Tibetannet

Yunggie Ma will present music inspired by her cultural roots in her debut album. Photos provided to China Daily

Yunggie Ma mixes folk tales and ancient rhythms of a Tibetan county in her debut album, Chen Nan reports.

Singer Yunggie Ma was born in Medog in Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, where the county's natural beauty and the Monba ethnic people's migration some 400 years ago have become sources of folk stories and music.

The land has also added its mystic charm to Yunggie's songs.

Her just-released debut album, Lament for the World of Suffering: The Sacred Land of the Lotus, is dedicated to her hometown and the Monba people.

To promote the new album, the 30-year-old singer will tour Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen later in the month.

The album is inspired by folk tales.

The song Elegy, for example, is about a bunch of orphaned young geese, who are crying for their mother by a lake considered sacred. The pilgrims passing by are so moved by the wailing that they begin to chant prayers, seeking the lake's help for the lonesome creatures.

The lyrics go: "May all pain and sorrows leave them, and may such tragedies never return. Bless all creatures suffering in this world."

Three songs on the album are ancient Monba tunes that relate to faith, the Monba migration story and the ethnic group's connection with nature.

"For the Monba people, faith is life. And singing can express our feelings strongly," the soft-spoken Yunggie tells China Daily.

The population of the Monba people in China is fewer than 10,000, with elderly members of the community still following their traditional customs and lifestyle.

Shanghai-based Yunggie often visits her hometown in the Tibet autonomous region to enjoy the local cuisine and nature.

The singer recorded her grandmother's songs. The Monba people pass on their heritage orally.

For her upcoming tour, the singer has chosen small live-music venues rather than theaters or big public spaces because she wants to stay close to her audiences while performing the ancient tunes, she says.

It has always been her dream to tell the Monba people's stories by singing, and she has followed in the footsteps of Yaxia, who lives near her house in Tibet.

The elderly woman is from the Lhoba community, another ethnic group of the region.

As a child, Yunggie was enthralled by Yaxia's singing of folk tales about the mountains, rivers, skies and animals of their land.

"Those songs were full of imagination. It seemed like she could sing endlessly," Yunggie recalls.

"She was my idol, and I wanted to be like her, connecting the Monba people with modern times."

A gifted singer and dancer since childhood, Yunggie was raised by her grandparents, who taught her the Monba language and many folk songs. Her grandmother, Bait Lazhen, is the bravest woman Yunggie has seen, she says, but sobs while singing an old song about her late parents.

"My hometown and the stories about my people give me courage, and I find them in my blood," she says.

Yunggie left her hometown in 2005 to study film and theater at Beijing's Communication University of China.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

"It is more than 4,000 kilometers from my home to Tian'anmen Square," she says.

"When I first arrived in Beijing, the city's fast pace distracted me. Seeing people run around and work hard for money made me uncomfortable and even sad."

In 2009, she joined Dawanggang, a Beijing band founded by Song Yuzhe, an avant-garde, self-taught musician, who blends traditional Chinese and contemporary music.

After three years in the band, Yunggie felt she needed to discover more about herself, Monba music and her ancestors' history.

From 2010 to 2015, she participated in reality TV shows, such as CCTV's Youth Singer Competition and Chinese Idol, a program like its British and American counterparts. She also continued collecting Monba folk songs and composed her own music.

After becoming a mother last year, she returned to media attention when she participated in China Star, another reality show on Dragon TV.

Now based in Shanghai, Yunggie goes back to her hometown every year and spends time with her family while enjoying the local cuisine and nature.

"Life is short and dynamic. I am grateful for having my voice as a gift. I wish to feel the faith and energy through sound, and I also hope my listeners feel the same way," she says.