With a New Collection of Khaita Songs
In addition to Message from Tibet, in which the 108 songs brings to mind the beads of a mala, and the Mekhor collection, in which the 180 songs honor the principles of Shang Shung elemental astrology (180 is the result of the combination of the 12 animals, the 5 elements and the 9 mewa and represents a complete cycle) that Rinpoche used in his research to demonstrate the ancient roots and authenticity of Tibetan culture, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu created a third collection, Barsam བར་ཟམ། or ‘bridge between’, an ‘open’ collection located between the previous two.
In Rinpoche’s own words in December 2017, at Dzamling Gar:
“…….. In these years we have so many new dances, like the ones we were dancing the other day, that are easier and simpler. So I am preparing a third volume: about 72 songs are already ready, but when we go ahead every day, even when I am no longer working on that, sometimes we can hear some interesting new music with dances, then I want to add these. For that I set aside the possibility for [this other group of] 180, of which we already have 72. Still we can use this group and add for many years.”
Rinpoche dedicated the last months of 2017 and part of 2018 to preparing new songs, creating the Barsam collection and also replacing some of the Mekhor songs. Barsam is therefore an unpublished collection. We have never sung it entirely even though some songs have been transferred here from the previous Mekhor. It was only in August 2018, with Rinpoche’s permission, that we started to dance some songs from this collection.
Now we would like to honor the immense work of our dear Teacher and the time he gave us with his presence for almost seven years during daily Khaita sessions. On December 8 we will begin to sing and dance Barsam at all the Gars and Lings of the Dzogchen Community, uniting all practitioners with the Teacher through melody. Every Gar, Ling, Khaita instructors and all interested people will receive the material (videos and texts) in order to sing together!
Dzamling Gar also has a full program dedicated to Khaita in the month of December:
November 30 – December 6
We will prepare the new Barsam dances together. Everyone is welcome to participate.
December 8 Anniversary of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
We will present Rinpoche’s latest unreleased Barsam collection of songs and dances many of which we will sing and dance for the very first time.
December 16 – 20
We will study new Khaita songs from the Barsam collection with Lobsang Zatul, our Khaita songs translator. Lobsang will explain the meaning of the songs and teach us how to pronounce them correctly. It will be an opportunity for all, whether students of Tibetan language or not, whether experts of Khaita or complete beginners, not only to train the pronunciation but, most importantly, to discover the message of the new songs selected by Rinpoche and to immerse ourselves into the world of Tibetan culture.
YouTube link to one of the songs in the existing Barsam playlist (5 songs)
