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On Tuesday, July 14, I had my
first exposure to Tibetan music by listening to a
tape of chants by Buddhist monks.
The sounds I heard were very
different from western music. They were repetitive
and monotone. The waves of resonating, vibrating
sounds kept repeating at the same tempo.
Occasionally they stretched out. The most
intriguing sound was extremely deep and frog-like.
One note was held for long periods of time by all
the voices. I couldn't identify the structure of
the piece. At first it sounded like noise, but
later I could feel a rhythm to the
sounds.
On Wednesday, July 15, I
attended a concert by Buddhist monks from Tibet,
doing chants and traditional dances and ceremonies.
The live experience was intriguing because I was
able to see how the strange sounds were produced.
One of the seven monks created all the deep,
frog-like sounds, often placing the back of his
hand to his mouth and dropping his lower jaw. They
played some musical intruments while they sang.
These included their special cymbals, bells, drums,
and horns. The monks wear sleeveless maroon robes,
wrapped in place. Over this is wrapped bright
yellow fabric. Their hair is closely cropped. Each
dance or chant called for distinctive head pieces.
The ones they usually wore looked like large cox's
combs in orange and yellow yarn standing almost a
foot high. Other rituals called for the addition
ofblack yarn bangs worn low over the eyes to keep
from frightening away spirits in the
area.
Several dance numbers rounded
out the program and added a playfulness to the
evening. The leopard skeleton dance featured two
dancers wearing colorful costumes and big white and
red skeleton masks. They danced and stomped in
circles, reminding me of native American dancing.
The dance of the snow lion was delightful with two
monks wearing a big furred snowlion costume with a
colorful mask face. Together they became a snow
lion who danced, pranced, and even scratched and
groomed as cats are known to do. The audience was
delighted.
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