New Delhi, August 6 – Leaving their remote Himalayan monastery, about a dozen Grammy award-winning Buddhist monks would troop to the Indian capital this weekend to receive a special government award honouring their achievement.
Monks of the Palpung Sherab Ling monastery whose delicately sonorous chanting won them the Grammy award at Los Angeles at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards this February are coming to New Delhi to be honoured by Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Aug 8.
“We are monks, we have given up all material pleasures of the world, so an award means nothing to us. But, yes, it feels good,” said Tenam Shastri of the monastery who travelled to the US to collect the award.
“It feels good that so many people in the world can identify with the joy of chanting, the feeling of peace that we worship,” a smiling Shastri told IANS.
Shastri is the personal secretary of Tai Situ Rinpoche, the supreme head of the monastery in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh. The monastery is situated at around 60 km from Dharamsala, the seat of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Some of chants date back to the seventh century. Rinpoche discovered the 17th Karmapa Lama, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu sect. The Karmapa fled Tibet three years ago and now lives at the Gyuto monastery at Dharamsala.
Monks at the monastery, like their counterparts across the world, chant Tibetan holy verses, as they’ve been doing for centuries, for several hours daily and never dreamt it would one day win them the world’s greatest music award.
“It’s part of our renunciation of the world. We think of god, we meditate. It’s to strengthen our faith, to pray for peace and the good of mankind,” said Shastri.
“Most of the monks didn’t even know what Grammy was, what its importance was. To be honest, everyone was quite surprised when we heard that the Grammy has been awarded to us.”
It all came about when some Buddhist devotees from New Zealand visited the monastery in 2002. After hearing the monks chant, they asked to record the chanting.
“As they were granted permission, they recorded the chants one day in the sanctum sanctorum of the monastery. The monks weren’t even aware that they were being recorded, they just did their usual chanting,” said Shastri.
The recordings were turned into a CD, “Sacred Tibetan Chants”, which bagged the best traditional world music prize at the Grammy this year.
“We are happy about the award. It means nothing, like I told you, but we would want more people to experience the divinity of the chants, we want them to sense the peace of god.”
