Zombo (choom-BOO) La was born in 1939 in the Gyantse state of south central Tibet. In 1959, after the failed Tibetan revolt against the occupying Chinese armies, Zombo moved to northern India as a nineteen year-old and lived there for the next forty-two years. For much of her time living in India, Zombo worked on a road-building crew. She stopped doing road work in 1990 and moved to the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park in February 2001.

Zombo La at home with her ten year-old granddaughter, Pema July 24, 2002 Listen to Zombo sing a work song sung by her road-building crew in northern India: This song accompanied a shoveling task, creating a rhythm using the words 'fast like a horse.' RealMedia Download (524 KB) MP3 Download (1.7 MB)

Married in India at twenty-one, Zombo has had eight children, one of whom died in early childhood, one of whom, the eldest surviving child, she lives with in St. Louis Park, and the remaining six are still in India with hopes of one day settling in the U.S. She now, with her husband, keeps house for her son and daughter in-law and looks after their two year-old grandson and ten year-old granddaughter, Pema, who provided the translation for this interview.

Zombo sang a lot when she lived in Tibet. She learned the traditional Tibetan songs of her region Gyantse from her father. She stopped singing when she moved to India, because she no longer had the time; she was working all the time road-building. Now she sings these old songs locally at Tibetan new year, (Losar) picnics, and other Twin Cities Tibetan community gatherings. Zombo is one of only three other local people from her region of Tibet, and she is the only person in the Twin Cities who knows these songs.

Listen to Zombo singing a Namthar (nam-DAH) song! This song from the namthar epic (see below) tells the story of a father taking his son in a boat to hunt a snake. The boat tips, the water snake kills the father, and the boy is spared because he is wearing a necklace of prayer beads, which protects him. RealMedia Download (780 KB) MP3 Download (2.5 MB)

Namthar and Bollywood
Zombo's favorite traditional songs, the ones she plans to teach to Pema, are from namthar, an epic story that is sung in many different parts, not all of which Zombo knows by heart. Zombo says that now only old people know namthar. She learned it when she was a teenager; the way of singing these songs requires that the throat constrict in special ways; this technique is hard to teach to little children. Zombo likes to listen to Hindi film songs; she doesn't speak Hindi, but she understands it, and she enjoys watching Bollywood movies.