KHRO GRYAL, TIBETAN TRADITIONAL SINGER, Sha rgya (Shajia) Community, Mgo mang (Guomaying) Township, Mang rdzong (Guinan) County, Mstho Lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mstho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China

<p><span>KHRO GRYAL, TIBETAN TRADITIONAL SINGER</span></p> <p><span>by </span></p> <p>Gser mo mtsho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། (赛毛措 Saimaocuo)</p> <p><span>&nbsp;</span><span>On Saturday, March 30, 2024, I recorded my neighbor, Khro rgyal (b. 1951), at my home in the Sha rgya (Shajia) Community, Mgo mang (Guomaying) Township, Mang rdzong (Guinan) County, Mstho Lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mstho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China. He sings traditional Tibetan songs exceptionally well. He is a father of fifteen children, two of whom passed away in a car accident.</span></p> <p><span>Khro rgyal confided that losing his children had made him lose interest in singing and added that most of the lyrics he once knew had faded from his memory. However, he had an excellent memory in his youth and could remember songs after hearing them only once at weddings.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span>Khro rgyal is also a skilled herder. His family owns nearly 500 sheep. He counted sheep almost every night, and if a few were missing, he knew the missing ones.<span>&nbsp;In fact, </span>he knows every animal in the community and which animals belong to which family, so community members often consult him when they lose livestock.</span></p> <p><span>Khro rgyal remains an active herder and often visits my home, which is a 20-minute walk from his home, after tending his sheep. My family always welcomes him and prepares food for him.</span></p> <p><span>&nbsp;</span><span>TIBETAN TERMS</span></p> <p><span>khro rgyal </span><span>ཁྲོ་རྒྱལ།</span></p> <p><span>mang rzong </span><span>མང་རྫོང</span> <span>་།</span></p> <p><span>mgo mang </span><span>མགོ་མང</span> <span>་།</span></p> <p><span>mtso lho </span><span>མཚོ་ལྷོ</span> <span>།</span></p> <p><span>mtso sngon </span><span>མཚོ་སྔོན</span> <span>།</span></p> <p><span>sha rgya </span><span>ཤ་རྒྱ།</span></p> <p><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span>CHINESE TERMS </span></p> <p><span>Guinan </span><span>贵南</span></p> <p><span>Guoma Ying </span><span>过马营</span></p> <p><span>Hainan </span><span>海南</span></p> <p><span>Qinghai </span><span>青海</span></p> <p><span>Shajia </span><span>沙加</span></p>