Gyelpoi tenzhu

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Gyelpoi tenzhu is in Dzongkha the name for the national anthem and the standard name for the national anthem of Bhutan . The hymn was initially called either gyelpoi tenzhu or gyel lu ("national song "). With the composition of a tune created around 1996 that was officially recognized as a “national song”, this designation for the national anthem was no longer possible.

Emergence

In 1953 King Jigme Dorje Wangchuk issued the order to compose a national anthem for his empire. Text and melody should be based on the example of the hymns of India and the United Kingdom .

melody

Aku Tongmi, the country's first - trained in India - bandmaster composed the melody on the occasion of a state visit by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1958 . The arrangement still serves the Royal Armed Forces today as the basis for playing the anthem, although Tongmi's version has not been retained, but has since been changed several times by two Indian bandmasters: for the first time in 1962 by Bajan Singh, then several times by H. Joseph.

The short, very simple and twice repeated melody goes back to the folk song Thri nyampa med pa pemai thri (“The unchanging lotus throne”), from which it differs in small but clear details.

text

The text of the national anthem originally had twelve lines written by Dasho Gyaldon Thinley. They are freely translated as follows:

In the southern kingdom, where the cypress trees grow -
the keeper of the Dharma of the two truths,
the king of the Druk, the noble monarch - may
his essence be steadfast, his lotus foot steadfast!
The wisdom of his heart grows,
The works of spiritual and state traditions flourish,
While the glorious power is like heaven.
May the people flourish and prosper!
In the Drukpa kingdom of the unsurpassable Dharma,
the teachings of enlightenment flourish .
Suffering, hunger and discord disappear.
May the sun of peace and happiness appear!

Due to its length, the text was difficult to set to music. With the approval of the king, Dasho Shingkhar Lam, secretary of the king, and his adviser Dasho Sangay Dorji shortened the text to six lines around 1964. Above all, the word lho was replaced by druk .

text

Dzongkha

“འབྲུག་ ཙན་དན་ བཀོད་ པའི་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ ནང་
དཔལ་ ལུགས་ གཉིས་ བསྟན་ སྲིད་ སྐྱོང་ བའི་ མགོན་
འབྲུག་ རྒྱལ་པོ་ མངའ་ བདག་ རིན་པོ་ཆེ་
སྐུ ་ འགྱུར་ མེད་ བརྟན་ ཅིང་ ཆབ་ སྲིད་ འཕེལ་
ཆོས་ སངས་ རྒྱས་ བསྟན་ པ་ དར་ ཞིང་ རྒྱས་
འབངས་ བདེ་སྐྱིད་ བདེ་སྐྱིད་ ཉི་མ་ ཤར་ བར་ ཤོག་ ”

Druk tsendsen keipi gyelkhap na
Pyel loog nig tensi chongwei gyen
Druk gyelpo ngadak rinpoche
Koo jurmey tyentsing chap tsid pyel
Che sangye tyenpa darshing gyel
Bang dyekyed nyima shar warra sho.
( Transcription according to the English phonetic principle)

“Kingdom of the Druk, where the cypress trees grow,
refuge of glorious spiritual and state traditions!
The King of Druk, the noble monarch,
His essence is eternal, his rule blessed!
The teaching of enlightenment is blooming and thriving!
May the people shine like the sun of peace and happiness!
(free translation) "

Curiosities

  • Interestingly enough, there is also a dance choreography designed by the composer for the national anthem, which even very few Bhutanese know about.
  • It is also unusual for a national anthem that its instrumental version and the vocal melody differ considerably from one another.
  • When singing, raise your right hand in greeting.

See also

literature

Publications in which the national anthem appears with text and melody:

  • W. L. Reed, M. J. Bristow: National Anthems of the World . 10th edition. Cassell, London 2002, ISBN 0-304-36382-0 .
  • M.J. Bristow: National Anthems of the World . 11th edition. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2006, ISBN 0-304-36826-1 .

Web links

The recording is a poor quality version of a recording by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Breiner on the Marco Polo label. The conductor also provided the arrangement, which is probably based on W. L. Reed's arrangement for piano in National Anthems of the World (10th edition) and is probably incorrect. The 11th edition reproduces at least one other arrangement, the author of which is not named.