Protection: Himalayan Buddhist Mantras

Talking to an anthropologist friend, I asked why the West remains so fascinated with Tibet. I learned about Madame Helena Blavatsky, a late 19th-century Russian mystic who visited the country in the 1850s to develop her psychic powers. Prominent Nazis also had an interest: their beliefs in the occult, and theories relating to the Central Asian origin of the Aryan race, prompted an official German state visit in 1938. During the Cold War, a devastating Chinese Communist invasion was a potent allegory for the dangers of Socialism. And the fact that Tibet, for most of its history a closed feudal theocracy, has been so hard to visit, has only added to its allure.

You would not guess any of this from listening to this album. Recorded in Leh, north-west India, monastic chanting has been so sanitised that it sounds more like Chinese-Tibetan pop than the raw esotericism of the Himalayan Buddhist schools. There is not much here for those with an interest in Tibet or its traditions. However, ‘White Tara Mantra’ is billed as a track to help medical professionals heal the sick and injured. The record certainly has promise for those interested in leading relaxation classes.