Dharamsala, February 9 – Tibetans living in exile were ecstatic Monday after monks of a Himalayan monastery near here won a Grammy for an album of sacred chants.
The Tibetan community was eager to seize on the international interest in their culture after the Sherab Ling monastery took home the Grammy for the best traditional world music album.
While the award was a minor category at the 46th Grammy Awards where Beyonce Knowles, Outkast and Justin Timberlake stole the show, news of the album’s success spread quickly in Dharamsala, the Indian hill station that is home to 100,000 Tibetans including the Dalai Lama.
“It’s a great news. It is international recognition of the rich spiritual music of Tibet,” said government-in-exile spokesman Thupten Samphel, who is more used to commenting on delicate diplomacy with China.
Ngawang Samdup, spokesman for the first Tibetan Music Awards held in October, called the success in Los Angeles Sunday a “thrilling moment”.
“So far Tibetan music has been neglected, like the Tibetans’ cause for a free Tibet. Attention will now be drawn towards Tibetan music,” he said.
The album features chanting accompanied by instruments taught at monasteries including a massive drum known as a nga chin and a gyaling, a type of oboe extraordinarily difficult to play as it requires exhaling continuously on a reed while taking in air from the nose.
The monastery is about 60 kilometers (38 miles) outside Dharamsala in the mountain pine forests of the Kangra Valley.
