The Voice of the Tantra

When I travelled to Tibet in 2005 to record liturgical music, many monasteries were in ruins after their destruction during Mao's cultural revolution, those still standing retaining sometimes only a 20th of their original number of monks. However, despite the outward state of disrepair, neglect and decay, they retained a strong sense of character, with smoke-stained corridors leading onto murals of fierce-eyed deities and ominous monsters.

The description from the booklet accompanying this newly released album could well have applied to us as we witnessed the monastical rites: ‘we feel overwhelmed.’ With the gradual dissolution of the monastical system, it is unlikely that anyone will witness a Tibetan monastery chanting at full strength. In the absence of a time machine, this newly released recording from Radio France captures what such an event must have been like. Recorded in 1975, the monks we hear are exiles settled in Dalhousie in northern India, who would have been raised and educated in Tibet in its isolated, theocratic heyday.

What is most striking throughout is the intermittent rgyud-skad, or ‘voice of the tantra’, whereby a low-pitched note is overlaid by a tenth harmonic. In addition we hear the damaru (drums), the small tibu (bell), the kangling (short horns) and the dung-chen (great horns). For greatest effect, brew some salted butter (preferably yak) tea, darken the room, set the volume to maximum, and enjoy.