National anthem of Tibet
The national anthem of Tibet, commonly referred to as "Gyallu", is a Tibetan patriotic song which serves as the de facto anthem of the Tibetan Administration.
It is unclear exactly whether it was first used before the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in 1951, or after the 14th Dalai Lama went into exile in India in 1960. The earliest report of a state anthem is between 1949 and 1950 when Tibet was under invasion. It was introduced under reforms set in place to strengthen patriotism among the Tibetan people. Another report states that the anthem was presented to the 14th Dalai Lama in exile in 1960.
Like "Qurtulush Yolida", performance of this anthem is strictly prohibited by the People's Republic of China, particularly in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Tibet's first national anthem was, according to Tashi Tsering, written by a Tibetan scholar during the epoch of the 7th Dalai Lama and under the reign of the Pholanas in between 1745 and 1746.
Lyrics
Written by Trijang Rinpoche, a tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama, around 1950, the lyrics focus on the radiance of the Gautama Buddha.The melody is said to be based on a very old piece of Tibetan sacred music, and some of its elements are also found in other Tibetan songs such as that of Mimang Langlu, a song of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It has been used by Tibetans in exile ever since the introduction of the state anthem although it is banned in Tibet.
Current lyrics
Original version
The first Tibetan national anthem was created in the 18th century. According to eminent Tibetan scholar Tashi Tsering, it was composed by Pholanas around 1745, at the time of the 7th Dalai Lama. Sir Charles Bell described it as Tibet's "national hymn".| Tibetan original | Wylie transliteration | Tibetan pinyin | English translation |
ཕན་ཐང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས་། སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་བ་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡིན། ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག་།། | This sacred realm, this wellspring of all benefits and happiness. Tenzin Gyatso, the enlighted existence of compassion, May his reign endure till the end of all existence. |