National anthem of Tibet explained

བོད་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱལ་གླུ།
Transcription:Gyallu
Prefix:National
Author:Trijang Rinpoche
Lyrics Date:1950
Adopted:1950
Sound:Anthem of the Tibetans.ogg
Sound Title:Original music of Tibetan National Anthem

The national anthem of Tibet (བོད་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱལ་གླུ།, Wylie: bod rgyal khab kyi rgyal glu), commonly referred to as "Gyallu", is a Tibetan patriotic song which serves as the de facto anthem of the Central Tibetan Administration.[1]

It is unclear exactly whether it was first used before the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951, or after the 14th Dalai Lama went into exile in India in 1960. The earliest report of a state anthem (presumably "Gyallu") is between 1949 and 1950 when Tibet was under invasion. It was introduced under reforms set in place to strengthen patriotism among the Tibetan people. Another report states that the anthem was presented to the 14th Dalai Lama in 1960 in exile.

Like "Qurtulush Yolida", performance of this anthem is strictly prohibited by the People's Republic of China, particularly in the Tibet Autonomous Region.[1]

Tibet's first national anthem was, according to Tashi Tsering, written by a Tibetan scholar during the epoch of the 7th Dalai Lama and under the reign of the Pholanas in between 1745 and 1746.

Lyrics

Written by Trijang Rinpoche around 1950, a tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama, the lyrics focus on the radiance of the Gautama Buddha.[2]

The melody is said to be based on a very old piece of Tibetan sacred music, and some of its elements are also found in other Tibetan songs such as that of Mimang Langlu, a song of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. The lyrics are by the Dalai Lama's tutor, Trijang Rinpoche. It has been used by Tibetans in exile ever since the introduction of the state anthem although it is banned in Tibet. In 2000's, the anthem was replaced to cleaner version and added the opening melody and closing melody

Current lyrics

Standard Tibetan lyricsEnglish translation
<big>སྲིད་ཞིའི་ཕན་བདེའི་འདོད་རྒུ་འབྱུང་བའི་གཏེར། ཐུབ་བསྟན་བསམ་འཕེལ་ནོར་བུའི་འོད་སྣང་འབར། བསྟན་འགྲོའི་ནོར་འཛིན་རྒྱ་ཆེར་སྐྱོང་བའི་མགོན། འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་རོལ་མཚོ་རྒྱས། རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཁམས་སུ་བརྟན་པས་ཕྱོགས་ཀུན་བྱམས་བརྩེས་སྐྱོང། གནམ་བསྐོས་དགའ་བ་བརྒྱ་ལྡན་དབུ་འཕང་དགུང་ལ་རེག ཕུན་ཚོགས་སྡེ་བཞིའི་མངའ་ཐང་རྒྱས། བོད་ལྗོངས་ཆོལ་ཁ་གསུམ་གྱི་ཁྱོན་ལ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་རྫོགས་ལྡན་གསར་པས་ཁྱབ། ཆོས་སྲིད་ཀྱི་དཔལ་ཡོན་དར། ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་རྒྱས་པས་འཛམ་གླིང་ཡངས་པའི་ སྐྱེ་རྒུ་ཞི་བདེའི་དཔལ་ལ་སྦྱོར། བོད་ལྗོངས་བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དགེ་མཚན་ཉི་འོད་ཀྱིས། བཀྲ་ཤིས་འོད་སྣང་འབུམ་དུ་འཕྲོ་བའི་གཟིས། ནག་ཕྱོགས་མུན་པའི་གཡུལ་ལས་རྒྱལ་གྱུར་ཅིག།</big>The source of temporal and spiritual wealth of joy and boundless benefitsThe Wish-fulfilling Jewel of the Buddha’s Teaching, blazes forth radiant lightThe all-protecting Patron of the Doctrine and of all sentient beingsBy his actions stretches forth his influence like an oceanBy his eternal Vajra-natureHis compassion and loving care extend to beings everywhereMay the celestially appointed Government of Gawa Gyaden achieve the heights of gloryAnd increase its fourfold influence and prosperityMay a golden age of joy and happiness spread once more through these regions of TibetAnd may its temporal and spiritual splendour shine againMay the Buddha’s Teaching spread in all the ten directions and lead all beings in the universe to glorious peaceMay the spiritual Sun of the Tibetan faith and PeopleEmitting countless rays of auspicious lightVictoriously dispel the strife of darkness
Wylie transliterationTibetan pinyinIPA transcription
pronounced as /wrap=none/

Original version

The first Tibetan national anthem was created in the 18th century. According to eminent Tibetan scholar Tashi Tsering, it was composed by Pholanas around 1745, at the time of the 7th Dalai Lama. Sir Charles Bell described it as Tibet's "national hymn".[3]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Oops: China State Media Website Plays Banned Tibetan National Anthem . 6 November 2013 . VOA.
  2. http://www.nationalanthems.info/tib.htm Tibet - nationalanthems.info
  3. http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=2004&m=5&p=21_3 Freedom Wind, Freedom Song