Jampa Tsering (; ) was a Chinese singer and dancer. He is of Tibetan ethnicity.
Born in Lhasa in the early 1960s, Jampa Tsering became famous in the late 1980s and early 1990s, releasing an immensely popular album, ''Gnas mchog gi glu dbyangs (Songs of the Holy Land)'', including songs such as "Aro Khampa" ("Hey, Khampa"); "Ngai tsewai Lhasa" ("My Beloved
Lhasa
Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...
"); and "Cha chig yinna samchung" ("I Wished, If Only I Was A Bird").
Jampa Tsering studied music in the
Shanghai Conservatoire for about seven years, learning piano. He was a member of the Tibet Song-and-Dance Ensemble, but began to gain a following in Lhasa from singing in
karaoke
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...
and
nangma Nangma (Tibetan: ; Chinese: 囊玛) is a genre of Tibetan dance music closely related to Toeshey (སྟོད་གཞས་). The word Nangma derives from the Persian word ''Naghma'' meaning melody. Both a band and a nightclub have been named aft ...
bars. For this and his private singing, he was eventually expelled from the dance troupe. He assimilated much of the style of 1980s Chinese language pop into his singing and the synthesised orchestral accompaniments of his songs. He was clearly a product of the new media rather than traditional Tibetan singing, using a soft crooning voice rather than the loud, projecting voice of traditional Tibetan singing, yet the melodies of the songs he sang inherited a strong Tibetan character, with their wide vocal range and long phrases.
Many of his songs have hidden political meanings, such as "Ri de Himalaya" ("
Himalaya Mountains
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
"), and they all express a strong pride in Tibetan identity, Tibetan traditions and the Tibetan countryside. Some of Jampa Tsering's songs were restricted in Lhasa in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to their political nature.
Jampa Tsering died in a car crash in 1997.
This article is a slightly modified version of the article on Jampa Tsering from ''Unity and discord: Music and politics in contemporary Tibet'' (2004, Tibet Information Network, ).
1960s births
1997 deaths
Tibetan people
Road incident deaths in the People's Republic of China
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