(b Lhasa, 1972). Tibetan singer. His father was a thang-ka painter and his mother took care of their six children. He left school when he was 13 and helped to renovate Ganden monastery for two years. When he returned to Lhasa he was unemployed, so he bought a keyboard and taught himself how to play. After a one-year pilgrimage he started singing in night clubs in 1991, primarily performing songs written for him by his friend, the well-known Tibetan composer Pelnor. In 1993 Karma borrowed money to produce his first cassette, rang gi lam (‘My way’). Shortly afterwards he opened a Tibetan-style bar in Lhasa to raise money to produce a second album. In 1995 he won a silver medal at a Chinese contemporary music competition in Beijing, and in 1997 he recorded a second album, bsang-gsol (‘Incense offering’). In May 1997 he and some friends formed a band called ’od-nag (‘Black Light’). They gave a charity concert in Lhasa to raise money for single-parent families. In 1998 Karma briefly opened a nang-ma-khang where young singers performed rock-style music, and in 1999 he began to prepare another album for which he planned to write the lyrics. He has become well known throughout central Tibet.
LAETITIA LUZI