Join us for a fascinating exploration of the music and instruments used in Tibetan Buddhist rituals. Phursang Kelak Lama, ritual music director of Karma Raj Monastic University in Kathmandu, will present and demonstrate the typical elements and instruments of monastic ritual music, including chants, cymbals and drums, drungchen (long trumpets), and the gyaling (oboe). Along with ethnomusicologist Michael Monhart, Phursang Kelak Lama will explain musical notation and patterns, as well as the general meaning and role of music in Tibetan Buddhist ritual.
Phusang Kelak Lama
Phursang Kelak Lama is the ritual music director (dbu mdzad) དབུ་མཛད། of Karma Raj Mahavihar, a Kagyu monastery located at Swayambhunath, Kathmandu, Nepal. Phursang Lama grew up in Tibet, entering Dilyak monastery in Nangchen, in the Kham region of Tibet. He received the traditional training in ritual arts. He left Tibet in 1959 with other senior lamas from his monastery, settling in the monastery in Kathmandu. Phursang Lama taught Tibetan ritual music for two years in the Ethnomusicology Department of the University of Washington. He is presently visiting New York City for several months before returning to Nepal.
Michael Monhart
Michael Monhart received his MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, specializing in the Buddhist ritual musics of Tibet and Japan. He then worked in the multimedia education department at Microsoft for twelve years. He is presently an MA student in Tibetan Studies at Columbia University.
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