It will live on vibrating the pulse of time
It will resonate for long time
Even after he is gone.
Indeed he is bridging a gap between a time crawled in and time yet to crawl or one can put this way—he is connecting the generation long gone and generation germinating. He is answering the most urgent call, the call of preserving, propagating, and leveraging the tradition and culture which are at the edge of being blown away by the wind of change and modernization.
He is Ap Pema Gyelpo hailing from Kheng Dewacheling under Ngangla Gewog in Zhemgang. He is 42 years old. He is married to Sangay Tsedon from Saremgang under the same gewog he is from. Their future is assured with the growing up of their three children—two daughter and a son--under the tenderness of their nurture and care.
Prior to his joining as Kagtong BHU caretaker in 1999, he has served as Drongyul Menpa(village clinical incharge). Before that he had been a cowboy since childhood. It is during this time his love for songs took root in him often singing songs while grazing cattle in the heart of nature. Then as the tradition has it in the community, he served his three years tenure as bridegroom service in the bride’s home. In Kagtong and its vicinity there exist a tradition that the would be husband has to serve three years in bride’s home to qualify as an actual husband. During these three years the groom would be under strict vigilance of the bride’s parents. Then if the groom’s service is up to the expectation of the bride’sparents, the marriage ceremony takes place.
Throughout Ap Pema’s life singing and dancing has played pivotal role in leading a lively life. Today he is very interested in dancing and singing traditional songs and dances. In the recess of doing all these, he says that he is preserving and promoting the culture which is at the verge of eroding when all sorts of modern high-pitched songs take toll on the people’s life today. And yes he is very interested to let the folksongs live on forever connecting generations. For this very reason he willingly accepted his membership in Parent Teacher Association (PTA) this year. PTA is a recent association formed in the school this year. Indeed PTA is quite new scenario in our country. Under the PTA programme, parents come to school and teach the children during weekends and when some teachers are on leave. The children learn skills their parents had such as carpentry, crafts, stories, dances and songs. From Ap Pema the children learn folk songs and dances. The school PTA coordinator Mr Yeshi Wangdi invites Ap Pema some weekends to teach the children. When he is available he turns up happily and teaches the children for about 2-3 hours. When ask about his teaching strategies he says, “First I let the children learn the lyrics, then tune and finally the dancing steps.” The interest in children to learn the dances fuels Ap Pema’s zeal to contribute more for the growth of traditional values in children. As a kick off he taught the children the song, ‘chi li chi li bja chi li….’ The most popular song in their locality, perhaps in Kheng region. This song was presented during centenary celebration in 2008. During that time he too was among the dancer and he felt lucky to be the part of that history. Ap Pema is, at times, helped by his brother Sangay Kencho who is a good dancer and song lover too.
In spite of all the success in teaching the young children Ap Pema faces some problems. He says, “My one challenge in teaching the children is whether I would be able to deliver the original lyrics and tunes which our parents lived by.” Thus the need to deliver authentic and undiluted songs calls Ap Pema to do some research and rehearse the songs before delivering the lesson. For this matter he contacts the older folks and his counterparts to help him make sure the song he would be teaching bears its original words and tunes. In this regard, he comments that there is urgent need to document all the folk songs and dances before the songs get diluted in this fast changing world. Apart from his physical teaching Ap Pema doesn’t want to misguide the children. This is one beauty he possess that he wants to retain the originality of folk songs and dances for all times to come.
Regarding the inspiration behind his interest in traditional songs and dances, he isn’t sure of any concrete inspiration he had drawn to sing and dance. Perhaps it might be the community he was brought up that pushed him to sing and dance. Ap Pema as a boy was always filled with folk songs and dances by the village folks during the village festivals and gatherings. He unknowingly picked up the dancing steps and singing skills by participating in the dances during festivals such as choepala, losars and thruebubs in his village.
His ability to read and write dzongkha fueled his interest in traditional songs and dances. He learned most of the songs by listening to radio and ten writing them on scrap paper. All the songs he could sing today are learned himself, nobody taught him. He wasn’t send to school by his parents. He was a cowboy whole through his boyhood days. Yet his interest in reading and writing dzongkha pushed him to learn reading and writing skills from his friends who went to school. His writing and reading skills become more refined after attending NFE for two years in Kagtong CPS. Today he could do some simple rituals, read religious scripts and write simple dzongkha. This literary base makes some difference in his life that he could at least document some folk songs and dances and teach the children who will pass down to their succeeding generations. The advent of electronic gadgets such as mobile, Ap Pema feels as a supplement in restoring, documenting and passing down folk songs to future generation.
Ap Pema’s interest is tilted more toward folk songs especially Zhungdra which has become less priority to almost all modern song lovers. He shares that he likes the mind liberating words the zhungdra is rich with. Modern songs, he says, is more of love affairs with more words such as ‘I love you, do you love me’; ‘cant live without you’….. than religious values and liberation.
Ap Pema idolizes Jigme Drukpa as his favourite singer.
Ap Pema idolizes Jigme Drukpa as his favourite singer.
When I asked some villagers about Ap Pema, they responded in unison that Ap Pema is very interesting man who likes to entertain others during festivals. Some shared that Ap Pema would journey by singing songs through the woods. Singing in harmony with nature I would say. Yes he does this. In my one encounter with him on my way to Panbang he was trudging through the path singing traditional songs. I was deeply inspired to see him singing and enjoying the journey.
While zooming down to his own children’s interest in folk songs and dances, he responds, “my two elder daughters shows some interest and they could sing and dance fairly well, but my son is not interested.” He adds that he would leave the liberty for them to learn the folk songs themselves.
All in all Ap Pema’s art of singing and dancing folk songs which he inherited from the community he was brought up will vibrate long after he is gone as is evident that the children will pass down to their children. Ap Pema deserves loud applause for his act of connecting past, present and future generation through his known art of singing and dancing folk songs.
Like Ap Pema there are many unsung heroes in the remote hamlet who deeply care our culture and traditions. The school through PTA is recognizing some talented older folks and have them teach their art to the children during weekends and when some teachers are on leave. Some of them I celebrate by writing about them when I encounter them on my dairy tiltled my Kagtong Times and blog www.kingapenjorshares.blogspot.com. There is a need to recognize such old folks rich in traditional values and celebrate their arts as one act to keep their art alive throughout the generation. The helvatas is doing its best share to preserve and leverage our nation’s cultural diversity through photography and documentations. Even when the international bodies care what our nation is rich in why can’t we as a bona fide citizen share our pie to keep what we are rich in. let our traditional values live for long times. Let’s pledge not to let our sacred and traditional values be blown by the wind of change. 
