The Dalai Lama will make a surprise move into the world of music by releasing his debut album later this year.
His Holiness will deliver Inner World, an 11-track spoken-word release, on July 6 to coincide with his 85th birthday.
It’s the first time that the Dalai Lama’s voice chanting mantras and prayers has ever been set to music.
Anoushka Shankar, the Bengali sitar star, is among the cast of musicians set to feature across the album, with more than 30 instruments included.
The project has been assembled over five years by Junelle Kunin, a student of the Dalai Lama’s, with the music arranged by her husband, the producer and songwriter Abraham Kunin.
The lead single, Compassion, is out now and features the Dalai Lama reciting the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion, with gentle, meditative ambient tones in the background.
The Dalai Lama is not the first religious leader to make a bid for the album charts, however. In 2015, Pope Francis released a collection of prog-rock songs called Wake Up!.
Inner World could also make the Dalai Lama an unlikely contender for a Grammy. The award for Best Spoken Word Album has thrown up some interesting winners in the past, including both Michelle and Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Carrie Fisher, Maya Angelou and Martin Luther King Jr.
