A handsome but controversial young Tibetan lama has emerged on the local music scene by releasing his first CD — a collection of rap and hip-hop songs that he claims can help promote Buddhism.
Singa Rinpoche (盛噶仁波切), 30, who is barred from entering Taiwan due to his flamboyant behavior on a visit to the island last year, released the CD — Wish You Well (我要你幸福) — on Saturday through Taiwanese Forward Music company.
Since then, several TV channels have been airing the MTV spots promoting Singa's album — showing Singa recording songs in the studio, running in a forest and releasing a bird into freedom.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FORWARD MUSIC
Wearing his trademark white shirt and blue pants, Singa, 179cm tall and weighing 63kg, shows a natural talent for performing by flashing smiles and making poses, showing off his youth and confidence.
Singa signed a contract with Forward Music last April and began recording at a Beijing studio in July.
"We were surprised by the public response to this CD. It is selling extremely well. We have opened a blog for Singa Rinpoche and within a week, 100,000 people have browsed it," a Forward Music (豐華唱片) press officer said.
Most of the 12 songs on the CD were written and composed by a Taiwan musician and two were written and composed by Singa.
They are: Reincarnation, Wish You Well, Let Me Take Care of You, Fashion, It's the Light, Girl Quji Zhuoma, Starting to Realize, Leave Love to You, Today, Lama Chino.
In the songs, Singa mixes rap and hip-hop with chants of Buddhist sutras, and switches from Chinese to Tibetan and English.
The songs deal mostly with love, but he also preaches his philosophy. The song Leave Love to You has this rap line: All the pain in this world is caused by seeking happiness for himself/All the joy in this world is caused by seeking happiness for others.
Born in Qinghai Province, China, in 1970, Singa claims a rainbow appeared in the sky when he was born. At 16, a Tibetan monastery confirmed he was the reincarnation of a high lama.
Singa claimed he spent three years studying Buddhism in Nepal, Tibet and Thailand, before traveling around the world to spread Buddhism.
But when he visited Taiwan from February to April last year to promote his book, This Is Me, a living Buddha, he caused controversy because he acted more like a film star than a monk. He wore trendy clothes and received his disciples wearing a shirt and jeans, not the red cloak worn by Tibetan lamas.
Some Taiwan disciples alledged Singa had not finished Buddhist studies in India and had not been ordained, prompting the Interior Ministry to bar him from entering the country for one year.
Cheng Chen-huang (鄭振煌), a internationally recognized Buddhist scholar, believes Singa Rinpoche has violated Buddhist precepts, or moral codes.
"There are 250 precepts for a Chinese Buddhist and 253 precepts for a Tibetan Buddhist. For a Buddhist, these codes are very important and must be observed," Cheng said.
Agga Wandha, a 59-year-old Burmese monk in Taipei, agreed.
"The essence of Buddhism is to quench desires in order to achieve inner peace. Singa Rinpoche's wearing fashionable clothes and driving fancy cars shows he is feeding these desires," he said.
But Singa Rinpoche's behavior is nothing new to Tibetan Buddhism. Three hundred years ago, the sixth Dalai Lama raised eyebrows because he frequented Lhasa's red light district at night and wrote love poems.
A more recent example is Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche from the Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, who directed two films — The Cup in 1999 and Travellers and Magicians in 2005.
Dzongsar Khyentse received world acclaim for his films and continues to travel around the world to preach Buddhism.
This month the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) announced a new policy ostensibly aimed at influencing the upcoming presidential election. A top-notch Voice of America (VOA) report observed “China launched a series of influence campaigns against Taiwan last week, unveiling a plan to promote integrated development across the Taiwan Strait.” The plan, a “demonstration zone,” offers incentives for Taiwanese to live, work and invest in Fujian Province, across the Strait from Taiwan, along with supplies of water, electricity and gas. Using cooperative zones to poach technology and influence Taiwanese is an old plan that has appeared in various
While participating in outrigger canoe activities in Hawaii, Yvonne Jiann (江伊茉) often heard indigenous locals say that their ancestors came from Taiwan. “I didn’t really understand why,” the long-time US resident tells the Taipei Times. Growing up in Taipei, she knew little about indigenous culture. “Only when I returned to Taiwan did I learn about our shared Austronesian cultural background and saw the similarities.” Jiann visited Taiwan just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down international travel. Unable to leave and missing her canoe family across the Pacific Ocean, she started the Taiwan Outrigger Canoe Club (TOCC) and began researching how
SEPT. 25 to OCT. 1 Joyce McMillan was greatly moved by the pleas of the Taiwanese pastor and doctor who preached at her church in the summer of 1954. Hsieh Wei (謝緯) had just completed his medical residency in Buffalo, New York and stopped by Berkeley to raise funds and recruit staff for the tuberculosis treatment center the Presbyterian Church planned to open in his hometown of Puli, Nantou County. McMillan, who was a nursing aide, had the dream of being an overseas missionary since she was 7 years old. She also had a close friend die of tuberculosis. She expressed
Si Mateneng of the Tao indigenous community felt like he had reunited with a lost friend. While visiting Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, he encountered a boat that had been in the US since the 1970s, first hanging in a restaurant then languishing in a warehouse before being purchased by a collector and donated to the museum. Si Mateneng could tell from the crosses on the vessel, known as a tatala, that it was built on his homeland of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) after the introduction of Christianity in 1959. He could hardly contain his excitement. Si Mateneng