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Since ancient times Tibetans has passed knowledge orally to the next generation. The written language came to Tibet in
7th century B.C. but for a long time it was used only among scholars and monks. Although the written word is very important in Tibetan Buddhism, there is still today a strong tradition of oral transmission of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. The lyrics of traditional songs and proverbs have been preserved throughout the centuries and tell about the knowledge of old times.
Here is a small collection of ancient songs and proverbs about Moon, stars and
planets. All the lyrics were translated to English by mr. Jhampa
Kalsang.
A traditional Tibetan song about Moon phases
Women sings:
When my old, old mother has died
Who else can take her place but me?
I have her wisdom of the ways of the Moon
Do you possess such knowledge?
Men sings:
I have counted from the first to seventh day
And have seen how she shows, on the eighth
Her upper self, in the first half of the night long
From the seventh, seven more have I counted
And on the fifteenth have I seen
Her full self, displayed the whole night long
When seven has passed three times
Then after midnight she reveals
Her lower self, in the second half of night
When the last seventh day has gone
She will not rise at all
On this night called Night without Moon
For the first three of these cycles
The soft breeze begin to grow warm (Spring)
In the second three of these cycles
The air will be filled with rain (Summer)
Ripening the harvest, gathered in the third (Autumn)
In the the fourth, a frost settles upon the land (Winter)
In Spring and Summer, the Sun moves toward the north
In Autumn and Winter, the Sun returns to the south
Moon proverbs:
With the Moon lasting half the night
Then we shall see the bright star of dawn (Venus)
The full Moon of the fifteenth
Presides in judgment over the whole night
The Moon of the twenty-second steals up
At midnight, like a thief
Songs about stars and planets:
Between smin-due (the Pleiades) and lag-sor (Scorpios)
Are no channels of vision which sight can pursue
Oh sMalpo (Orionis and Betelgeuse), you with the crooked waist
Have no jealously concerning these two
Of all the stars from whose midst she arises
The bright star Venus is most melancholy
When other soon appears in time
She passes beyond to another valley
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