Scholar speaks on globalization of Buddhist music
Anna Nguyen
Issue date: 10/27/08 Section: Lifestyles
For the final lecture of the East Asian Week series, Hwee-San Tan presented her research on "Sounds of the Human World: Globalizing Buddhist Music As An Expression of Spirituality" last Thursday, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Early Asian and Middle Eastern Musics.
"Dr. Tan is a long-standing colleague whom we meet most often at the annual meetings of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research," said Elizabeth Markham, UA professor of ethnomusicology. "[Her] lecture brought us an aspect of musical globalization we would be most unlikely to know anything about here at the University of Arkansas."??
Tan completed a Ph.D in ethnomusicology and a post-doctoral fellowship in the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, where she is a research associate. She researches Buddhist rituals for the dead and its liturgical music in Fujian and northeastern China and Taiwan and also examines modern Buddhist songs.
"I became interested in Buddhist music when I first heard a performance of Buddhist liturgical music by monks from Tianjin and also when I acted as an interpreter for Professor Tian Qing, Buddhist music expert in Beijing's Music Research Institute," Tan said.
During her presentation, Tan discussed the origins of traditional Buddhist music and the modernization and globalization of the music, which has become a phenomenon. Traditional Buddhist music has a long history, originating in India. In the first century, the primary focus of Buddhism was the translation on sutras, but in the sixth and seventh centuries the music began to change, Tan said.
"Buddhist music came from India, brought by central Asian monks who translated it," she said. The development of music became known as early as the 14th century, where it was performed at rituals for the dead for filial piety and paying respects to ancestors. Notable changes began to occur in 1966, when a monk name Master Xingyun from Mainland China founded the Foguangshan monastery, which promotes the idea of a humanistic view of Buddhist practices, a modern Chinese Buddhist philosophy developed in the 20th century, Tan said.
"Dr. Tan is a long-standing colleague whom we meet most often at the annual meetings of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research," said Elizabeth Markham, UA professor of ethnomusicology. "[Her] lecture brought us an aspect of musical globalization we would be most unlikely to know anything about here at the University of Arkansas."??
Tan completed a Ph.D in ethnomusicology and a post-doctoral fellowship in the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, where she is a research associate. She researches Buddhist rituals for the dead and its liturgical music in Fujian and northeastern China and Taiwan and also examines modern Buddhist songs.
"I became interested in Buddhist music when I first heard a performance of Buddhist liturgical music by monks from Tianjin and also when I acted as an interpreter for Professor Tian Qing, Buddhist music expert in Beijing's Music Research Institute," Tan said.
During her presentation, Tan discussed the origins of traditional Buddhist music and the modernization and globalization of the music, which has become a phenomenon. Traditional Buddhist music has a long history, originating in India. In the first century, the primary focus of Buddhism was the translation on sutras, but in the sixth and seventh centuries the music began to change, Tan said.
"Buddhist music came from India, brought by central Asian monks who translated it," she said. The development of music became known as early as the 14th century, where it was performed at rituals for the dead for filial piety and paying respects to ancestors. Notable changes began to occur in 1966, when a monk name Master Xingyun from Mainland China founded the Foguangshan monastery, which promotes the idea of a humanistic view of Buddhist practices, a modern Chinese Buddhist philosophy developed in the 20th century, Tan said.
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