A blessing in disguise of a tragedy, if I can even dare say, is that it brings out the positive side of people all over. That was the experience of the Tibetan refugees in the immediate period following their escape from Tibet in and after 1959, when there was an outpouring of material and moral support from the international community.
In the past several days since the tragic earthquake in Dhingri (also written as Dingri) region in Western Tibet, I have been observing a similar kind of outpouring of support, this time from Tibetans all over Tibet and in exile.
On January 7, 2025, a strong earthquake struck in a primarily rural area close to the Tibet-Nepal border. While the China Earthquake Administration puts its strength as 6.8 on the Richter scale, the US Geological Survey placed the magnitude higher, at 7.1. For that matter, the two monitoring agencies also differed slightly in the exact location of the center of the earthquake (28.639°N 87.361°E (USGS) and 28.50°N 87.45°E (CEA).
According to China’s own latest public report, it said the casualties included 126 people dead (as of 12:00 local time on January 8) and 337 injured. But given the intensity of the quake, the landscape of the region, and China’s own report of “heavy casualties”, of 3,612 houses having collapsed (again as of 12:00 on January 8), and 27,248 homes having been damaged, many more people must have died. Knowing the opaque nature of the working of the Chinese regime, we will not know the real number of people who have died.
China has been publicizing its relief work mentioning the amount being spent by it, and irrespective of the veracity of the figures being quoted, that is their duty. Even Xi Jinping issued “special instructions” as well as chaired a politburo meeting of the Communist Party of China on January 9 on earthquake relief. Certainly, the Chinese authorities were aware of the international spotlight on Tibet and the sentiments of Tibetans in exile, and above all the positive impact on the affected Tibetans by the spiritual succor (although from far) being provided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It may not be a coincidence that Xi Jinping’s meeting of the politburo happened on the same day the Dalai Lama had scheduled for special prayers for victims of the earthquake.
Even if the Chinese government had adequate material resources to provide to the affected people, only the Dalai Lama would be the one able to provide mental and spiritual solace to the people. This power of His Holiness can be seen currently from the public audience that he is providing to the elderly people in the Tibetan settlement in South India, many of whom are having such an opportunity for the first time in their lives.
Tibetans in exile as well as many friends and supporters throughout the world have been expressing their solidarity and holding prayer sessions. Many governments have either issued statements or made social media postings expressing their sympathy.
However, the advent of social media, even under the restrictive environment of China has enabled us to get a glimpse of the outpouring of generosity from Tibetans in different parts of Tibet. Individuals were voluntarily organizing relief efforts, taking trucks loaded with donations from ordinary Tibetans.
The sentiments prevailing was one of solidarity with the people affected by the earthquake, as is reflected by this just released song by four established singers from Tibet, Tenpa Gyaltsen, Nordon, Phuntsok Dolma, and Tseten Phuntsok. It is titled Dhungyang (Melody of Anguish).
Following is my translation of the lyrics in English to provide you with a bit of the flavor.
གདུང་དབྱངས།
Melody of Anguish
སྲིད་པའི་གངས་རིའི་འདབས་ཀྱི།
དབེན་འཇམ་ལ་སྟོད་གཞུང་ལ།
ཡམ་ཡོམ་ས་ཡི་འཇིགས་པས།
ཐལ་བའི་རྡུལ་གྱིས་བསྒྲིབ་སོང་།
Lying on the edge of the world’s snow mountains
The remote and calm Upper Pass*
Was by the might of the quivering earthquake
Covered with dust particles
ས་རྡོ་གས་སོང་མ་གསུངས།
བྱམས་དང་བརྩེ་བས་བསུབ་ཆོག
གཅིག་པོར་ལུས་སོང་མ་བསམ།
གདུངས་སེམས་མཉམ་སྐྱེད་ཞུས་ཡོད།
Don’t say that the earth and the stones have broken
(We) Will erase that with love and affection
Don’t think that (you have been) left alone
(We have) expressed our solidarity
རི་བོ་ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ།
མ་འགྱུར་བརྟན་པོར་བཞུགས་དང་།
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བྱམས་བརྩེའི་པང་དུ།
ཕྱི་མ་མཇལ་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ།
The Mountain Jomo Langma**
Don’t change, but stay stable
On the lap of your love and affection
(We) Pray that there will be a meeting in the future
བློ་མ་ཕམ། ཡིད་མ་སྐྱོ།
ང་ཚོ་ནམ་ཡང་ལག་གདངས་གཅིག་ལ་སྦྲེལ།
Don’t be disheartened! Don’t be saddened!
We will forever be joined in hands
གངས་རིའི་འདབས་ལ་འཚོ་བའི།
བརྩེ་བའི་ལ་སྟོད་ཡུལ་མི།
སེམས་ཤུགས་ཡིད་ཐངས་མ་ཆད།
མི་ཡུལ་བརྩེ་བས་ཁེངས་ཡོད།
འཐོར་བའི་ཁྱིམ་གཞིས་དྲོན་མོ།
བྱམས་དང་བརྩེ་བས་བསྐྲུན་ཆོག
བྲལ་བའི་ཕ་མ་སྤུན་ལ།
གསོལ་བ་སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ་ཡོད།
Living on the edge of the snow mountain
The affectionate people of the Upper Pass*
Don’t lose courage or despair
The human world is filled with affection
The broken warm homes
Shall be rebuild with love and affection
For parents and relatives with whom (you have been) separated
Prayers have been recited
རི་བོ་ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ།
མ་འགྱུར་བརྟན་པོར་བཞུགས་དང་།
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བྱམས་བརྩེའི་པང་དུ།
ཕྱི་མ་མཇལ་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ།
The Mountain Jomo Langma**
Don’t change, but stay stable
On the lap of your love and affection
(We) Pray that there will be a meeting in the future
བློ་མ་ཕམ། ཡིད་མ་སྐྱོ།
ང་ཚོ་ནམ་ཡང་ལག་གདངས་གཅིག་ལ་སྦྲེལ།
ང་ཚོ་ནམ་ཡང་ལག་གདངས་གཅིག་ལ་སྦྲེལ།
Don’t be disheartened! Don’t be saddened!
We will forever be joined in hands
We will forever be joined in hands
*an epithet for Dhingri
** Mount Everest
As the four singers aptly put it, including through their ending gesture of solidarity, during this time of tragedy of the Tibetans in western Tibet, “Don’t be disheartened! Don’t be saddened! We will forever be joined in hands.”
