Ngangla gewog is in Zhemgang district, which is in the south-central part of Bhutan.
In Bhutan, each locality has a popular folk song, for example Khorey is sung in Dungsam, Pemagatshel; while Alo (song of sorrow) is popular in Kurtoe, Lhuentse. Similarly, the song Bomeyla Karmai Wangzom (maiden Karma Wangzom) is a famous song sung by the people of Kheng Ngangla Trong in Zhemgang district. People sing this beautiful folk song during social gatherings because it entertains the people with the use of onomatopoeia to describe the series of activities involved in planting cotton to how the spun cotton is made into a garment.
The song has eight stanzas, and each stanza describes the beautiful rural life and the activities involved in cotton farming and weaving. The song means a lot to the community because it shows an ancient way of farming life and practices that are no longer there.
History
Although this folk song is sung by people, irrespective of age and social status, the oral source said that no one in the community actually knows who composed the song and when it was composed. However, the local people believe that the song was composed by a woman called Karma Wangzom from Kheng, who struggled to make her living by farming, especially cotton farming. According to Kinga (2001), the two famous songs from Kheng—Bomeyla Karmai Wangzomand Kampai Jaling Beto Gaidee—were presented to Zhabdrung Rinpoche (17th C) when he arrived in Bhutan. Therefore, it indicates that the song was there since the time of Zhabdrung, or even before his arrival.
Though the song is not revered throughout the country like Gasa Lamai Singye and Changyul Bhum Galem, this song still touches every villager’s heart. The song has been passed on through many generations, and the elderly people enjoy singing this song because it is in khengkha (language spoken in Zhemgang area) and also, because it has an energetic choreography.
The song is indeed a lively description of cotton farming, using onomatope sounds accompanied by lively dance steps to show the stages from planting to weaving clothes.
The way I wear the cotton clothes – I wear them yoe phata ya, yoe phata ya.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I check if I am looking fine – I check ya leg taya, ya leg taya.
Conclusion
In the last three or four decades, Bhutan has changed drastically, not only in terms of education and politics, but even people’s way of life. Modernization has brought in many changes, and cotton farming is no longer practiced in the villages because machine made clothes have replaced home-made garments. The people of Ngangla Trong sing this song with so much delight because there is a bit of nostalgia attached to the song. Hence, this folk song also keeps the memory of the earlier way of life alive in the people. However, in the urban centers the influx of western music has completely changed the music landscape and taste for music. The older generation sing Boedra and Zhungdra whereas the younger generations listen to rap music and rock bands. As a result, traditional songs are at a greater risk of disappearing, therefore every effort must be made to preserve this intangible cultural heritage.
References
Kinga, S. (2001). “Attributes and Values of Folk and Popular Songs.†Journal of Bhutan Studies, Vol.3, No. 1, summer 2001
Tshering, G. (1997). A Treasury of Songs of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Thimphu: Special Commission for Cultural Affairs.
Institute of Language and Culture Studies (1998). rig gZhung mTho’ rim slob gra’i rtsa’ khrims: 1998-1999, Thimphu: Institute of Language and Cultural Studies
Informant
Rinchen Dorji, 38, Ngangla Trong, Zhemgang
Researcher
Dechen Tshering, Associate Lecturer, CLCS Takste, Royal University of Bhutan 2019.
Bomeyla Karmai Wangzom – A Voice of Kheng Ngangla Trong
Description
Ngangla gewog is in Zhemgang district, which is in the south-central part of Bhutan.
In Bhutan, each locality has a popular folk song, for example Khorey is sung in Dungsam, Pemagatshel; while Alo (song of sorrow) is popular in Kurtoe, Lhuentse. Similarly, the song Bomeyla Karmai Wangzom (maiden Karma Wangzom) is a famous song sung by the people of Kheng Ngangla Trong in Zhemgang district. People sing this beautiful folk song during social gatherings because it entertains the people with the use of onomatopoeia to describe the series of activities involved in planting cotton to how the spun cotton is made into a garment.
The song has eight stanzas, and each stanza describes the beautiful rural life and the activities involved in cotton farming and weaving. The song means a lot to the community because it shows an ancient way of farming life and practices that are no longer there.
History
Although this folk song is sung by people, irrespective of age and social status, the oral source said that no one in the community actually knows who composed the song and when it was composed. However, the local people believe that the song was composed by a woman called Karma Wangzom from Kheng, who struggled to make her living by farming, especially cotton farming. According to Kinga (2001), the two famous songs from Kheng—Bomeyla Karmai Wangzomand Kampai Jaling Beto Gaidee—were presented to Zhabdrung Rinpoche (17th C) when he arrived in Bhutan. Therefore, it indicates that the song was there since the time of Zhabdrung, or even before his arrival.
Though the song is not revered throughout the country like Gasa Lamai Singye and Changyul Bhum Galem, this song still touches every villager’s heart. The song has been passed on through many generations, and the elderly people enjoy singing this song because it is in khengkha (language spoken in Zhemgang area) and also, because it has an energetic choreography.
The song is indeed a lively description of cotton farming, using onomatope sounds accompanied by lively dance steps to show the stages from planting to weaving clothes.
The Lyrics of the Song
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ལེང་ཡང་བེཊ་པའི་བེཊ་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠ཚག་ཚག à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
སེང་ཡང་ཚིའེ་སའི་ཚིའེ་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠à½à½¼à½‚་à½à½¼à½‚ à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I clear the forest to sow cotton – I clear it tshag tshag.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I cut the trees – I cut them tog tog.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
སེང་ཡང་ཟེམ་པའི་ཟེམ་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠ཕརཊ་ཕརཊ༠à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ལེང་ཡང་à½à½´à½Œà¼‹à½”འི་à½à½´à½Œà¼‹à½£à½´à½‚ས་ལོ༠༠པཱོརཆེ་པཱོརཆེ༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I slice the branches – I slice them phrat phrat.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I burn the bushes – I burn them prochae prochae.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་སཱོན་ཡང་ཇོཌ་པའི་ཇོཌ་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠à½à½¼à½¢à¼‹à½à½¼à½¢à¼ à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ལེང་ཡང་à½à¾±à½ºà½¢à¼‹à½”འི་à½à¾±à½ºà½¢à¼‹à½£à½´à½‚ས་ལོ༠༠བཱརཊ་བཱརཊ༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I sow the cotton seeds – I sow them thor thor.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I weed the cotton field – I weed brat brat.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ཡང་བརྔ་སའེ་བརྔ་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠à½à½ºà½‚་à½à½ºà½‚ à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ཡང་à½à¾²à½´à½˜à¼‹à½”འི་à½à¾²à½´à½˜à¼‹à½£à½´à½‚ས་ལོ༠༠ཕོལོཊ་ཕོལོཊ༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I harvest the cotton – I harvest it tek tek
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I dry the cotton – I dry it pholot pholot.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ཡང་པཱུང་པའི་པཱུང་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠བེང་བེང་༠à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ཡང་à½à½´à½ ི་པའི་à½à½´à½ ི་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠འུར་འུར༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I pile the cotton – I pile it bang bang.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I spin the cotton – I spin it woor woor.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་ཡང་པེར་པའི་པེར་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠འིར་འིར༠à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་à½à½‚་ཡང་རཱུན་པའི་རཱུན་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠ཤུར་ཤུར༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I whirl the cotton – I whirl it wir wir.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I stretch the cotton yarn on the loom – I stretch it shur shur.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་གུ་ཡང་à½à½´à½‚་པའི་à½à½´à½‚་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠དག་དག à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་གུ་ཡང་བཙེམས་པའི་བཙེམས་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠ཆཱིར་ཆཱིར༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I weave the cotton cloth – I weave it dhag dhag.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I stitch the cotton cloth – I stitch it chir chir.
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ཀམ་པེ་གུ་ཡང་གིན་པའི་གིན་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠ཡེ་ཕ་à½à¼‹à½¡à¼ à¼
བོ་མེད་ལ་ཀརྨའི་དབང་འཛོམས༠à¼
ལེགས་ཡང་མི་ལེགས་བལྟ་ལུགས་ལོ༠༠ཡ་ལེགས་ལྟ་ཡ༠à¼
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I wear the cotton clothes – I wear them yoe phata ya, yoe phata ya.
I, Maiden Karmai Wangzom –
The way I check if I am looking fine – I check ya leg taya, ya leg taya.
Conclusion
In the last three or four decades, Bhutan has changed drastically, not only in terms of education and politics, but even people’s way of life. Modernization has brought in many changes, and cotton farming is no longer practiced in the villages because machine made clothes have replaced home-made garments. The people of Ngangla Trong sing this song with so much delight because there is a bit of nostalgia attached to the song. Hence, this folk song also keeps the memory of the earlier way of life alive in the people. However, in the urban centers the influx of western music has completely changed the music landscape and taste for music. The older generation sing Boedra and Zhungdra whereas the younger generations listen to rap music and rock bands. As a result, traditional songs are at a greater risk of disappearing, therefore every effort must be made to preserve this intangible cultural heritage.
References
Kinga, S. (2001). “Attributes and Values of Folk and Popular Songs.†Journal of Bhutan Studies, Vol.3, No. 1, summer 2001
Tshering, G. (1997). A Treasury of Songs of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Thimphu: Special Commission for Cultural Affairs.
Institute of Language and Culture Studies (1998). rig gZhung mTho’ rim slob gra’i rtsa’ khrims: 1998-1999, Thimphu: Institute of Language and Cultural Studies
Informant
Rinchen Dorji, 38, Ngangla Trong, Zhemgang
Researcher
Dechen Tshering, Associate Lecturer, CLCS Takste, Royal University of Bhutan 2019.