At 90, the Dalai Lama wins his first Grammy—Here’s how he took home the award

Spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has won his first Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording, at the age of 90. The Nobel Peace Laureate competed against Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan, US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, show host Trevor Noah, and actress Kathy Garver.

Rufus Wainwright accepted the award on the Dalai Lama’s behalf during the ceremony streamed on YouTube. ‘Meditations: The Reflections Of His Holiness The Dalai Lama’ is the entry from the world’s foremost Tibetan Buddhist, an album of innovative collaborations with Hindustani classical influences, according to PTI.

Atop the music are collages of his remarks on themes like mindfulness, harmony, and health, captured over the last few years. Responding to the award, the Dalai Lama said, “I receive this recognition with gratitude and humility. I don’t see it as something personal, but as a recognition of our shared universal responsibility. I truly believe that peace, compassion, care for our environment, and an understanding of the oneness of humanity are essential for the collective well-being of all eight billion human beings."

“I’m grateful that this Grammy recognition can help spread these messages more widely,” he said. Sixty-six years ago, the 14th Dalai Lama, disguised as a soldier, left Norbulingka Palace in Tibet, a Third Pole, and escaped into exile in India after his challenging 14-day journey. Since then, the longest, most respectable staying guest of the Indian government, who often says he’s enjoying every possible liberty, has been toeing a path of promoting human values, religious harmony, besides preserving Tibetan language and culture, the heritage received from the masters of India’s Nalanda University.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, with a retinue of soldiers and cabinet ministers, escaped into exile on March 17, 1959, after China crushed an uprising in Tibet. Globetrotting the Dalai Lama, who’s considered a living Buddha of compassion, in his latest book, ‘In Voice for the Voiceless’, offers insights into his decades-long dealings with China. In the book, the Dalai Lama, a reincarnation of past Dalai Lamas, reminds the world of Tibet’s unresolved struggle for freedom and the hardship his people continue to face in their homeland.