A traditional song called Chili Chili Bya Chili is popular in Ngangla gewog in Zhemgang district. On every occasion, people of Ngangla Trong sing this song; otherwise, people feel that the occasion is incomplete without this song. If one attends any ceremonial function in Zhemgang, one can witness people singing this song on the top of their voices.
It is believed that the song was composed in praise of a bird called Chilikpa (name of a bird in Khengkha—local dialect). The bird is considered to be a harbinger of rainfall and bountiful harvest in the community. The song has thirteen stanzas, and it, essentially, describes the appearance of this bird and the movement of its flight to bring rain for a rich harvest. Although, the song is written in the Dzongkha language (national language), everyone enjoys singing this song irrespective of age and gender. Recently, the song was translated into Khengkha, which gives the people a sense of ownership and belongingness.  It is a fun song that everyone enjoys participating in because of the liveliness of the song.
History
The song chili chili bya chili is popularly sung in Ngangla Trong community; sadly, nobody knows who composed this insightful song, where it was composed, and why it was composed. Some village elders believe that the song could have been passed down from their ancestors because there was a man called Meme Chilikpa in Ngangla Trong, who always used to sing this song during social functions. However, Meme Chilikpa went and resettled in southern Bhutan during the resettlement program; and today, people in Ngangla Trong have no idea how this song became popular in the community.
Although nobody knows the origin of the song, this song plays a vital role in bringing social coherence as people of all ages enjoy singing this lively song. Â Thus, the song is sung not only for entertainment, but also this art reflects a deeper meaning of nature and its values. Essentially, the song is a cheerful appreciation of nature, and how people and animals must co-exist in harmony. Moreover, the song has much relevance to modern times and imparts the value of how important it is to preserve our environment and live a symbiotic relationship.
Although the elder community members of Ngangla-Trong can sing and dance to this song, but they are unable to provide the history of the song. Bhutan has rich oral history, and people believe that this song could be based on some myths. Interestingly, there is a myth related to the bird called Chilikpa from eastern Bhutan.
Myths
According to the legend from the east, once there lived a poor boy and a prince. Every day, the poor boy had to beg food from the prince. One day the prince refused to give alms to the poor boy and the poor boy was embarrassed. Therefore, the poor boy decided to cultivate millet on a small plot of land for his survival. But before the poor boy could harvest his millet, he found that his millet was eaten by some animals. The poor boy was furious and set a trap, and the next day when he went to check his trap, he found a Chilikpa in his trap. Â He tried to kill the bird, but it begged for its life and promised the boy prosperity in life.
Chilikpa kept its promise and the poor boy became wealthy. The prince came to know about the poor boy’s prosperity and was filled with jealousy. Therefore, the prince decided to organize a contest to bring this once-poor boy under his control. Firstly, the prince ordered the boy to bring his rooster to fight against the prince’s rooster. Secondly, the prince ordered him to bring his bull to fight against his, and thirdly, the prince ordered him to serve a feast to the common people to see who can serve the best. So, the poor boy obeyed as commanded; however, the prince was defeated in all the competitions.
Therefore, the message is that when a small bird like Chilikpa can bestow prosperity to the poor boy, think of the generosity of other animals if people coexist in harmony with them. The elderly people believe that Chilikpa is an intelligent bird that heralds timely rainfall, which is a blessing to the community. Therefore, the people pay respect to Chilikpa, so that it showers them with timely rain for a bountiful harvest.
Although there is a lack of history behind this legendary song Chilikpa, it has a strong message to the citizens of Bhutan and also to the rest of the people in the world. Â Because of so-called globalization and urbanization, people give less importance to environment and to the ecology of our surroundings. Even in Buddhism, it says that the entire system of this universe is composed by five basic elements- earth, wind, fire, water and vacuum. These basic elements are closely inter-linked, and therefore, humans must respect the natural environment, its inhabitants, and the sentient beings living within it. When a small bird like Chilikpa has so much to give, it is needless to mention what other animals might bequeath to human beings. Thus, the moral of this song is that we should appreciate our environment, preserve them, and pay respect to every living being on this earth.
References
Tshering, Gyonpo (1997). A Treasury of Songs of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Thimphu: Special Commission for Cultural Affairs.
Tobgyal, Kuenzang and Dorji, Mani (1985). Folk Songs of Bhutan, Thimphu: Department of Education.
Institute of Language and Cultural Studies (1998). rig gZhung mTho’ rim slob gra’i rtsa’ khrims: 1998-1999, Thimphu: Institute of Language and Cultural Studies
Informants
Rinchen Dorji, 38, Ngangla Trong, Zhemgang
Dechen Wangmo, Chali, Mongar
Researcher
Dechen Tshering, Associate Lecturer, CLCS Takste, Royal University of Bhutan, 2019.
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Chili Chili Bya Chili – A Vibrant Song of Kheng Ngangla Trong
Description
A traditional song called Chili Chili Bya Chili is popular in Ngangla gewog in Zhemgang district. On every occasion, people of Ngangla Trong sing this song; otherwise, people feel that the occasion is incomplete without this song. If one attends any ceremonial function in Zhemgang, one can witness people singing this song on the top of their voices.
It is believed that the song was composed in praise of a bird called Chilikpa (name of a bird in Khengkha—local dialect). The bird is considered to be a harbinger of rainfall and bountiful harvest in the community. The song has thirteen stanzas, and it, essentially, describes the appearance of this bird and the movement of its flight to bring rain for a rich harvest. Although, the song is written in the Dzongkha language (national language), everyone enjoys singing this song irrespective of age and gender. Recently, the song was translated into Khengkha, which gives the people a sense of ownership and belongingness.  It is a fun song that everyone enjoys participating in because of the liveliness of the song.
History
The song chili chili bya chili is popularly sung in Ngangla Trong community; sadly, nobody knows who composed this insightful song, where it was composed, and why it was composed. Some village elders believe that the song could have been passed down from their ancestors because there was a man called Meme Chilikpa in Ngangla Trong, who always used to sing this song during social functions. However, Meme Chilikpa went and resettled in southern Bhutan during the resettlement program; and today, people in Ngangla Trong have no idea how this song became popular in the community.
Although nobody knows the origin of the song, this song plays a vital role in bringing social coherence as people of all ages enjoy singing this lively song. Â Thus, the song is sung not only for entertainment, but also this art reflects a deeper meaning of nature and its values. Essentially, the song is a cheerful appreciation of nature, and how people and animals must co-exist in harmony. Moreover, the song has much relevance to modern times and imparts the value of how important it is to preserve our environment and live a symbiotic relationship.
Although the elder community members of Ngangla-Trong can sing and dance to this song, but they are unable to provide the history of the song. Bhutan has rich oral history, and people believe that this song could be based on some myths. Interestingly, there is a myth related to the bird called Chilikpa from eastern Bhutan.
Myths
According to the legend from the east, once there lived a poor boy and a prince. Every day, the poor boy had to beg food from the prince. One day the prince refused to give alms to the poor boy and the poor boy was embarrassed. Therefore, the poor boy decided to cultivate millet on a small plot of land for his survival. But before the poor boy could harvest his millet, he found that his millet was eaten by some animals. The poor boy was furious and set a trap, and the next day when he went to check his trap, he found a Chilikpa in his trap. Â He tried to kill the bird, but it begged for its life and promised the boy prosperity in life.
Chilikpa kept its promise and the poor boy became wealthy. The prince came to know about the poor boy’s prosperity and was filled with jealousy. Therefore, the prince decided to organize a contest to bring this once-poor boy under his control. Firstly, the prince ordered the boy to bring his rooster to fight against the prince’s rooster. Secondly, the prince ordered him to bring his bull to fight against his, and thirdly, the prince ordered him to serve a feast to the common people to see who can serve the best. So, the poor boy obeyed as commanded; however, the prince was defeated in all the competitions.
Therefore, the message is that when a small bird like Chilikpa can bestow prosperity to the poor boy, think of the generosity of other animals if people coexist in harmony with them. The elderly people believe that Chilikpa is an intelligent bird that heralds timely rainfall, which is a blessing to the community. Therefore, the people pay respect to Chilikpa, so that it showers them with timely rain for a bountiful harvest.
The Lyrics of the Song
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་གཤོག་སྒྲོ་གཡས་པ་ཤར་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་སྨོ༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way you show your right wing to the east
Is a display of your happiness
Chili chili bya-chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི་༠à¼
ང་གཤོག་སྒྲོ་གཡས་པ་ཤར་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
ང་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་མས༠à¼
ཤར་à½à¾²à½²à¼‹à½‚དུགས་ཉི་མ་ཞུ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་ཨིན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way I show my right wing to the east
Is a display of my happiness
It’s a gesture of inviting the sun from the east
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་གཤོག་སྒྲོ་གཡོན་པ་ནུབ་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་སྨོ༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ཅི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya-chili
The way you show your left wing to the west
Is a display of your happiness
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
ང་གཤོག་སྒྲོ་གཡོན་པ་ནུབ་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
ང་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་མས༠à¼
ནུབ་ཞོ་ཞལ་ཟླ་བ་ཞུ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་ཨིན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way I show my left wing to the west
Is a display of my happiness
It’s a gesture of inviting the moon from the west
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་མགུ་à½à½¼à¼‹à½–ོད་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་སྨོ༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way you face in the direction of Tibet
Is a display of your happiness
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
ང་མགུ་à½à½¼à¼‹à½–ོད་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
ང་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་མས༠à¼
བོད་དམ་པའི་ལྷ་ཆོས་ཞུ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་ཨིན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way I face in the direction of Tibet
Is a display of my happiness
It’s a gesture of welcoming the Holy Dharma
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་མཇུག་མ་བྱང་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་སྨོ༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way you show your tail to the north
Is a display of happiness
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
ང་མཇུག་མ་བྱང་ལུ་སྟོན་མི་འདི༠à¼
ང་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་མས༠à¼
རྒྱ་ཟས་ནོར་ཟས་ཞུ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་ཨིན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ཅི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way I show my tail to the north
Is a display of my happiness
It’s a gesture of bringing wealth and prosperity
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་à½à½¼à½¢à¼‹à½…ོག་གནམ་à½à½¢à¼‹à½£à¾·à½¼à½„་མི་འདི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་སྨོ༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way your crest faces the sky
Is a display of your happiness
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
ང་à½à½¼à½¢à¼‹à½…ོག་གནམ་à½à½¢à¼‹à½£à¾·à½¼à½„་མི་འདི༠à¼
ང་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་མས༠à¼
ཆར་ཆུ་དུས་སུ་ཞུ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་ཨིན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way my crest faces the sky
Is a display of my happiness
It’s a gesture of welcoming timely rainfall
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་སà¾à½˜à¼‹à½¦à¼‹à½à½¢à¼‹à½–ཙུགས་མི་འདི༠à¼
à½à¾±à½¼à½‘་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་སྨོ༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
The way your feet are planted on the ground
Is a display of your happiness
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
ང་སà¾à½˜à¼‹à½¦à¼‹à½à½¢à¼‹à½–ཙུགས་མི་འདི༠à¼
ང་དགའ་ན་དགའ་བའི་དཔེ་ཅིག་མས༠à¼
ལོ་à½à½¼à½‚་རྟག་à½à½´à¼‹à½žà½´à¼‹à½–འི་དཔེ་ཅིག་ཨིན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili-chili-bya-chili
The way my feet are planted on the ground
Is a display of my happiness
It’s a gesture of receiving a bountiful harvest
Chili chili bya chili
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
གནམ་ལས་ཆར་ཆུ་འབབ་མི་འབབ༠à¼
ས་ལས་ལོ་à½à½¼à½‚་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས༠à¼
གནམ་ལས་ཆར་ཆུ་འབབ་ཟེར་ན༠à¼
ས་ལས་ལོ་à½à½¼à½‚་ལེགས་ཟེར་ན༠à¼
ཅི་ལི་ཅི་ལི་བྱ་ཅི་ལི༠à¼
Chili chili bya chili
There is rainfall aplenty from the sky
There is harvest aplenty on the ground
From the sky falls the rain
On the ground abounds a rich harvest
Chili chili bya chili
Conclusion
Although there is a lack of history behind this legendary song Chilikpa, it has a strong message to the citizens of Bhutan and also to the rest of the people in the world. Â Because of so-called globalization and urbanization, people give less importance to environment and to the ecology of our surroundings. Even in Buddhism, it says that the entire system of this universe is composed by five basic elements- earth, wind, fire, water and vacuum. These basic elements are closely inter-linked, and therefore, humans must respect the natural environment, its inhabitants, and the sentient beings living within it. When a small bird like Chilikpa has so much to give, it is needless to mention what other animals might bequeath to human beings. Thus, the moral of this song is that we should appreciate our environment, preserve them, and pay respect to every living being on this earth.
References
Tshering, Gyonpo (1997). A Treasury of Songs of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Thimphu: Special Commission for Cultural Affairs.
Tobgyal, Kuenzang and Dorji, Mani (1985). Folk Songs of Bhutan, Thimphu: Department of Education.
Institute of Language and Cultural Studies (1998). rig gZhung mTho’ rim slob gra’i rtsa’ khrims: 1998-1999, Thimphu: Institute of Language and Cultural Studies
Informants
Rinchen Dorji, 38, Ngangla Trong, Zhemgang
Dechen Wangmo, Chali, Mongar
Researcher
Dechen Tshering, Associate Lecturer, CLCS Takste, Royal University of Bhutan, 2019.