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Tsewang Norbu

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Tsewang Norbu
Born(1996-10-09)9 October 1996
Nagqu, Tibetan Autonomous Region, China
Died25 February 2022(2022-02-25) (aged 25)
Lhasa, Tibetan Autonomous Region, China
Cause of deathSelf-immolation
OccupationSinger
Years active2014–2022
Tibetan name
Tibetanཚེ་དབང་ནོར་བུ་
Transcriptions
WylieTshe-dbang Nor-bu
THLTséwang Norbu
Tibetan PinyinCêtpang Norpu
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese才旺罗布
Traditional Chinese才旺羅布
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinCáiwàng Luóbù

Tsewang Norbu (Tibetan: ཚེ་དབང་ནོར་བུ་; Chinese: 才旺罗布; 9 October 1996 – 25 February 2022) was a Tibetan singer who performed in Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese, and English. He rose to national prominence in China through his performances in various variety shows.

On 25 February 2022, Norbu lit himself on fire outside the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama.

Early life

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Norbu was born on 1996 in Nagqu. Both his parents were musicians, which led him to have an interest in music from a young age. Norbu attended and graduated from Tibet University.[1][2]

His uncle Sogkhar Lodoe is a political prisoner.[3]

Music career

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In 2014, Norbu participated in the music variety show Road to Star, produced by Guangdong Satellite TV. In the show, he played piano and sang Tibetan songs, reaching the top twelve in the Western Division and top forty-eight in the country.[4] He later left the competition and declined an invitation to participate in the music variety show The Voice of China, at the time produced by Zhejiang Satellite TV.[5]

In 2017, Norbu participated in the Tencent Video music variety show The Coming One, where he joined Li Ronghao's team and eventually reached ninth place in the national finals.[6] In 2019, he took part in the music variety show Let's Band Together, produced by Youku; he was eliminated halfway.[7]

Norbu was involved in multiple music variety shows in 2021. He participated in the CCTV-3 variety show Spring Festival Gala and performed the song "Under the Cloud" with singer Mimi Lee. On 11 June, he performed at the awards ceremony of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival as an honored guest. He later took part in Sichuan TV's Tibetan cultural program Handsome Tibetan Youth, as well as the sixth season of the reality show Sing! China.[1] Near the end of the year, he joined singer Na Ying's team on The Voice of China, but they were eliminated among the top twenty-two contestants.[8][9]

Self-immolation and death

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Norbu died on 25 February 2022 by self-immolation, after having set fire to himself outside the Potala Palace in Lhasa. He was the 158th Tibetan to die in this manner since 2009.[10] Initial sources stated that a Tibetan man shouted slogans outside the palace that morning and tried to set himself on fire, but he was stopped by the local police and then taken away by the authorities. The identity, status, and whereabouts of the individual were unknown at the time. After the incident, the local police blocked the roads around Potala Palace, and the authorities dispatched more soldiers to the location.[11]

On 4 March 2022, sources outside China confirmed through local records that the self-immolator was Norbu and that he had died at the age of 25; the date and place of his death could not be immediately confirmed, however.[12] Norbu's Weibo and Douyin accounts were filled with large numbers of condolence messages and as a result, the comment function on both apps was disabled for Norbu's accounts.[12] His last Weibo post, written on the day of his death, expressed gratitude to his fans for their comments and messages about his most recent song.[13] Norbu's songs were removed from music platforms in mainland China.[12] News regarding his self-immolation has been suppressed by Chinese authorities, and his biography articles on the Chinese online encyclopedias Baike Baidu and Sogou Baike do not mention any information regarding his death.[14]

Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, the Central Tibetan Administration's representative in Taiwan, pointed out that the cause of Norbu's death was suspicious and called on the international community to intervene in the investigation of Norbu's self-immolation.[5]

Voice of America's Tibetan channel reported in May 2022 that Norbu's father, Choegyen, committed suicide after being threatened and harassed by the Chinese police.[15]

Personal life

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Norbu was married and had a daughter.[16]

Discography

[edit]

Tibetan

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  • "Dress" (གཟབ་སྤྲོས།) (2018)
  • "Secret" (གསང་བ།) (2018)
  • "Tsampa" (རྩམ་པ།) (2018)
  • "Let's Break Up" (2019)
  • "Looking Toward the Changthang" (བྱང་ཐང་བལྟ་བའི་མིག) (2019)
  • "Dance Floor" (2019)
  • "Except You" (རང་མ་གཏོགས།) (2019)
  • "Young" (ལང་ཚོའི་དཔལ།) (2019)
  • "Ganglha Metok" (2020)
  • "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (2020)
  • "Returning Home" (ཡུལ་ལ་ལོག) (2021)

Chinese

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  • "Forever Love" (永远的爱) (2020)
  • "Magic" (魔法) (2020)
  • "Under the Cloud" (飞云之下) (2021)

References

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  1. ^ a b "Deciphering a Tibetan Pop Star's Self-immolation". economist.com. 2 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  2. ^ "བསྲེགས་ མེར་ མེར་ མཁན་ མཁན་ གླུ་ པ་ ཚེ་ ནོར་བུ་ ལགས་ གྲོངས་ སུ་ ཕེབས་ པར་ དྲ་ ཐོག་ མྱ་ངན་ ཞུ་ མཁན་ མང་ པོ་འབྱུང་བཞིན་འདུག". Radio Free Asia (in Tibetan). 4 March 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Chinese protestor who set himself on fire identified as popular Tibetan singer". ADN América. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  4. ^ "才旺罗布自弹钢琴自唱牧歌：中国好男儿三票获通过". news.tibetcul.com (in Chinese). 14 November 2014. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b ""中國好聲音"走紅藏族歌手自焚抗暴？藏人組織呼籲真相". Radio Free Asia (in Chinese). 7 March 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  6. ^ "罗布停牌华晨宇泪奔 薛之谦暴走上演反撕记". Sina (in Chinese). 14 August 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  7. ^ "实力"魔音"才旺罗布 引鬼鬼疯狂表白华晨宇甘为观众(组图)". Sohu (in Chinese). 25 June 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  8. ^ "自爆《红日》唱三句差点缺氧 李克勤要向西藏歌手取经". Oriental Daily (in Chinese). 4 September 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  9. ^ "2021好声音：那英至爱学员才旺罗布淘汰，与新导师有关却成长最快". yule.360.com (in Chinese). 8 October 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Potala Palace self-immolation protester identified as popular Tibetan singer". tibet.net. 5 March 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  11. ^ "Tibetans in exile mourn the death of self immolator Tsewang Norbu". Phayul. 7 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  12. ^ a b c Pundir, Pallavi (7 April 2022). "This Young Pop Star Set Himself on Fire in Public. Then His Body Disappeared". VICE World News. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  13. ^ ""My Beautiful Homeland Tibet" – the Life and Music of Tsewang Norbu". 23 March 2022.
  14. ^ Samson, Carl (1 April 2022). "Questions pile up as facts about Tibetan singer's alleged death from self-immolation is suppressed". Nextshark. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  15. ^ "Self-immolator's father commits suicide after harassment from Chinese police". Phayul. 13 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  16. ^ "才旺罗布丹拥拉姆结婚 才旺罗布为什么没签约". volte21.com (in Chinese). 5 April 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
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