red ~  !

                        Is Tibet!