Traditional Music of Tibet - Unifying a Fragile Culture

There are several different categories of Tibetan music which vary from strictly instrumental music to a combination of speaking and singing to religious music to folk music. Ultimately Tibetan music is centered around the Buddhist religion. For instance, chanting (usually in the Sanskrit or Tibetan language) is usually very complex and flowing repetitiion of sacred texts. Sometimes chanting will be accompanied by very slow or deep sounding drums which follow the beat of the long drawn out syllables of the chanting.

Many times Tibetan music will tell a story of the past (religious or nonreligious) of personal experiences, or of myths and legends. These types of songs and music arew usually spread by wandering musicians and storytellers who connect Tibetan people through their music as they move from village to village. This type of connection through music is known in Tibet as the Lama Mani tradition.

As I have learned from class music is a major source of creating a cultural identity. Tibetan music was a target during the attempts to erase all traces of Tibetan culture. However, Tibetan music remained a strong influence amoung the people of Tibet as it was easy to pass on from one person to the next and often held new of recent happenings; music, for the people of Tibet is a form of communication.

I have been able to listen to several different Tibetan songs which I found online. The music I listened to ranged from folk songs to religious chanting to traditional instrumental. Many of the songs titles that I listened to are meant to evoke feelings of hope toward the future,for instance, one song titled "Refuge Prayer" is featured in the CD Tibet Tibet by artist Yungchen Lhamo, and another song titled "Universal Kindness" is featured in the CD Music as Medicine. These songs had an impression on me because of how completely unprepared I was. What I was expecting I can no longer say but the Tibetan music I listened to was like the telling of a stroy or the conveyance a message, even when at times there were no words and just sound.

When I had first heard of (vaguely) what Tibetan music was like I had imagined long droned out vowels with hardly any point other than for religious purposes. Now I see that communicating by the use of words is not the only way in which people convey their emotions, thoughts, or experiences.