Lead vocals: Kharnatsang
Cello: Laila Kirchner
Background vocals, piano, electronics, arrangement: Christiane Strothmann
credits:
Background vocals, piano, and electronics recorded/produced at Strothmann studios, Witten, Germany, by: Ch. Strothmann, 2025/26
Cello recordings at Laila Kirchner’s, by: Christiane Strothmann and Laila Kirchner.
Final mix at Strothmann studios, Witten, Germany, by: Ch. Strothmann, 2025/26
Artwork by Kharnatsang/Strothmann (idea) & Rebecca Ter Braak (design)
Invocation of the Matchlesse Teacher (Dechen Gyalpo)
This prayer-hymn is dedicated to Nyammé Sherab Gyaltsen, the first abbot and founder of Menri Monastery. According to Bön tradition, it was composed by Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
Across Tibetan traditions, it is customary for high lamas to compose short, poetic hymns for befriended lamas with whom they share a close connection. These compositions are offered as a sign of recognition and appreciation, and are usually shared, recited, and learned by students and followers.
Within the Bön tradition, such prayer-hymns are performed using a specific melody. In the West, this melody is sometimes referred to as the “long-life melody.” During a lama’s lifetime, the repeated chanting of the prayer is used to support a lamas well-being and extend their life. After the lama has passed away, the same melody and text serve as a means of maintaining a spiritual connection and receiving blessings from their enduring qualities. In this sense, the prayer-hymn can also be understood as an invocation.
The Invocation of Nyammé Sherab Gyaltsen pays homage to his three enlightened aspects, the „three bodies,“ praysing him as the “Matchless” (Tib. nyammé) Teacher, and the „crown ornament of the world of Bön.“ The enlightened aspects are expressed in the form of three individual deities:
Künsang Gyalwadü – as the direct expression of the enlightened mind
Mawey Sengé – as the direct expression of the enlightenend speech
Sherab Gyaltsen – as the direct expression of the enlightened body, the matchless (nyammé) crown ornament of the Bön tradition.
Here is the full text of the invocation in Tibetan and in phonetical transcription:
བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཀུན་བཟང་རྒྱལ་བ་འདུས།
མི་བརྗེད་གཟུང་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་སྨྲ་བའི་སེངས།
འཛམ་གླིང་བོན་གྱི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་མཉམ་མེད་པ།
ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།།
Dechen gyalpo Künsang Gyalwadü
Mi jé zungden Sherab Mawe Seng
Dzamling böngyi tsuk gyen nyammépa
Sherab gyaltsen shab la solwa deb.