Tibetan Monks Bag the First Grammy for Tibetans
 Tenam Lama of Sherab Ling with the Grammy Award/Reuters/Mike Blake |
Dharamsala, 9 February: Tibetan religious chants making waves in the world music scenario are not much of a news these days but one of them winning the world’s most prestigious acknowledgement for music surely is.
The nomination of the Sacred Tibetan Chants: The Monks of Sherab Ling Monastery (Naxos World) by Tibetan Monks of Palpung Sherab Ling Monastery, near Bir Tibetan settlement, earlier for Best Traditional World Music Album Award was announced in Beverly Hills, California, on December 4, 2003. The nomination came as a big surprise and a source of joy not only for the monks of Sherabling but also for the Tibetans all over the world.
And to add onto the already rejoicing mood, the album won the Best Traditional World Music Album award at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles early today. As Tenam Lama, from the Palpung Sherab Ling Monastery, received the award at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, a history has been created.
Released in January 2003, the recording was nominated in the category, Best Traditional World Music Album (Vocal or Instrumental)
The monks of Sherab Ling have recorded Buddhist chants, Mahamudra Lineage Prayer & Meditation, Mahakala Puja (Yeshe Gonpo), Invocation and offering to Mahakala, and receiving blessings and dedicating the merit to world peace and harmony. It presents the lineage prayer with which the monks of Sherab Ling Monastery begin their day, offering respect to a line of great meditation practitioners going back as far as the seventh century. It also includes part of each day’s closing ritual in which the monks perform purification and dedication to all sentient creatures.
Lobsang Wangyal, who organised the first ever Tibetan music awards last year told TibetNet that it is an honour for the Tibetans and that the Grammy will lead to more awareness about Tibetan religious chants by which the healing power that the chants are believed to have will be understood and felt by the world.
Monks who participated in the recording include senior chant-leaders Kalsang Yeshe, Norbu Gyaltsen, Thinley Gyurme, Namgyal, chant-leaders Yeshe Gyaltsen, Tsultrim Woser, Lodoe Gyaltsen Dawa, Phurpa Dorje, Tenpa, Dawa Rinchen, and Sonam Yarphel.
Sherab Ling Monastery is the seat in exile of Tai Situ Rinpoche, an eminent lama in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
This is the second nomination for Tibetans to the Grammy. At the 43rd Grammy Awards Nawang Khechog, a Tibetan enthno-musician became the first Tibetan to be nominated for Grammy Awards. He was nominated for his album “In A Distant Place”, in collaboration with R. Carlos Nakai, a native American flautist; William Eaton, famous guitarist; and the pulsing world beat percussion by Will Clipman, in the ‘New Age Music’category.
