W e set out to profile prominent personalities in our community,
people who as a part of our community are not just luminaries
but an inspiration to us. When someone suggested that we interview
Yungchen Lhamo, a celebrity winner of numerous awards and international
persona and performer, we were slightly hesitant. Ours is a
small magazine and we wondered if Yungchen would be interested.
We sent in a meek email asking her and voila! The very next
day we had a reply: Yungchen was interested.
Yungchen had taken time out from her very busy schedule. At
a scheduled stop, she came to meet me at the subway station.
Dressed in traditional Tibetan attire, I couldn’t miss
her. A very down to earth person, Yungchen immediately put me
at ease, when I commented that I was nervous as a novice interviewer.
Speaking on a range of issues as we sat in a small Queens restaurant
in her neighborhood where she was a regular and though the wait
staff knew her, they had no idea of her international status.
To them, she was a friendly Tibetan lady.
| Born
in a labor camp in Lhasa in Tibet, Yungchen learned devotional
singing from her grandmother while she worked at a carpet-weaving
factory, where she had worked since the age of five. With
the start of the Chinese occupation, Tibetan singing was
banned in Tibet. According to Yungchen, her voice is about
the only thing that she carried with her to the West. |
Yungchen’s background is well known. A Tibetan Lama gave
her the name Yungchen Lhamo, which translated means “Goddess
of Song,” to her as a child. Born in a labor camp in Lhasa
in Tibet, Yungchen learned devotional singing from her grandmother
while she worked at a carpet-weaving factory, where she had
worked since the age of five. With the start of the Chinese
occupation, Tibetan singing was banned in Tibet. According to
Yungchen, her voice is about the only thing that she carried
with her to the West. She made the 1000-kilometer trek over
the icy Himalayas on foot to northern India in 1989 where she
had the opportunity to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama and
was encouraged by His Holiness to take the richness of Tibetan
culture and share it with the West.
Yungchen has since performed at venues in over 60 countries,
recording three original albums along the way. The recipient
of numerous awards and critical acclaim, Yungchen has also had
the opportunity to perform with such internationally renowned
acts as the Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins. However, Yungchen
the person has remained much the same. She still wants to return
to Tibet — as one can sense in her music and the title
of her third album, “Coming Home.”
Yungchen is currently in New York City working on a new album,
and we wanted to take this opportunity to bring her closer to
our community. When asked about her current status as an international
star and being signed by Peter Gabriel’s Real World record
label, Yungchen puts herself modestly and says that’s
she has been lucky. She credits success to the right motivation
and the right cause. “For anyone from the community to
succeed, it is not necessary to be exceptional,” Yungchen
said. “If one has the right motivation and goals, and
one is dedicated to the community, one will definitely succeed.”
| “Nowadays,
some people try to differentiate between Tibetans from Tibet
and those from India. But we are all Tibetans and that is
what is important. People say we may get freedom and some
say we may not, but if we get freedom, we all need to have
something to take with us and rebuild our country.”
|
Yungchen believes it is good that people come to the West from
countries like Tibet, not simply because of the financial opportunities
available, but because there is freedom. She believes firmly
in human equality and opposes the discrimination that she faced
as a child in Tibet and in her travels as a refugee. She remains
a strong advocate for Tibetan independence and believes the
Tibetan community, particularly in India and the United States,
needs to be united. “Nowadays, some people try to differentiate
between Tibetans from Tibet and those from India. But we are
all Tibetans and that is what is important. People say we may
get freedom and some say we may not, but if we get freedom,
we all need to have something to take with us and rebuild our
country.”
As a single parent, she understands the difficulties many families
go through, stressing the need for parents to take an active
interest in the education of their children. Deprived of opportunities
while in Tibet, Yungchen feels that education of children is
vital to the community. Yungchen believes that a fully rounded
education is very important, an education, which is not limited
to books, but rather one that makes one look into oneself. To
this end, Yungchen has started The Yungchen Lhamo Charitable
Foundation to open educational clinics in Tibet and other countries.
Yungchen is a firm believer in His Holiness: “We have
a unique and exceptional leader in His Holiness and we are indeed
lucky to have a religion like Tibetan Buddhism. However, the
responsibility towards our religion does not fall only on our
monks and religious leaders, but also on us. A lot of youth
today are saying they don’t know about religion, but that
it is important to have a clean mind. Religion teaches us how
to have a clean mind and keep our minds from concentrating only
on self. We need to listen to teachings of His Holiness and
have more compassionate minds. The Chinese may have our land
but we still have our leader. We need to say that we were lucky
to be born hearing the words of the Dharma and not because we
think we are the best.”
| “
It is not necessary that one will make money out of it,
but if you do that will be good. It is the motivation that
is essential." ” |
Yungchen sees a need for more Tibetan and other artists in
the community to enter into the international forum. She believes
that the notion of creating music solely for the purposes of
making money is wrong. “Earlier parents used to feel that
it was necessary to learn something to earn a livelihood. I
don’t think that was a nice idea. In Tibetan culture,
we have the idea that sounds may be given as an offering to
all beings, which is a way of approaching music. I would like
to see a lot of new artists come up, personally. There are a
lot of songs and a lot of types of music. It is not necessary
that one will make money out of it, but if you do that will
be good. It is the motivation that is essential."
Yungchen’s musical inspiration draws from her personal
experiences. Some of it is inspired by her memories of Tibet,
some from everyday life. Her music, which is a unique art form,
is a reflection of that inspiration. Yungchen feels that language
is not important to music. For her, music is an offering and
her songs, which are in Tibetan, she sings mostly to non-Tibetan
audiences around the world. While people speak in various languages,
they go through similar feelings and through her music, she
wants to reach out to those feelings and create a sense of peace
and enjoyment. “Of course, different people get different
things from my songs, even if they don’t speak the language.
Some people will say, ‘I saw Tibet.’ Some people
will say, ‘I saw mountains.’ Everyone will find
his or her own meaning.”
Our meeting was cut short as Yungchen had another appointment.
She was leaving in a couple of days for a tour with Billy Corgan,
the lead singer for Smashing Pumpkins. I came to meet an international
star and be star struck but as we took leave of each other,
I realized in the moments we spent talking that she was human
and an exceptional one at that and I respected her for that.
Yungchen has come a long way from a labor camp in Tibet to
being an international star now in New York. While her voice
and music is a combination of talent and hard work, her life
remains an inspiration.
To learn more about Yungchen Lhamo and The Yungchen Lhamo Charitable
Foundation, go to http://www.yungchenlhamo.com.
