Dalai Lama to release album of mantras and teachings set to music
Music has the potential to reach many more people, says the Tibetan spiritual leader The Dalai Lama , whose message of humanity, harmony and peace delivered with a smile has won millions of global followers, is releasing an album of mantras set to music to mark his 85th birthday next month. The Tibetan spiritual leaders first foray into the world of recorded music comes five years after he appeared at the Glastonbury music festival , where he warned of the dangers of climate change, and the American star Patti Smith sang Happy Birthday to him on stage. Inner World, to be released on 6 July, consists of 11 tracks on which the Dalai Lama recites sacred mantras and teachings with accompanying music performed on more than 30 instruments. One track, Compassion, released in advance on Tuesday, is a version of one of the most famous Buddhist prayers. Explaining his decision to make the album, which took five years to complete, the Dalai Lama said: Music has the potential to reach many more people with the message that the real source of happiness is warm-heartedness and a concern for others. The very purpose of my life is to serve as much as I can. Known to Buddhists as His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama has been the spiritual leader of Tibet for more than 75 years. He was identified as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two by Buddhist monks scouring remote villages in the Tibetan countryside, and has since become the longest-living incumbent, seeing countless world leaders come and go in his time. In 1950, China invaded Tibet and seized control of the region. After an uprising against Beijings rule in 1959 the Dalai Lama fled in disguise to India, where for more than six decades since he has lived in exile in the Himalayan town of Dharamshala. More than 80,000 Tibetan Buddhists followed their spiritual and political leader to establish a refugee mini-state. The Chinese regime routinely denounces the Dalai Lama as a splittist wolf in monks clothing. Heads of state and political leaders are vigorously lobbied by the Chinese to decline invitations to meetings; artists and celebrities who publicly support the Dalai Lama find they are not welcome in China. Beijing was furious when he was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1989. China has said it intends to choose the next spiritual leader when the present Dalai Lama dies or, as he puts it, has a change of clothes.