Ngawang Lodup

TalkingGigs is delighted to present Ngawang Lodup, a former Tibetan monk-turned-singer, who performs traditional nomadic ballads and contemporary Tibetan folk songs on electric mandolin and dramnyen lute and also has a fascinating life story which led him to arriving in the UK ten years ago.

He has been performing across Europe for the last decade as a highly sought after singer amongst the Tibetan community in exile, appearing at festivals in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.

This year has seen a meteoric rise in Ngawang's profile when he became the first World Music artist to join the "BBC Introducing" initiative, leading to widespread national press coverage, performances and interviews on numerous radio stations, festival performances (including WOMAD) and an appearance at the O2 in London when the Dalai Lama appeared there on 19 September.

Ngawang comes from long line of famous Nomadic singers in the Amdo region of Tibet – a beautiful but harsh environment known for fine horses and wild grasslands. His family herded Yaks and sheep and taught Ngawang his unique repertoire of mountain songs from an early age while he was carried by day on his mother’s back as she tended their herds.

Each evening Ngawang’s musical education would continue further when his family would sit and share stories about noble Tibetan folk heroes defeating cruel Warlords and sing songs in praise of the snow mountains, after which his brothers would instruct him in the ancient art of the Dramnyen six-string lute.