The Development Of Thought In Tibetan Modern Poetry

First of all, I believe that Donzhe Jha's poem The Waterfall of Youth, published in 1983 in the literary magazine Rain, marks the start of the modern Tibetan poetry. The themes of traditional Tibetan poems all originated in Tibetan Buddhism or religious ideas, The Waterfall of Youth, however, emphasize the ordinary life and young people's strong emotions and enthusiasm for the world. Donzhe Jha was heavily influenced by modern Chinese poets, who in turn found many of their ideas in the Western modernism. Nevertheless, The Waterfall of Youth reflects many typical Tibetan values. Moreover, the metrics does not follow the system of 4-verse strophe that was proscribed by the canonical Mirror of Poetry. While the verses still rhyme, the strophe are of different lengths. Thus, in both the form and content the author was the first to create a new way of writing Tibetan poetry.Even greater changes can be found in the work of the contemporary poet Jampu. His poetics is much more open and less conservative. He, too, has been under strong influence of the Western modernist poetry. Contrary to Donzhe Jha, he became acquainted with their ideas by reading their poetry, rather than in the transformed versions. Jampu writes about human society and personal problems, love and compassion, dignity and self-esteem. His poems called Yak from the year 1986 and The Goddess of Snow Mountain from 1990 are the typical examples. In Yak he speaks about the hardships Tibetan nomads encounter every day. He expresses his criticism of their traditional way of life. It is a real symbolist poem, full of metaphoric language. In The Goddess of Snow Mountain Jampu criticizes the values of the traditional Tibetan world-view.Most of other modern Tibetan poets have been looking for inspiration in the work of either Donzhe Jha or Jampu. Nevertheless, there are several characteristic shared by all of them. They all express human dignity and love, hatred, anger and anxiousness. However, they differ in their perspectives and ideas. Everyone has their own personal view of life, which is reflected in their poems.The increased publishing opportunities have been one the most important incentives for the development of modern Tibetan poetry. In the year 1991, a group of young editors and publishers created a new magazine dedicated exclusively to modern Tibetan poetry. It is called Flowers from the Snow Mountain and it is published four times a year in Qinghai province. It has discovered some good poems and poets. Furthermore, last year a young Tibetan poet called Sybcheng set up Chome Modern Tibetan Poetry Website, the first poetry web site in Tibetan. Poems can submit by e-mail and then a group of editors decides, which are good enough to be published and which not. Moreover, the website gives readers the possibility to comment on these poems and to discuss contemporary Tibetan poetry in general.