Songs From Ring Sned Village
Click here to download Ring Sned Village Song 2
Click here to download Ring Sned Village Song 3
Ring sned Village is in Nyag rong County, Dkar mdzes Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The villagers speak a unique language, called Minyak, spoken by only 10,000 people in Dkar mdzes Prefecture. Nyag rong is an agricultural area where people grow wheat, potatoes, barley, green beans, and rape. People live among the steep, rocky mountains in in adobe and stone houses that are three to five stories tall. Forests abound on the mountain slopes.
The songs in this collection represent only a small part of the repertoire in Ring sned Village; interestingly, all songs are sung in the local Tibetan dialect rather than in the Minyak language. The song repertoire includes: praising songs, love songs, sending songs, gathering songs, weddings songs, working songs, lullabies, and dancing songs. Among these genres, the most endangered in this area are seeing off songs, praising songs, and love songs, and it is these that we present here.
The sending song is sung at celebratory gatherings when guests are leaving, and the singer learnt it by listening to other singers at gatherings when he was young. This song expreses good wishes for the departed guests. The love song is sung by Orgyal chos grags, who learnt it from his father when he was approximately twelve years old. It says “Our fate is determined by actions in our last life”. The praising song was sung by A dkar who learnt it from his father while they were herding together.
Our work is supported by United Board, The Bridge Fund, and the Alex Hillman Family Foundation.
