(b Tsolhochamdo county, Amdo, Eastern Tibet, 1965). Tibetan singer. She went to school in Chabcha county, where she heard some contemporary music for the first time. In 1984 she graduated from the local college, majoring in Tibetan studies. She became a television announcer, then an editor of Tibetan language programmes for the Qinghai TV station. She sang at weddings and radio stations until a Tibetan anthropologist and doctor, Gelok, noticed her voice at a karaoke party. With his help Jamyangkyi performed at the Nationalities Village in Beijing, where she met a composer, Sangye Norbu, who was working for the central radio broadcasting department; he composed two songs for her and, with the support of the Nationalities Music Company, produced a cassette on which both she and Yadong are featured. Financed by a private publishing company, her first solo cassette of traditional songs from Amdo, dran-gdung (‘Missing and Sad’), was released in 1996, as a result of which she became famous throughout Tibet. In 1997 she raised funds from several performing arts work units to produce another cassette, sems-’phrin (‘Message from the Heart’), on which she sings pop songs composed in Lhasa.
LAETITIA LUZI