ལྷག་དཀར་ཉིན་ཀློག་རྒྱུའི་སྙན་དེབ་ཁག

Sungchuk Kyi

Sungchuk Kyi was born in Amdo, Northeastern Tibet. She is, perhaps, one of the most accomplished exile Tibetan women poets writing in Tibetan. Her poetry books include Tomb, Corals' Fate  and Cry of the Earth, a collection of short stories.

She escaped from Tibet in 2002 after a renewed crackdown on Tibetan literature and intellectuals by the Chinese authorities. Kyi's new book collection of poems is ready for publication.

༄༅། །དཔའ་བོ་ཚེ་དབང་ནོར་བུ་ལགས།

ཁ་ས་རྒྱ་གར་རང་བཙན་གྱི་ཉིན་མོར།
ཆར་སིམ་སིམ་རྒྱུན་ཆད་མེད་བབས་ཀྱང་།
དགའ་སྤྲོའི་ངང་གཞས་ཞབས་བྲོར་རོལ།
དེ་རྗེས་འདམ་རྫབ་ཀྱི་ཁེངས་བའི་གསང་ལམ་དུ།
ལག་ན་ཉི་གདུགས་ཐོགས་ནས་འགྲོ་སྐབས།
ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རང་ལུས་མེར་བསྲེག་བཏང་བའི་གནས་ཚུལ་ཐོས།
ཆར་ཐིག་ཡིན་ནམ་མིག་ཆུ་ཡིན།
ངའི་མཁུར་ཚོས་ཀྱི་རི་སྒང་ཉུལ་ནས།
ངའི་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཤོག་པ་རླན།
ངའི་ཡིད་ལ་སྨུག་པས་གོས་གཡོགས།

འ་ཙི་བུ་མོ་ལགས།

 

ང་ཡི་ཡིད་དབང་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་འཕྲོག

ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ང་ལ་མིག་མི་བལྟ།

ད་ནི་བྱེད་ཐབས་གཞན་མི་འདུག

ཆང་རག་མ་འཐུང་རང་འཐུང་རེད།

Legitimacy Beyond Dispute

As the clock struck 09:09 on the morning of 08.08.2011 at the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamsala, the new Prime Minister, Dr. Lobsang Sangay took oath of office from the Chief Justice Commissioner. A few minutes later, the outgoing Prime Minister, Samdhong Rinpoche, handed over the seal of the office to Sangay. The seal, first issued by the Seventh Dalai Lama in 1751, signifies the legitimacy of the Kashag or the cabinet of ministers.

'Thank you Communist Party of China'

As a kid growing up in Tibet under China, the first song that I learned was The East Is Red. It was one of the most popular ‘red songs’ praising Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (the CCP). This was adapted — like most Communist propaganda songs — from a traditional farming folk song from China’s Shaanxi province. My father, who could read Tibetan, taught the words to my mother so that she could recite them when the commune leader made random checks to test if the villagers had memorised the lyrics.

Mao - the 'new sun'

 ‘The east is red, the sun is rising.

China has brought forth a Mao Zedong.

He has brought happiness to the people.

Hurrah, He is the people’s great saviour!’

Tibetan Viagra

The year before I was smuggled out of Tibet in 1984, my brother and his friends were talking about going to pick up yartsa gunbu in the hills near our village. They refused to take me with them saying that I could not climb up the hill. When I threatened to tell on them to my grandfather, they allowed me to tag a long.

We climbed up the hill, negotiated the ruins of the monastery destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and reached Gyalpo Ri or the King’s Peak. It was winter and the earth was frozen. We did not find a single yartsa gunbu. At the time, I did not know how the thing even looked like.

this is what the precious fungus looks like!

Yartsa Gunbu meaning Summer Grass Winter Worm is popularly known as caterpillar fungus/grass. This fungus, which is found in wild on the Tibetan Plateau, takes over the bodies of caterpillar larvae then shoots up like finger-size blades of grass out of the dead insects' heads.

The nutty-tasting caterpillar fungus is highly valued for its supposedly extraordinary curative powers such as a treatment for cancer, anti-aging and as a libido booster. This Tibetan aphrodisiac is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine and is particularly coveted by the nouveau riche in China today. As a result, demand for the exotic fungus has sky-rocketed in far away booming cities like Beijing and Shanghai. By one account, the value of caterpillar fungus has shot up by 900 percent since the late 1990s.

Nomads scouring the hills for Yartsa Gunbu