Biography
In 1959 the Chinese government’s harsh crackdown on Tibet prompted Buddhist monks from the Gyuto Tantric University to escape alongside the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, and establish a government-in-exile in northern India. Twenty-one of those monks arrived in the United States in 1988, employing their distinctive multi-tonal chanting to publicize the situation. Ethnomusicologist and Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart oversaw the sessions that produced the album Freedom Chants From The Roofs Of The World at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch Studios in northern California. Alongside several pieces featuring the Gyuto Monks, the recording contained a musical offering to the ensemble performed by Mickey Hart, Kitaro, Philip Glass, and Jerry Garcia. The Gyuto Monks have maintained their multi-tonal chanting tradition ever since the Gyuto Tantric University was established in 1474, two years after Columbus’ discovery of the New World. As People magazine observed, "The Gyuto chants are low and gutteral, with each monk capable of singing chords that contain two or three tones, simultaneously". In Australia during 1998, four members—Ngawang Sherab, Thupten Sherab, Sonam, and Lobsang Tsultrim—gave performances and constructed giant altars of colored butter; that same year ABC issued the meditative recording The Practice Of Contentment.
Albums