Tibetan folk music was enjoying a revival, particularly a relatively recent style that started in Amdo in the 1980s, known as dunglen. The songs are slow, sad, hypnotic and invariably about lost love or some tragedy. The exile of the Dalai Lama and the loss of Tibetan identity under Chinese communist rule were perfect subjects for the style of music.
"More and more in recent years, people were singing about the Dalai Lama. I guess because the Tibetans are just not happy together with the Chinese," said a 25-year-old vendor who sells video and audio CDs at a kiosk at Dawu's main market.
Donzhub, a ponytailed young man who occasionally played in Drolmakyi's nightclub, a place painted with colorful murals of lotus blossoms and other Buddhist symbols, said, "We used to sing about things we couldn't talk about."
The nightclub opened in the fall. Drolmakyi was eager to provide some culture in a town where night life consisted of playing pool at the market. She also used the club as a training center for illiterate Tibetan women, teaching them to sing in order to gain financial independence.
Drolmakyi, who is separated from her husband, lived in the mountains until five years ago, when she bought an apartment in Dawu for her mother and children so the children could enroll in school. Drolmakyi had little formal education and taught herself to read and write.
It remains unclear what led to Drolmakyi's arrest because the family was never informed of any charges.
"Nothing, nothing, nothing. They told us nothing," her mother said in an interview in the family's living room, dominated by a huge picture of Lhasa, the Tibetan region's capital. "It is like she disappeared."
The mother said she'd heard that Drolmakyi had sketched a Tibetan flag to use in one of her nightclub acts. Under Article 105 of China's criminal code, people can be charged with "incitement to subversion of state power" for criticizing Chinese rule.
According to family and friends, Drolmakyi was permitted to return home in late May after nearly two months in custody. One friend said she believed that a condition of the release was that Drolmakyi cannot appear in public or discuss her arrest.
"She's been basically told she has to shut up for a while," said the friend, who asked not to be quoted by name.
Public security officials did not respond to repeated telephone calls and faxes seeking comment.
