Background •

Bodong pa •

Porong •

Exile •

Bodong Pa

In addition to Porong's folk music, the expedition recorded the liturgical music of a dying school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Bodong-pa. This unique monastic tradition comprises just six monasteries in central Tibet and has been highlighted by Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso as a priority for cultural preservation.

Although previously the monasteries housed up to three thousand monks, they currently average around ten. Changes to the monastic system over the last half-century have also meant a reduction in the numbers of young apprentice monks entering monastic life, crucial to sustaining the tradition.

We visited all of the primary Bodongpa monasteries and recorded a total of more than fifty-five hours of liturgical music. The chanting of the monks is accompanied by a variety of ritual instruments: dung, three-metre long extendable horns; kangling, trumpets made formerly from human thigh-bones; galing, an oboe-like reed instrument; and a range of different cymbals, drums and hand bells.