A Blogpost and A Poem on Tibetan language

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost and a poem both on the topic of Tibetan language.

Since the student protests of last month, October 2010, against the proposals to restrict the use of Tibetan language in classrooms in Qinghai province, the serious issues facing Tibetan language have evidently been weighing on the minds of Tibetan netizens.

Interestingly, the Tibetan language blog sites have been very quiet and prefer not to directly talk about the issues the recent language protests have raised, whilst on the Chinese language blog sites frequented by Tibetans, there is much chatter about the issue. Perhaps the language issues are felt more acutely and painfully by those who have lost their language. 

 The poem below titled "Sorry" was first posted by a Tibetan blogger on their blog on October 23, 2010, and mourns the loss of their ability to read Tibetan. The poem associates the loss of Tibetan language with a concomitant loss of heritage, tradition and culture, as can be seen by the references to Sambhota, the inventor of Tibetan script and the 6th Dalai Lama, an accomplished poet.

"Sorry"

Using the 30 letters of the alphabet

You string a necklace of history for me

But I, due to the ravages of time

Lost my principles

Lost my necklace

Thonmi Sambhota, sorry

Father and Mother, sorry

Forefathers, sorry

Teachers, friends and family, sorry

What you carved on stone

I am unable to understand

Tsangyang Gyatso's poems

I cannot read out loud

I have no tsampa

I have no Buddhist lamp

I have no mala

I have no khata

Today, I have also lost my voice

From today onwards, there are no pastoral songs

There is no Achi Lhamo

There is no kyi kyi suo suo

There is also no Mani and sounds of nature

It's not that I don't love you, sorry

It's not that I want to abandon you, sorry

I am powerless, sorry

A separate blogpost written by a Tibetan blogger on October 22, 2010, asks how soon it will be before the Tibetan language becomes an endangered language. 

The blogger has a verse in English on their sidebar that reads, "

if you do not breathe, 

there is no air. 

if you do not walk, 

there is no earth. 

if you do not speak,

 there is no world. 

so, please speak your

 native language!"

How close are we to having an endangered language????

I remember when I was small the first word I learned to say was "Amala", according to my Mother, this was the most moving thing in the world, the most gratifying word.

I remember growing up and never tiring of hearing my Grandmother's tales of King Gesar and Queen Drumo, in that romantic and beautiful poetic Tibetan language, it was the first time I had idols to worship. Grandmother's kindly words have stuck with me like wings of imagination, flying high and far.

I remember the first time my Mother taught me the thirty letters of the Tibetan alphabet, ka kha ga nga. Over and over again, thirty letters opened a window to my understanding of the world.

Those wonderful melodious thirty letters combined to pass down well-known stories of heroes, those thirty letters full of wisdom and passion passed through the mouths of generations of sons and daughters, telling the history and heritage of tradition, praised heroes, inspired warriors, educating the younger generations, encouraging the youth.

That I abandon you, how could that be?  That I don't speak you, how could that be? That I don't use you, how could that be????