“Sungta Lemo so, oh..…
Lhasa norbuling la, norbu mindu mala sung.
So, ya la..
jhosha yeshe norbu …..
norbu mayna ghangla rey….
Sungta lemo so”
I went to an infamous bar in my town, again, with my girlfriends.
I wanted to dance with those men, sing with passion, get a brush of the infectious Tibetan spirit, imagine myself that I am at a bar in Lhasa and most of all I wanted myself in Tibet.
I love dancing like many other Tibetans.
I love hindi, English, Tibetan, Chinese, bollywood, tamil and all kinds of music. Something about music that sets us free and gives us a high. I have not achieved it anywhere else.
So, I went to dance, and dance at a place where Tibetan women don’t go. Excuse me, a place where good Tibetan women don’t go.
Oh fuck, define “good” first please.
Anyway I was in a mood to dance.
We had gone to the bar three nights ago and I had danced for more than 5 hours. I forgot about my backache, which I tend to do usually while dancing. I particularly enjoyed the last two hours so much because all the people in the bar, mostly Tibetan men from Tibet were in a spirit that I wanted to have while dancing to Tibetan songs from Tibet.
Oh.. the spring in their jumps while they danced to their khampa songs, the passion in their voice when they sang their favourite kunga songs and the sheer joy you get when u are living in a moment that is closest to you. Sway, close your eyes and feel the air, grasslands that I could very well be enjoying if I was in Tibet.
See, music elevates and brings you home. It envelops you with your own universe. He he. I saw that in them when they dance to songs from Tibet. I wanted to feel that together.
Despite feeling not so well ( I am cursed and crushed with sever backpains), I went ahead with my girlfriends who wanted to go to the same bar.
I learned some fantastic dance moves from Tibet. Not the classical traditional dance steps that I have learned in my school since I was nine years old, but a different style- a Chinese influenced movements- that these young Tibetan men had grown up watching or most likely instilled in systematically by the Chinese government.
Oh it was still fun though! Who am I to tell them that the dance steps and movements they were doing were sinicized. Mine could be very well an indianized or even sinicised as TIPA teachers are said to been trained in China long ago.
So we danced to ‘sungta lemo’ and many others.
And I called them out for a dance duel. I wanted to see more passion and an exchange of ideas in dance.
Then a young guy, in his early twenties, played a song from his personal collection. We did a gorshey. OMG! It was mindblasting!. I could adapt to the steps very well thanks to my dancing years in school and it was such a high, dancing to a series of Tibetan songs with your fellow Tibetans who love the songs as much as I love my madhuri dixit songs.
So we got more comfortable with one another and then we chatted up.
Eventually we were debating on autonomy vs independence. Ha, which Tibetan does not over a bowl of chang.
It was grand. I could see myself doing that more if I didn’t have to punch one guy that night. (that is another story for a later post)
The compliment that made me feel so good was when a young guy from Tibet, said “Acha, my friends and I were discussing that your foot movements are so good. Have you danced to songs from Tibet before?”
It was the second time in my life that someone from Tibet had enjoyed and agreed that I dance well to Tibetan songs from Tibet. The first time was from a group of old Kongpo women who had recently arrived from Tibet and I did a Kongpo dance for them to get an interview from them. It was a traditional piece.
But what I had danced in the bar were to contemporary songs.
I have received many adulations from people who have seen me dance to hindi bollywood songs, classical songs, live music, bla b la..”
And that kid had studied dance for 5 years in Tibet. I was happy, very happy that I could dance well to songs from Tibet.
And somehow later in the night, we (my gfs) found ourselves debating with them on autonomy vs independence. Haha. Feisty, honest and loud expressions of your belief and hope in whatever stand you have chosen.
The joy was immense.
I personally think that while doing all that load of research we are doing on Tibet, leading a freedom movement in exile, acting as their spokesperson or claiming to know what is happening inside Tibet and arguing what should be done, we fail to recognize ourselves as armchair intellectuals or misinformed spokesperson if we do not know the ground reality in Tibet.
How can you know the small significant details of living under occupation when you have not lived, not even a day in Tibet, when you choose not to interact with Tibetans from Tibet by mocking them as Sanjors.
It is hypocrisy, phony and patronizing.
Learn, know each other, if you really mean cholka sum punda or getting back to home in Tibet.
To each his own still.
And one day, we will have a magnificent gorshey around Potala. I could very well be an 80 year old single grandmother then. But insha allah, we will do that one day.
Until then, lets embrace all Tibetans and their stories despite which cholka (province), phayul (hometown), or whether you were born/raised in exile or Tibet.
It is beautiful. I experienced the dancing bit and there are shit load others to own up from one another.
Happy losar.
Lhasa norbuling la, norbu mindu mala sung.
So, ya la..
jhosha yeshe norbu …..
norbu mayna ghangla rey….
Sungta lemo so”
I went to an infamous bar in my town, again, with my girlfriends.
I wanted to dance with those men, sing with passion, get a brush of the infectious Tibetan spirit, imagine myself that I am at a bar in Lhasa and most of all I wanted myself in Tibet.
I love dancing like many other Tibetans.
I love hindi, English, Tibetan, Chinese, bollywood, tamil and all kinds of music. Something about music that sets us free and gives us a high. I have not achieved it anywhere else.
So, I went to dance, and dance at a place where Tibetan women don’t go. Excuse me, a place where good Tibetan women don’t go.
Oh fuck, define “good” first please.
Anyway I was in a mood to dance.
We had gone to the bar three nights ago and I had danced for more than 5 hours. I forgot about my backache, which I tend to do usually while dancing. I particularly enjoyed the last two hours so much because all the people in the bar, mostly Tibetan men from Tibet were in a spirit that I wanted to have while dancing to Tibetan songs from Tibet.
Oh.. the spring in their jumps while they danced to their khampa songs, the passion in their voice when they sang their favourite kunga songs and the sheer joy you get when u are living in a moment that is closest to you. Sway, close your eyes and feel the air, grasslands that I could very well be enjoying if I was in Tibet.
See, music elevates and brings you home. It envelops you with your own universe. He he. I saw that in them when they dance to songs from Tibet. I wanted to feel that together.
Despite feeling not so well ( I am cursed and crushed with sever backpains), I went ahead with my girlfriends who wanted to go to the same bar.
I learned some fantastic dance moves from Tibet. Not the classical traditional dance steps that I have learned in my school since I was nine years old, but a different style- a Chinese influenced movements- that these young Tibetan men had grown up watching or most likely instilled in systematically by the Chinese government.
Oh it was still fun though! Who am I to tell them that the dance steps and movements they were doing were sinicized. Mine could be very well an indianized or even sinicised as TIPA teachers are said to been trained in China long ago.
So we danced to ‘sungta lemo’ and many others.
And I called them out for a dance duel. I wanted to see more passion and an exchange of ideas in dance.
Then a young guy, in his early twenties, played a song from his personal collection. We did a gorshey. OMG! It was mindblasting!. I could adapt to the steps very well thanks to my dancing years in school and it was such a high, dancing to a series of Tibetan songs with your fellow Tibetans who love the songs as much as I love my madhuri dixit songs.
So we got more comfortable with one another and then we chatted up.
Eventually we were debating on autonomy vs independence. Ha, which Tibetan does not over a bowl of chang.
It was grand. I could see myself doing that more if I didn’t have to punch one guy that night. (that is another story for a later post)
The compliment that made me feel so good was when a young guy from Tibet, said “Acha, my friends and I were discussing that your foot movements are so good. Have you danced to songs from Tibet before?”
It was the second time in my life that someone from Tibet had enjoyed and agreed that I dance well to Tibetan songs from Tibet. The first time was from a group of old Kongpo women who had recently arrived from Tibet and I did a Kongpo dance for them to get an interview from them. It was a traditional piece.
But what I had danced in the bar were to contemporary songs.
I have received many adulations from people who have seen me dance to hindi bollywood songs, classical songs, live music, bla b la..”
And that kid had studied dance for 5 years in Tibet. I was happy, very happy that I could dance well to songs from Tibet.
And somehow later in the night, we (my gfs) found ourselves debating with them on autonomy vs independence. Haha. Feisty, honest and loud expressions of your belief and hope in whatever stand you have chosen.
The joy was immense.
I personally think that while doing all that load of research we are doing on Tibet, leading a freedom movement in exile, acting as their spokesperson or claiming to know what is happening inside Tibet and arguing what should be done, we fail to recognize ourselves as armchair intellectuals or misinformed spokesperson if we do not know the ground reality in Tibet.
How can you know the small significant details of living under occupation when you have not lived, not even a day in Tibet, when you choose not to interact with Tibetans from Tibet by mocking them as Sanjors.
It is hypocrisy, phony and patronizing.
Learn, know each other, if you really mean cholka sum punda or getting back to home in Tibet.
To each his own still.
And one day, we will have a magnificent gorshey around Potala. I could very well be an 80 year old single grandmother then. But insha allah, we will do that one day.
Until then, lets embrace all Tibetans and their stories despite which cholka (province), phayul (hometown), or whether you were born/raised in exile or Tibet.
It is beautiful. I experienced the dancing bit and there are shit load others to own up from one another.
Happy losar.
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