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༌། །
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.
ཤར་ཕྱོགས་རི་བོའི་རྩེ་ནས། · The legend
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.
Read the full story →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.
The crane's path
Ocean of melodious songs
Drawn from the ocean
My sweetheart who truly loved me
Has been stolen to wed another.
I am sick with longing sorrow
And frustration emaciates my frail body.
Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama
The ink of love songs
washes off in the rain,
but the love itself,
that which cannot be written down,
stays inside *here*
Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama
ཞོལ། · Shol, below the Potala
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.
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.
Love and being loved — write it in Tibetan or English and share it alongside the Sixth’s songs.
Write your verse