The Sound of Healing in a World of Pain

March 17, 2007

Author: James Woodard

Source: Inside Bay Area

http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/ci_5460267

BERKELEY —The world-famous Tibetan Tantric Choir brought its exotic music Wednesday night to a full-house Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, highlighting the upcoming visit of the Dalai Lama to San Francisco in late April.

It was an impressive performance. Zellerbach's stage was decked with ornate tapestries replete with images of the Buddha, deities and demons, graceful and ferocious. A table on the stage held the image of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists the world over.

Crimson and saffron-robed monks silently filed onto stage, where they took their seats, cross-legged on small cushions on the floor.

Then the sound of the choir filled the big auditorium; a sound like a deep choir of bullfrogs bellowing low tones that resonated through the hall, like a primal noise from within the earth.

This was the vocal magic of the Gyuto Monks Tibetan Tantric Choir.