SHIMLA, India – Sacred Tibetan Buddhist chants nominated for the 2004 Grammy Awards may help the Tibetan cause and boost the spread of Buddhism worldwide, monks said Friday.
The CD, Sacred Tibetan Chant: The Monks of Sherab Ling Monastery, has been nominated in the best traditional world music category for the Grammy Awards to be announced in Los Angeles on Feb. 8.
It was recorded at the remote Sherab Ling monastery in the northern Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh.
“The (nomination) will definitely help the cause of dhamma (the Buddha’s message) and could even help the cause of Tibet,” Tenam Shastri, spokesman for the Sherab Ling monastery, told AFP.
The international focus on the recording could heighten awareness of the plight of the Tibetans, he added.
He did not want the chants to be be lumped with the rap, rock, hip hop and other commercial music that will dominate the Grammys.
“Please remember that these are sacred and religious chants and not commercial pop songs.
“The audio compact disc contains sacred Tibetan chants, meditation prayers and other rituals observed at the beginning and end of the day at the Sherab Ling monastery,” Shastri said.
Since an invitation to attend the Grammys, the musical equivalent of an Oscar, has yet to reach the monastery, the question of whether someone will attend has not yet been considered.
The monks are living lives of renunciation.
Some of the sacred chants date to the 7th century when they were brought to India by devotees.
Shastri said the recording was done at the monastery with the help of a Buddhist center in New Zealand.
The monks who participated in the recording include senior chanting masters Kalzang Yeshe, Norbu Gyaltsen, Tinley Gyurme and six others.
Sherab Ling is the seat of Tai Situ Rinpoche, a renowned Buddhist monk of the Karma Kagyu sect. He was responsible for the selection of the 17th Karmapa who fled Tibet three years ago.
The Sherab Ling monastery is some 60 kilometers from Dharamsala, which has been the seat of the Tibetan government in exile for over four decades. It is also headquarters of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959 with thousands of supporters after an abortive revolt against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama said last month he wants to return to his homeland within the next three years.
However China insists that he publicly accept that Taiwan is a part of China and drop his call for Tibetan independence before it will allow him to set foot again in Tibet.
