Tibetan Buddhism

Shartse College of Ganden Monk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 1, 1993)
• Original Release Date: January 1, 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bridge
• ASIN: B000003GIA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #642,100 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Barely music as the West knows it, but this is scary stuff, July 10, 2001

By 

Gavin Wilson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tibetan Buddhism (Audio CD)

If you can imagine thirty or so of your colleagues gargling in unison after a particularly heavy night out, mixed in with the low growl of a large, bad-tempered lizard, you might get some idea of the sonic impact of these chanting monks.

David Lewiston captured the chanting of the monks of the Ganden Monastery in 1987. The monastery was in exile from Tibet and re-situated in Karnataka province in southern India -- hence all the birdsong in this marvellous outdoor recording.

According to the sleevenotes, only mature adults can produce the weird, harmonically rich "one-voice chording" that these monks have learnt to produce. It is certainly something to impress your friends with. It is the strangest thing you will hear all year, and it is wonderfully hypnotic.

You realise how deep a trance you've been lured into when the percussion suddenly crashes in on track #3. Topped off with the sound of the very long bass trumpets the monks call 'dungchen', this is a brilliant climax.

This is not techno, jazz or classical -- to my ears, it is barely music at all. But everyone needs to hear it at least once in their lives.