Tibetan Chant: Practical Resources & Scholarly Studies

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Spelare
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Tibetan Chant: Practical Resources & Scholarly Studies

Post by Spelare »

Tibetan chant seems to be a rich, complex and understudied tradition. Can anyone recommend resources? I am interested both in practical instruction and in scholarship in Western languages that might give an overall presentation. There seem to be many translations of mantras, puja texts, or songs of realization, for example, but comparatively little about vocal production techniques, composition, transmission, and practice history. I'm sure there is also diversity among Tibetan regions and schools, as well as between monastic and non-monastic settings.

So far, what I have found online are some relatively scant studies in ethnomusicology. Most people seem to just learn by imitation in practice groups or monasteries, or even from recordings, without necessarily understanding the theory behind it. I'd like to learn the hows and whys of it, and have a sense of what is appropriate in what situation. It would also be interesting to learn how this has evolved over time, and what elements are distinctive or bear a family resemblance to other chant traditions.
Neither person nor skandha
but unstained wisdom is buddha.
In its knowing, ever serene—
I go for refuge therein.
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conebeckham
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Re: Tibetan Chant: Practical Resources & Scholarly Studies

Post by conebeckham »

It sounds as though you are approaching this from an academic perspective?

One usually learns the chanting, as well as musical accompaniment, as a sort of "transmission." But to really train, it takes a lot of time. As for history, etc., those things are interesting tangents that are indeed taught--for example, who started such-and-such a melody, where it came from, etc. Much of this stuff arose in visions, etc. But the Academic or scholarly approach, divorced from tradition of practice, is not really something that exists in Tibetan academe, I think.

To give you some example, in my tradition, which is largely Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche's "DakShang Kagyu"--a combination of liturgical traditions found in the Kamtsang and the Shangpa Kagyu--each of these has it's own discrete system. So, for instance, if one is chanting with drums and cymbal timekeeping, and comes to the end of a section, in a Shangpa sadhana one will often have a "Nyi Shak Za Yo" or two strong hits followed by a small rattle of the cymbals accompanied by a light drum tap, while in the Kamtsang system one would have a "Nyi Shak Za Mey" or two strong hits with no rattle at the end. If the sadhana is "terma," the Umdze will chant the first two syllables solo, before everyone joins in, but in Sarma everyone starts together. Etc., etc. In terms of chanting melody, and production of sound and tone, there are many many instructions you have to learn from a good Umdze, or chant master.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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