The Gyuto Monks of Tibet

Gyuto Tantric University is one of the great monastic institutions of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the exile it has continued in India, and its monks have carried its practice out into the world.

What people hear first is the voice. A trained Gyuto monk sings a fundamental so low that its overtones separate out and become audible as distinct pitches — one throat producing a chord. It is not a technique developed to impress; it is how these particular tantric texts are recited, and the sound is inseparable from the practice.

Their chanting has been recorded and toured since the 1980s, and for many listeners outside Tibet it was the first Tibetan Buddhist sound they ever heard.