MusicTibet.com
News :: 2004
The First Rock Group in Tibet
In the early winter last year, the busiest downtown street in Lhasa buzzed with excitement as the Heavenly Club Band, Tibet's first rock group began selling their first record – Vajara. The six-member band includes two music majors: Tenzin Dawa, the drummer, and Tashi Phuntsok, the bass guitarist.
Tenzin Dawa is the key member. A lover of rock music since he was young, he has been given the title of “the first person of rock in Tibet&lrquo;. Five years ago, he founded the Non-Plug Music Bar in Lhasa, the first of its type in Tibet. Tashi Phuntsok is a middle school music teacher who studied music for five years in the Tibet University. Lead singer Sonam Tenzin is also a dancer/actor in the song and dance ensemble of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, having studied dancing from childhood.
Sonam Namgyal is the principal guitarist, as well as a German-speaking guide. Sonam Nyima is the rhythm guitar player, as well as an auditor.
As to the band's name, they explained: “According to a sutra, the 'heavenly club' is a musical instrument used to defeat evil spirits in a Buddhist mass, so it can represent the local culture or customs of Tibet. This is the original reason for the name. On the other hand, it signifies the band's musical style: very sharp, original and radical. Our music aims at showing the real beauty of life and exposing the other face of society and the human race.” The band's musical works include those created on the basis of existing folk songs, such as Aspiration, Rinzin Wangmo and Potala Palace.
Lhabu Dabu is a popular fictitious character in a Tibetan legend, which talks about a little hero who joined the army to replace his father. However, they take Lhabu Dabu as a hero to criticise those people that only dream of becoming successful and wealthy. The song adopts a hip-hop style so that the tart satire is transformed into humorous teasing with more profound meaning. Lhabu Dabu introduces a Tibetan children's song into the modern musical genre, so listeners get both a fresh and familiar feeling.
Chang (Ch: Qingke) Wine Toast Song is the most characteristic, being a well-known toasting song in the Shigatse area. The Heavenly Club Band transforms it into rap, and this is the first time a Tibetan song has transformed to such a modern musical genre.
When introducing their original intention of recomposing this folk song, band members explained that, “that folk song has been sung for hundreds of years in the same style, while we want to add something original. So, we tried to add some Western musical style and tempo to it and we feel very good.”
In Tibet, the Heavenly Club Band created the first song in Tibetan for Tibetan antelopes. “We have never heard any song in Tibetan about protecting Tibetan antelopes. There is only one Tibetan hero, Sonam Dhargay, who sacrificed his life for antelopes. As singers, we are not able to go there to catch those poachers. But, we are satisfied to write a song for those who do.”
When their songs began creating resonance within society, they decided to record them and thier first recording was born.
The issue of the first album, its songs resounding through these streets of Lhasa, has drawn much attention. Five or six of the songs are based on traditional folk songs. Bianlho, the famous writer of words and songs in Tibet, commented that, “the band contributes much to Tibetan music. I feel it uncommon that they have made use of rock style and taken their own role from history. It is very hard that they have intergrated Tibetan music with new words. I feel their bold attempt is very successful.”
Of course, some people criticised them at the time for changing or “spoiling” folk songs. In response, the band argues that, while “some people think we are spoiling folk songs, this is only their own opinion. Chang Toast Song is an ancient folk song that has gradually been forgotten by people. Today's youth even cannot sing it. Thanks to our efforts, after re-composition, its melody can be heard in many situations. Fairly speaking, we are carrying forward folk music.”
“A folk song can have many different styles so long as its essence does not change, just like human beings who can wear different clothes so long as their belief and soul does not change.”
The six musicians in the Heavenly Club Band regard each piece of the gifted earth in Tibet as their endless creation source. They have much confidence in the future of their musical journey.
In the early 1990s, someone tried rock music in Tibet, but failed to make it popular. The Heavenly Club Band integrates the special musical elements in Tibet with current hip-hop, rap, r&b, blues and other musical styles, and this results in their own character. The application of Tibetan guitar is the peak of perfection. The Tibetan guitar is a particular ethnic musical instrument easily recognisable when heard. It plays a special role in the whole album, showing these songs consisting of modern musical elements are from the primitive highlands.
Cui Jian, a rock musician in the hinterland, adopted the suona horn and Chinese zither with 25 strings into rock music in the 1980s. Askal, a rock group in Xinjiang, also integrated the tamboura in their songs successfully. In Tibet, the Heavenly Club Band is first to integrate ethnic musical instruments into rock music.
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