Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama talks with journalists in Geneva, Switzerland, on 11 March 2016.
File Photo/Reuters/Denis Balibouse
Reuters
ON THE WEB, 6 July 2020
The Dalai Lama made a bid for music chart stardom on Monday, his 85th birthday, with the release of an album of mantras and teachings.
“Inner World” kicks off with the track “One Of My Favourite Prayers” and continues with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader reciting meditations and sayings with accompanying music.
The record came about when musician Junelle Kunin, a student of the Dalai Lama from New Zealand, contacted him in 2015 with the idea — and much to her surprise he said yes.
“I thought I’d have to try and convince him,” she told Reuters in an interview from her home in Auckland.
“That moment of recording him, my goodness I was shaking like a leaf before I went in there,” she said.
Kunin did the initial recordings at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamshala in India.
Once back home, she worked with her husband Abraham and other musicians to produce music for the tracks.
“It’s an incredible honour. But it was unbelievably, daunting like the trust and responsibility. It’s immense,” Abraham Kunin said.
On a promotional video for the album, when asked why he had agreed to take part, the Dalai Lama answers: “The very purpose of my life is to serve as much as I can.”
The release comes five years after Patti Smith led the crowd at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival singing Happy Birthday to him for his 80th.
Yesterday, we celebrated the birthday of HH The Dalai Lama. I don’t know about others but it was an emotional day. For us, he has been the སྐྱབས་མགོན་ It’s a Buddhist lexicon for Lord and protector but it conveys the true meaning of protector.
Our nation has been forcibly occupied by communist China and we lost everything. We were made vagabonds roaming the world as a bunch of dispossessed refugees.
We had no one we knew who would help us. We were all at sea on our own. The only hope was HH The Dalai Lama. He has been our protector and the Lord to guide us when we didn’t know what was going to happen to us and our benighted nation.
Through his moral authority and serenity of his presence, He has won the confidence of world leaders and stole the heart of people across the world to become one of the greatest icons of the 20th century.
As a result, the Tibet issue received worldwide recognition and the Tibet issue is still alive and kicking, thanks to his tireless effort.
For most of us, he has been the focus of our lives, somebody to look up to, to hope, to inspire and some one who had our interest in his heart. We have been nurtured by his constant emphasis on compassion, humanity, love and tender care for all beings.
His influence in Tibet and the Himalayan region is without dispute. It is hoped that the Government of India, doesn’t make the same mistakes it made on Tibet which has brought about the current border crises.
India must win the heart of the Himalayan region before China uses its political cunning to wean them away on their side. The only way to protect the Himalayan region is to keep the people on the side of India. For this India must give more prominence to HH and play a greater role concerning HH and the future of the Dalai Lama.
May you live for eons!
Ajo Rang Tak Rang Chod
Or Self-Determination
Bhod Gyalyong!