ཨ་མདོའི་འབྲོག་ཕྲུག་ཅིག་གི་ལང་ཚོའི་གར་སྟབས།  Lovely Long-life Son! Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life
Creators: name: ལྷུན་འགྲུབ། Lhun 'grub with 祁慧民Qi Huimin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: ཨ་མདོའི་འབྲོག་ཕྲུག་ཅིག་གི་ལང་ཚོའི་གར་སྟབས།
Lovely Long-life Son! Living & Singing an Amdo Tibetan Pastoral Life
by ལྷུན་འགྲུབ། Lhun 'grub with 祁慧民Qi Huimin
This book is about songs, singing, and life in a Tibetan pastoral area beginning in the 1990s. Lhun 'grub (b. 1991) shares his mother's vivid memories of his birth, details of his childhood via three short stories while herding and camping on the grassland, his experiences with education, song categories, his life with song and singers, and the songs themselves in both Tibetan texts (versions as performed and in Literary Tibetan) and English translation. 
Lhun 'grub grew up in his homeland living in black yak-hair tents at a time when mobile pastoralism in yak and sheep herding communities was the typical way of life. Personal experiences, conversations with elders exploring their involvement with singing, and other aspects of life are entwined with songs and singing, further demonstrating how integral song was to local pastoral lifeways.
Sangs rgyas bkra shis et al. (2015) and Phun tshogs and Qi (2017) are two of the very few autoethnographic texts focused on contemporary A mdo[1] Tibetan songscapes, highlighting the value and enduring importance of this book,[2]whose significance is further underscored when Lhun 'grub comments that, though he considers himself young (less than thirty-years-old in the year 2020), the local songscape that he energetically participated in has changed dramatically. He expresses regret that his children, let alone his grandchildren, will be able to sing very much in Tibetan. 
In addition to providing valuable music notation for the songs, Qi Huimin reminds us of the value of recording songs that, in the face of rapid social transformations, widespread access to social media, and the ever-expanding variety of immediately available global performances that younger community members find extremely attractive, are soonlikely never to be heard again.
[1] A mdo refers to the northeastern part of ethnic Tibet and includes communities in Rma lho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho nub (Haixi) Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mgo log (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho byang (Haibei) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho shar (Haidong) City, and Zi ling (Xining City) in Mtsho sngon; Kan lho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Wuwei City, Gansu Province; and Rnga ba (A ba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Si khron (Sichuan) Province.
[2] See Craun (2011) for music notation of A mdo songs. 
Contents
Acclaim <5>
Preface <10>
Dedication <12>
Notes <12>
Acknowledgments <14>
Contents <14>
Map. PR China, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, Rma lho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Thun rin (Tongren) City, Mdo ba (Duowa) Town. <17>
Introduction <18>

My Beginnings – 1991 <18>
Camped on the Grassland – 2001 <19>
Overview <21>
My Family <25>
Three Stories <28>
Nearly Gored to Death <28>
Stolen Horses <31>
Herding, Romance, and a Letter <36> 
Skal ldan rgya mtsho'i dang sa <43>
Pastures <44>
Education <45>
 
PART ONE: SONG CATEGORIES AND MY LIFE WITH SONG <48>

Glu 'songs' <49>
Introduction <49>
Bstod glu 'praise songs' <50>
Glu shags 'humorous songs' <51>
Bcol glu 'entrusting/enjoining songs' <55>
Skyo glu 'sad songs' <55>
Ra ston gyi glu[1] 'tent celebrating songs' <56>
Ne'u ston gyi glu 'songs for three-year-old children'[2] <57>
Gya ston gyi glu 'songs for eighty-year-olds' <59>
La gzhas 'love songs' <60>
Introduction <60>
Gathering and Singing La gzhas <63>
A Cassette Tape-player Radio <66>
PART TWO: SINGERS AND SONGS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION <71>
The Singers <72>

Bsod nams bkra shis <72>
Chos lo <76>
Gdugs dkar <82>
Lhun 'grub <84>
The Songs in English Translation <84>
PART THREE: SONGS' TIBETAN TEXTS AS PERFORMED AND LITERARY POETIC TEXTS <101>
PART FOUR: THE MUSIC (by 祁慧民 Qi Huimin) <165>

Introduction <166>
Glu 'songs' <168>
Bstod glu 'praise songs' <168>
Glu shags 'humorous songs' <172>
Variations of Song One and Song Six <173>
La gzhas 'love songs' <174>
Rogs mthun pa'i skor 'falling in love' <174>
Rogs rtsod pa'i skor 'conflict songs' <177>
Rogs dran pa'i skor 'missing my lover' <178>
Bde mo 'jog pa'i skor 'ending' <178>
Conclusion <179>
PART FIVE: PHOTOGRAPHS <180>

Landscape and Livestock <181>
People and Life <186>
Local Activities <193>
Conclusion <205>
References <208>
Tibetan Terms <210>
Chinese Terms <217>
Index <218>
FIGURES AND PHOTOGRAPHS 

Figures
1. Song details. <85>
2. Song details and melody relations. <166>

Photographs
1. Summer pasture, 2016. <181>
2. My family's tent, 2016. <181>
3. Autumn pasture, 2015. <183>
4. Zog ba, 2010. <184>
5. Winter pasture, 2017. <185>
6. Mdo ba Town Center, 2015. <185>
7. My father makes a fire in our stove, 2017. <186>
8. Tshe ring sgrol ma milks yaks, 2016. <187>
9. My mother feeds an orphan lamb, 2016. <188>
10. Yu b+ha, 2015. <189>
11. Mkhar mo bkra shis, 2017. <190>
12. G.yang drung thar and his horse, 2014. <191>
13. Rin chen, 2016 <192>
14 and 15. Horseraces, 2016. <193>
16. Checking a horse's brow-band, 2015. <195>
17 and 18. Lab tse, 2017. <196>
19. Lab tse in summer, 2016. <197>
20. A wedding. <198>
21. A night gathering, 2016. <199>
22. Glu singer, 2016. <200>
23. Singing la gzhas, 2016. <201>
24. Tshe ring skyid, 2015. <203>
25. Dkon mchog skyabs' first haircut, 2015. <204>
[1] Ra 'yak-hair tent' is the local oral form. Sbra is Literary Tibetan. 
[2] More literally: 'baby hair cutting songs'.