Tibetan National Anthem

Gyallu

National anthem of Tibet
Lyrics	Trijang Rinpoche, 1950
Adopted	1950

The current Tibetan National Anthem, known as Gyallu, was written by Trijang Rinpoche in 1950. The anthem is used by Tibetan Government in Exile but is strictly banned by the People's Republic of China, including in Tibetan areas.

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

Gyallu

Gyallu is the current national anthem of Tibet. The anthem focuses on the radiance of Buddha.^[1] The words were written by Trijang Rinpoche around 1950 but it is unclear exactly whether the anthem was first used before the incorporation of Tibet into 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 an anthem (presumably Gyallu) is from the period of 1949 to 1950 (when Tibet was already facing the threat of a Communist Chinese invasion), 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.

The melody is said to be based on a very old piece of Tibetan sacred music, and 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 anthem although it is banned in Tibet.

Anthem

Tibetan script

Tibetan lyrics		Wylie transliteration
	༄༄། བོད་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་གླུ། 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།	bod rgyal khab kyi rgyal glu srid zhi'i phan bde'i 'dod rgu 'byung ba'i gter thub bstan bsam 'phel nor bu'i 'od snang 'bar bstan 'gro'i nor 'dzin rgya cher skyong ba'i mgon 'phrin las kyi rol mtsho rgyas rdo rje'i khams su brtan pas phyogs kun byams brtses skyong gnam bskos dga' ba brgya ldan dbu 'phang dgung la reg phun tshogs sde bzhi'i mnga' thang rgyas bod ljongs chol kha gsum gyi khyon la bde skyid rdzogs ldan gsar pas khyab chos srid kyi dpal yon dar thub bstan phyogs bcur rgyas pas 'dzam gling yangs pa'i skye rgu zhi bde'i dpal la sbyor bod ljongs bstan 'gro'i dge mtshan nyi 'od kyis bkra shis 'od snang 'bum du 'phro ba'i gzis nag phyogs mun pa'i g.yul las rgyal gyur cig

Transcription	English translation	Alternative English Translation
Si Zhi Phen De Dö Gu Jungwae Ter Thubten Samphel Norbue Onang Bar. Tendroe Nordzin Gyache Kyongwae Gön, Trinley Kyi Rol Tsö Gye, Dorje Khamsu Ten Pey, Chogkün Jham Tse Kyong, Namkö Gawa Gyaden, ü-Phang Gung la Regh Phutsong Dezhii Nga-Thang Gye Bhod Jong Chul Kha, Sum Gyi Khyön La Dekyi Dzogden Sarpe Khyap. Chösi Kyi Pel Yon Dhar Thubten Chog Chur Gyepe Dzamling Yangpae Kyegu Zhidae Pel La Jör. Bhöd Jong Tendrö Getzen Nyi-ö-Kyi Trashi O-Nang Bumdutrowae Zi, Nag Chog Munpae Yul Ley, Gyal Gyur Chig.	Let the radiant light shine of Buddha's wish-fulfilling gem teachings, the treasure chest of all hopes for happiness and benefit in both secular life and liberation. O Protectors who hold the jewel of the teachings and all beings, nourishing them greatly, may the sum of your karmas grow full. Firmly enduring in a diamond-hard state, guard all directions with Compassion and love. Above our heads may divinely appointed rule abide endowed with a hundred benefits and let the power increase of fourfold auspiciousness, May a new golden age of happiness and bliss spread throughout the three provinces of Tibet and the glory expand of religious-secular rule. By the spread of Buddha's teachings in the ten directions, may everyone throughout the world enjoy the glories of happiness and peace. In the battle against negative forces may the auspicious sunshine of the teachings and beings of Tibet and the brilliance of a myriad radiant prosperities be ever triumphant.	The source of temporal and spiritual wealth of joy and boundless benefits The Wish-fulfilling Jewel of the Buddha's Teaching, blazes forth radiant light The all-protecting Patron of the Doctrine and of all sentient beings By his actions stretches forth his influence like an ocean By his eternal Vajra-nature His compassion and loving care extend to beings everywhere May the celestially appointed Government of Gawa Gyaden achieve the heights of glory And increase its fourfold influence and prosperity May a golden age of joy and happiness spread once more through these regions of Tibet And may its temporal and spiritual splendour shine again May the Buddha's Teaching spread in all the ten directions and lead all beings in the universe to glorious peace May the spiritual Sun of the Tibetan faith and People Emitting countless rays of auspicious light Victoriously dispel the strife of darkness

18th-century Tibet national anthem

The first Tibetan national anthem was created in the 18th century. According to eminent Tibetan scholar Tashi Tsering, it was composed by Pholanas in 1745/46, at the time of the 7th Dalai Lama. Sir Charles Bell described it as Tibet's "national hymn".^[2] Also part of a Tibetan Buddhist prayer, namely Prayer for long life of the Dalai Lama. The Prayer mentioned below is the prayer for long life of 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, so it could not possibly be the national anthem before his (re)birth. In Tibetan Buddhism it is customary to write by highly realized Masters long life prayers for new reincarnations and other greatly recognized Masters of the time. It is said that reciting such prayers that spontaneously appeared in the minds of reincarnated masters (Living Buddhas) brings great benefits to those who recite them, not to mention of course the addressees of them.

Lyrics

Tibetan lyrics	Transliteration	English
གངས་རིས་སྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་འདི། ཕན་ཐང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས་། སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་བ་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡིན། ???དེའོ་བར་དུ། རྟེན་གྱུར་ཅིག།	Ghang ri rawe kor we shingkham di Phen thang dewa ma loe jungwae ne Chenrezig wa Tenzin Gyatso yin Shelpal se thae bhardu Ten gyur chik	Circled by ramparts of snow-mountains, This sacred realm, This wellspring of all benefits and happiness Tenzin Gyatso, enlighted existence of Compassion. May his reign endure Till the end of all existence

References

1. Tibet - nationalanthems.info
2. Freedom Wind, Freedom Song About the origins of Tibet anthems, by Jamyang Norbu.

གངས་རིའི་རྭ་བས་བསྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། ། ཕན་དང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས། ། སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡི། ། ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག ། །།

External links

• The Central Tibetan Administration has a page about the anthem that includes audio instrumental and vocal versions.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASevhpzcYHE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANccgDlW8d8&feature=related