By Sonam G. Sherpa
Queens, New York, November 27 – Some five hundred people were packed in Kasturi Country Club, a 5,000 square feet hall that has been a venue for many gatherings for the Tibetan Community in New York. Today, they were there to celebrate the eleventh anniversary of founding of the Cholsum Dance Group.
When the first few batches of Tibetans arrived in New York, under the bill passed by the United States Congress, to re-settle 1,000 Tibetans in the various regions of the US, some felt the need of a permanent Tibetan Cultural group. This writer was fortunate to have been involved in the formation of Cholsum Dance group in New York City. As a member of the then Tibetan Youth Association (currently RTYC) and Tibetan Association (currently Tibetan Community) of New York and New Jersey, two separate fellow board members approached me with two wonderful ideas. First one was to form a Tibetan Dance group in New York. Second to host a fundraising party on a Thanksgiving weekend with half of the proceeds going into forming a dance group.
Interested Tibetans were then contacted to be the members of the newly formed Cholsum Dance Group with Mr. Wangyal at the lead. The practices of singing and dancing were held at the Office of Tibet every Sunday. Invitations to perform at various locations were few and far between. Any monies received for performing all went towards the funds to buy costumes from Dharamsala, India.
In the eleven years of its existence, Cholsum has seen many changes in its member performers. Two things, nevertheless, have remained constant in its decade of life in New York City. First – the group has been involved in almost all of Tibetan gatherings wherever rich cultural performance of Tibet needed to be showcased. Second – the unfazed and untiring leadership of Mr. Wangyal; he’s been with this group every step of the way.
On this day, Mr. Wangyal arrived at the hall at 1:00 P.M. to not only supervise but to help out in every aspect of organizing this event. Little beads of sweat started appearing on his forehead as he moved up and down the stage to view it for himself if the decoration of the stage appeared right. Nervousness started showing in his voice when he wondered aloud, “I don’t know if many people will show up?” Knowing that it is quite out of his hand, he hurtled down the hall to check on the cash bar set up as the delivery of drinks were being made. With a grateful smile on his face he requested for others to help in setting up tables for the buffet dinner and chairs laid out in auditorium style.
To celebrate the eleventh year, Chlosum this year organized a singing contest. The songs were only to be sung in Tibetan and the contestants appeared on stage in Tibetan Costume. These contestants were to be only under the age of 18, so that they presented to the crowd that the Tibetan culture is being preserved well here in New York and it is safe in their hands.
Eleven contestants would compete to win the glory of Cholsum’s best singer award. Three judges would only judge the voice and the song of the contestants, ignoring any track music or other musicians’ performance that would accompany some. All contestants, from the Sunday Tibetan School, had practiced their numbers for over three weeks with various instructors.
When asked about the importance of such programs, Lhamo Dongtotsang, anticipating the talent show to begin said, “I think it is wonderful, specially Cholsum, as Wangyal la has worked so hard for so long to make it what it is today. It brings the young and old together, brings joy and pride to us all in our tradition and culture.” She further added, “I want to congratulate Wangyal la and all its members and hope and pray that Cholsum will continue.”
Program, that was scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. started, yet again, on “Tibetan Standard Time”, at 9:14 p.m. Crowd in the beginning was sparse with only about three quarters of the hall filled up. Tibetan girls, adorned with the finest Tibetan costumes from different regions of Tibet, began the program by singing of the national anthem of Tibet.
“I, as a Tibetan, am doing what I can with this dance group to preserve our rich Tibetan culture”, Wangyal said. He requested the audience to “do your part for Tibet by doing anything you can”. He also said that rumors in the community that somehow he is benefiting financially by being involved with the Cholsum dance group annoy him very much. “Perhaps”, he wondered aloud, “partly it is my fault that I haven’t made public the break downs of all income and expenses.” He proceeded to read all the breakdowns of income and expenses kept by various Treasurers of the dance group from the year 1993 when Cholsum was formed. Ms. Dawa is the current Treasurer of Cholsum.
He will be distributing copies of all the breakdown of the accounting of Cholusm on December 4th, 2004, when Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey will be organizing a celebration of His Holiness’ receiving of the Noble Peace Prize. Wangyal urged everyone present to convey his message of clean sheet of accounting to those who didn’t make it to the event, on his behalf.
Wangayl’s sincere and heartfelt address to the crowd was very well received by all. After all, this was a crowd who felt gratitude to his service for the Dance group and the community. The crowd’s sentiments were well expressed by Mr. Tsewang Phuntsok la of the Office of Tibet, when he said, “I would like to congratulate Cholsum for it eleventh anniversary celebration. On my behalf and on behalf of the Office of Tibet, I would especially like to thank Wangyal for his dedication these last eleven years. His leadership to this cultural group and his tireless work and commitment to the group is well appreciated by us all”. He further added, “Cultural performance is something that gives a nation its identity. Shows how different we are from our occupiers.” He also said that to teach children our own language, music is an excellent venue to take as learning songs in Tibetan can teach them to learn the language more rapidly.
The emcee for the night, Wangyal himself, introduced the three distinguished judges of the night and then proceeded to introduce the first contestant of the evening, Ms. Tenzing Namdol. Tenzing Namdol, before singing her number “Phayul Bhod” (fatherland Tibet), said, “Arriving in America, many seemed to have forgotten Tibet and that makes me sad”. Her song with words like, ‘with the blessings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, freedom of our country will one day be surely achieved” made the crowd listen to this little grille sing in great appreciation.
She was followed by Tenzing Legche, Tenzing Nima, Tenzing Kunsang, Woser Dolma and Sonam Chodon. Youngest contestant was Tenzing Kunsang, at 6 years old, singing in Tibetan with obvious stage freight on her face, brought joy to many in feeling that the Tibetan culture is alive and well. With such continuity and hard work evidenced by such young singers, Tibetan culture will be preserved even in a far away land such as the United States.
“These children are GREAT” was what people around were saying.
The show-stopper was Tenzing Kunsel, the number 7 contestant. With her number “Migchu Ranwa Mepa Shorsong” (Tears fell without control), she had a confidant presence on the stage. With elegant movements of her hands and turning towards and bowing to the portrait of His Holiness while singing, “When I saw His Holiness the Dalai Lama, tears fell without control”, crowd clapped along her song. Two former members of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), Mr. Tseten and Ms. Namgyal accompanied her.
Tenzing Kesang, who’s also an active member of Cholsum, with her talent of playing the Tibetan musical instrument “Yang-jin”, sang beautifully. Next contestant, Tenzing Dolma’s very upbeat track to accompany her song on His Holiness as the leader of peace made a few in the crowd join her to sing along as the words such as, “due to the blessings of His Holiness, we Tibetans are alright”.
A great Japanese friend of Tibetans and an accomplished player of “Damnyen”, the Tibetan lute, Toshi san, said, “these little girls, all beautifully dressed, astonishing looking and with great expressions, they sing very well. They were like matured women”.
Jigme Sangmo and then Kesang Diki ended this great evening of young talents. “There are no male contestants” was a complaint voiced by an audience member to whom this writer quipped, “the boys are playing basketball”. While Wangyal requested repeatedly for more females to join the Cholsum dance group it was quite ironic that the contestants were all females. In a few years, as these contestants get older, Cholsum sure will have no problem lacking female members.
While the judges’ results were being tallied, Kunga Thinley, president of RTYC, thanked Wangyal and the Cholsum for putting out such a wonderful show. While in the midst of demonstrations being held around the world against the imminent execution of Tenzing Delek Rimpoche by the Chinese government, he urged everyone to join the RTYC in its campaign to get the Rimpoche’s release from the Chinese prison.
Tashi Wangdi, General Secretary of the Tibetan Community of NY and NJ, announced their plan to celebrate 15th year of conferment of the Nobel Peace prize to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. An all day event, taking place at the same hall will commence at 10:00 A.M. on December 4th, 2004.
With the judges’ decision in hand, Wangyal announced the winner of the third place. Kesang Diki, with great applause, climbed up the stage as her name was announced as the winner of the third place. Tenzing Kesang’s name was announced as the winner of the second place. Nine more contestants held their breath with the crowd as Wangyal, very dramatically, proceeded to announce the name of the First prizewinner of the contest. The house roared in unison when Tenzing Kusel’s name was announced as the first prizewinner. Receiving awards of cash prizes and Khata from Mr. Tsewang Phuntsok la, all three winners stood on the stage with smiles from ear to ear while Wangyal declared, the fourth and the consolation prize winners going to all the rest of the contestants. He also added, “If I were to pick any winners, you all would have received the first prize.”
All eleven contestants were then presented with a DVD of the 10th celebration of Cholsum’s anniversary from last year. RTYC presented the girls with certificate of merit and their appreciation for the contestants’ hard work to preserve and further the Tibetan culture. Pawo Sonam Wangdu, one of the hunger strikers of the past summer, a current board member of the Tibetan Community, who also volunteers at the Sunday Tibetan School and had been with Wangyal and the Cholusm all day in preparing for the evening’s program, took the mike and made the crowd aware of how he had seen first hand the hard work of all the children involved. He said, “I wish you parents were there to see how hard your children worked in preparing for this night. This is not a lot, and I don’t claim to be wealthy, but I feel all these contestants were winners”. Then he proceeded with handing out an envelope, stuffed with cash, to each of the contestant.
Audience was asked to pick a winner by the virtue of their loud cheer. As Wangyal put his hand over the heads of the first three winners picked by the judges, crowd overwhelmingly made the same choice in picking Tenzing Kunsel as the crowd favorite. She was indeed a winner chosen by the judges and the crowd, shutting down any controversy whatsoever. Tenzing Kunsel was asked to give an encore performance to please a group of crowd who by arriving late, perhaps had missed her winning number.
Tsewang Phuntsokla, remarked the improvement these girls had made in last two years. He compared these performances to a similar one in 2002 when a competition was held on His Holiness’ birthday celebration. He was beaming with pride like he was the proud father of all these children. With the rate of their improvement, Tibetan culture is intact and will be preserved in foreign lands where Tibetans are forced to reside in the absence of a land to call their own.
Line for the dinner snaked around the hall and the hungry guests thoroughly enjoyed the sumptuous entrees prepared by K.B. DJ Tsering Dhondup, aka T., requested guests to finish their dinner soon while the chairs were being stacked, and pushed to the side, by some volunteers to make room for the night of dance. The late hours of the night brought many more crowds in anticipation of dancing the night away. Some were seen scantily clad and shivering in the cold weather of New York, while they lined up to enter the hall. They were there to party.
Crowd of about 300 to witness the Tibetan cultural performances had swollen to over 500 by the time late hours had arrived. Sure sign of competition, especially for the younger generation, that the western dances provide to that of the Tibetan songs and dances. A night that reminded us all how much harder each and every Tibetan must work to make this unique Tibetan Culture thrive and have the younger generation think of, when our own culture have a competition in the form of hip-hop and disco dancing.
