Kathmandu:

On February 9, 53-year-old Nawang Khechog, a seasoned Tibetan flautist based in US, performed for the Nepali audience for the first time.

“It was a great experience,” he said at an interaction held on February 10. Very affectionate to Nepal and her “beautiful” people, Khechog said Nepal has given the world a great prince of peace in the form of Gautama Buddha.

“Now the message which he gave 2,500 years ago is spreading in the West,” he said smiling.

Khechog has already performed with many renowned artistes from various countries in Europe, America and Asia, including the main flautist who plays for Luciano Parvarotti, Andrea Griminelle. He was also nominated for the Grammy award in the year 2000.

The musician, whose romance with the flute began 20 years ago, believes Tibet and Nepal share a very intimate relationship, as both are mountainous countries and very peace loving.

After getting to know more about the Nepali folk songs and dances, Khechog said that Nepal has its own distinctive and amazing dances and folk singing. “And because both Tibet and Nepal are mountainous countries, they have this theme of ‘mountain peace’ in them,” he added.

So, where did Khechog, whose CDs have been selling in Nepal for the last 10 years or so, learn to play the flute?

“I had no teacher as such or any formal training,” he said adding, “In Tibet, we have this concept of spontaneous ‘improvisation’ of any art — be it a song or a story. I too learnt it that way.”

He said he came to Nepal for two reasons. First to congratulate and celebrate the coming of peace in Nepal, and second to personally thank the government and the people of Nepal for their kind and generous treatment of the Tibetan people.

“It is good to serve the cause of the people undergoing suffering who have lost their homeland. Tibetan people have also suffered in the same way,” said Khechog when asked regarding the cause for which the programme was organised on February 9.