The last song from Shol · 1706

བྱ་དེ་ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་དཀར་པོ།། གཤོག་རྩལ་ང་ལ་གཡོར་དང༌། ། ཐག་རིང་རྒྱང་ལ་མི་འགྲོ། ། ལི་ཐང་བསྐོར་ནས་སླེབ་ཡོང༌། །

White crane! Lend me your wings I will not fly far From Lithang, I shall return

Songs of Tsangyang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama — the “Ocean of Melodious Songs” who left the Potala by night for the lamplit taverns of Shol.

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ཤར་ཕྱོགས་རི་བོའི་རྩེ་ནས། · The legend

The moon over the eastern peak, and a face he never saw again

One evening the young Dalai Lama slipped out of the Potala and drank at a tavern on the Barkhor. There he glimpsed a girl whose face he likened to the rising moon. He came back in disguise many nights after; she never returned. The yellow house where it is said to have happened still stands — and her name, Makye Ama, became a song.

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ཤར་ཕྱོགས་རི་བོའི་རྩེ་ནས། དཀར་གསལ་ཟླ་བ་ཤར་བྱུང་། མ་སྐྱེས་ཨ་མའི་ཞལ་རས། ཡིད་ལ་འཁོར་འཁོར་བྱེད་བྱུང་།

From the peak of the eastern mountain the white moon has risen; the face of Makye Ama keeps turning through my mind.

Tsangyang Gyatso · Song & Verse

The crane's path

From Mon Tawang to the shores of Kunga Nor

1682 Mon Tawang Born to Tashi Tenzin and Tsewang Lhamo, in a Nyingma family of the southern hills.
1697 Potala Palace Enthroned at fourteen, after the Fifth’s death had been kept secret for fifteen years.
1701 Lhasa & Shol Sets aside his vows; days in the park behind the Potala, nights in the taverns of Shol.
1706 Toward Lithang Taken away by Lhazang Khan’s soldiers, he leaves the White Crane song behind.

Ocean of melodious songs

Songs & Verses

All songs & verses →

Drawn from the ocean

Two verses, by chance

Rootless Wanderer

I bless and curse the moment,

Your voice was a gentle song,

But your touch was sharp with sorrow.

I bless and curse the moment,

When fate brought you to me.

Rootless Wanderer

— Rootless Wanderer Read & share →

Song & Verse

When the two in love unite into one,

So the tree falls in love with the sparrow,
And the sparrow falls in love with the tree, too;
When the two in love unite into one,
The hawk, the bird of prey, e’en can do them none.

Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama

— Tsangyang Gyatso Read & share →

ཞོལ། · Shol, below the Potala

Walk the night roads of Shol and Lhasa

By day the Sixth sat on the golden throne; by night he walked down into Shol, the town at the palace’s foot, to drink chang and sing among friends. Follow the places his songs remember.

01 Potala The golden throne he slipped away from
02 Shol Taverns at the palace’s foot, chang and song
03 Yellow House On the Barkhor, where he saw Makye Ama
04 Lithang Where the crane promised to circle and return

Potala · Shol Barkhor · Yellow House to Lithang Kyichu river

Rootless Wanderer · newest

I stepped into a bright world,

Hoping to find life’s meaning.

Now I see only a hollow,

Emptiness shining most clear.

– Rootless Wanderer

Answering verses written today, in the Sixth’s voice of longing.

All Rootless Wanderer verses →

One night new snow fell over Lhasa, and his footprints led from the taverns of Shol back to the Potala — so the Sixth’s secret walks were found out.

Offer a verse to the tavern wall

Love and being loved — write it in Tibetan or English and share it alongside the Sixth’s songs.

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