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
“From the peaks of the western mountains,
I see white clouds boiling in the sky.
It is the smoke of fragrant incense,
An offering from the one who’s won my heart”
– Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama
Sleepless I am
Because I am in Love;
Fatigue and frustration overwhelm
When day brings not my beloved to me.
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