Beyond Karma

While in Tibet I once met a young man with a motorbike; he was wearing a leather jacket and had just finished a conversation on his mobile phone, looking very much the successful entrepreneur. Later I found out that he was on his afternoon off from the monastery where he was, for most of the week, a monk. I met others similar to him: men composing love songs with dranyen (lutes), featuring Nepali hip-hop-inspired rapped interludes; and nightclub crooners with Chinese pop influenced ballads leading us in traditional dances. These situations were curious and fascinating; it was two worlds coming into collision with each other and engaging in creative dialogue.

This is a collaboration between the Gyütö Monks of Tibet and two Australian musicians, Heather Lee and her husband Dr Kim Cunio. It's billed as a ‘rare mix of sacred sounds from different cultures,’ and showcases an undeniable diversity of religions (Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity) and instruments (oud, joza, violin, piano, didgeridoo). However it seems that the creators’ ambition to bring these disparate entities together detracts from the possibility of any meaningful dialogue. Of all the songs, ‘Mahakala’, a collaboration between Lobsang Tsetan playing the nga chen(drum) and Ash Dargan on the didgeridoo, comes closest.