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.

Enter the verses

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

Rootless Wanderer Emptiness shining most clear. I stepped into a bright world, Hoping to find life’s meaning. Now I see… September 10, 2025 Song & Verse Better not, First, better not to see Falling in love’s senseless. Second, better not know -… Tsangyang Gyatso Song & Verse A meeting… This month passes away, The next month does come. I will visit you in… Tsangyang Gyatso Song & Verse A lifetime gone A lifetime gone, turning and turning ; mountains, rivers, stupas - Not to seek… Tsangyang Gyatso Rootless Wanderer Gifted by the one I called my life One night, the full moon fills me, Another, the darkest sorrow. Both are flavors… September 10, 2022 Video The Romantic Yellow House at Barkhor Street Tsangyang Gyatso Biography The Mysterious Sixth The sixth Dalai Lama was Tsangyang Gyatso, whose name means ‘Ocean of Melodious Songs’.… Tsangyang Gyatso Song & Verse If I could meditate as deeply If I could meditate as deeply on the sacred texts as I do on… Tsangyang Gyatso Song & Verse Drops of rain wash away Drops of rain wash away The love songs written in Black and White But… Tsangyang Gyatso Song & Verse When the two in love unite into one, So the tree falls in love with the sparrow, And the sparrow falls in… Tsangyang Gyatso Song & Verse My sweetheart who truly loved me My sweetheart who truly loved me Has been stolen to wed another. I am… Tsangyang Gyatso

All songs & verses →

Drawn from the ocean

Two verses, by chance

Rootless Wanderer

Emptiness shining most clear.

I stepped into a bright world,

Hoping to find life’s meaning.

Now I see only a hollow,

Emptiness shining most clear.

– Rootless Wanderer

— Rootless Wanderer Read & share →

བོད་ཡིག་ནས།

སེམས་ཤོར་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང་ན།།

ལྕང་མ་བྱི་འུར་སེམས་ཤོར།།
བྱིའུ་ལྕང་མར་སེམས་ཤོར།།
སེམས་ཤོར་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང་ན།།
སྐྱ་ཁྲ་ཧོར་བས་མི་ཐུབ།།

ཚངས་དབྱངས་རྒྱ་མཚོ ༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་སྐུ་ཕྲེང་དྲུག་པ་།

— 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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