David Bowie, Buddhism and Tibet

I used to be a Tibetan Buddhist, you know? (David Bowie 1997)

I have always followed some of the tenets of Buddhism, especially the one about change. What came from my Buddhist bumblings is that change is our river. I keep coming back to that, and it means an awful lot to me. (David Bowie)

David Bowie, Tibet House, 26 February 2001.

Contents

Impermanence
Chronology
References

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Impermanence

From the age of 13 and through to his early twenties young boy from Bromley, England, Davey Jones - later to be known as David Bowie (1947 - 2016) - was intrigued by Tibetan Buddhism. So intrigued, in fact, that he was very close to committing to being a monk. Whilst he did not go that far, he remained close to Tibet and Buddhism throughout his life, expressing his commitment in song and action. This is a little known part of the late David Bowie "Rock God" most people are aware of. His proclamation on the Rosie O'Donnell television show during the 1997 that I used to be a Tibetan Buddhist, you know? was met with surprise by the presenter, who was at the time noted as a friend. One of the reasons for this is that, arising out of his Buddhist studies, he came to terms with the idea of Impermanence, and practiced this throughout his private and public life, earning the moniker of chameleon as a result. As a performer, singer, song writer, mime, and actor he presented many different faces to the public - the androgynous, rocker of Ziggy Stardust; the ethereal folk singer of Space Oddity; the mature lounge-lizard soul singer of Fame; the alien of The Man Who Fell to Earth; and the techno-wiz Thin White Duke of Heroes. The thought of David Bowie as a Buddhist monk secreted away in a cave meditating does not easily fit with our picture of him as presented in most biographical accounts, or in the mind of the public at large. The following articles leaves much of that aside as it focuses on his lifelong encounter with Tibetan Buddhism as manifest in words, song and actions.

Free Tibet!, David Bowie, 1997

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2. Chronology

1947

* David Robert Jones in born and grows up in Bromley, near London.

1960

* (Age 13) David's older half-brother Terry Burns introduces him to Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies.

1965

* (Age 17) Bowie develops a specific interest in Tibetan Buddhism and reads Heinrich Harrer's 1952 memoir Seven Years in Tibet. He visits Tibet House, North London Buddhist Centre, and begins working with Chime Yong Dong Rinpoche as his teacher, the latter having arrived in London from Tibet in 1965. During 2001 Bowie noted (Ormerod 2026):

I stumbled into the Buddhist Society in London when I was about seventeen. Sitting in front of me at the desk was a Tibetan lama, and he looked up and he said, ‘Are you looking for me?’ He had a bad grasp of English and, in fact, was saying, ‘Who are you looking for?’ But I needed him to say, ‘You’re looking for me.’ He had just come over from Tibet and had led his own followers over. A majority of them, sadly, were shot by the Chinese as they made their way from Tibet down into India.He started off with I think, something like 2,000 followers, and ended up with 50 or 60, because the helicopters would come out there and shoot them ..... But he fortunately came through and really tried to guide me into some kind of informed opinion about Buddhism. It’s absolutely true! So he became my friend and teacher for quite some time. His name is Chime Yong Dong Rinpoche and he now is head of [he was Curator of Ancient Tibetan Manuscripts] at the British Museum in London. This was ’65, ’66. That’s when I met him. Around that time, I wrote this next song… ‘Silly Boy Blue’.

Lama Rinpoche, during 2016, noted the initial encounter with Bowie as follows:

I said, ‘Come in, young man. Why did you come to see me?’ He said, ‘I want to become a monk.’ I asked him, ‘What is your talent?’ And he said music. I said, so then don’t become monk; you do the music. And from that day, that is what he did.

1966

* 14 January - The David Jones name is dropped and he becomes known as David Bowie, coinciding with the release of his single Can't Help Thinking About Me.

* In the UK music magazine Melody Maker Bowie refers to his interest in Tibet:

I want to go to Tibet. It’s a fascinating place, y’know. I’d like to take a holiday and have a look inside the monasteries. The Tibetan monks, Lamas, bury themselves inside mountains for weeks and only eat every three days. They’re ridiculous – and it’s said they live for centuries.

1967

* December - The song Silly Boy Blue from Bowie's first LP references Buddhism. In 2000 he re-recorded it for the Toy album.

Silly Boy Blue, David Bowie, 16 July 2018. YouTube, duration: 3.51 minutes.

* The 1967 song Karma Man references the plight of Tibet.

1968

* 19 May - Middle Earth Club, Covent Garden, London: David performs ‘Jetsun And The Eagle’, a twenty-minute mime set to the soundtrack ‘Silly Boy Blue’. The performance was part of a charity event for Gandalfs Garden Benefit. Advertised as ‘David Bowie In Mime’, he was one of 15 other artists playing at the event which started at 3:30pm until 11:00pm. ("You try so hard to fly" n.d.)

* June - Bowie appears at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and performs the Lindsay Kemp style mime piece and Tibet-themed Yet-San the the Eagle, with a backing track of a wordless Silly Boy Blue. It was narrated by his friend and producer Tony Visconti and told the story of the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

Nicholas Pegg, The Complete David Bowie: New Edition:

David’s brief spots at the Covent Garden and Festival Hall gigs consisted of a mime piece he had devised in the aftermath of Pierrot In Turquoise. Entitled ‘Jetsun And The Eagle’, it was performed against a specially prepared backing tape which incorporated ‘Silly Boy Blue’ alongside some new music he had created with Tony Visconti: “David and I prepared a soundtrack containing what we thought might pass for Tibetan music, played on a Moroccan guitar-like instrument I’d bought in Portobello Road,” Visconti explains in his autobiography. “We added improvised sound effects with saucepans (they were the ceremonial cymbals) and I read a narration written by David. For some reason he decided my American accent made it sound more like a documentary.

Simon Reynolds, Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century:

One of Bowie’s Kemp-influenced mime pieces, ‘Jetsun and the Eagle’ – which he performed a number of times in 1968-9, including during concert dates supporting Tyrannosaurus Rex – took its name from the eleventh-century Tibetan yogi Jetsun Milarepa, whose writings were canonical in the Mahayana strand of Buddhism to which Bowie adhered. The piece was based on the legend that Milarepa was originally an adept of black magic, which he used to avenge himself upon wicked relatives. But he then abandoned the dark arts for a higher path, achieving enlightenment and mastery over himself, as well as supernatural powers, like the ability to change the shape of his body and fly like a bird. Buddhist notions fed into certain early Bowie songs like ‘Karma Man’ and the debut album’s ‘Silly Boy Blue’. The latter, which also served as the backing track to performances of ‘Jetsun and the Eagle’, is a panorama across the wondrous strangeness of Tibet and refers to ‘yak- butter statues’, as well as concepts like reincarnation, the Over-Soul and chela, a word that means ‘disciple’ and usually pairs with ‘guru’.

1997

* 18 August - Bowie releases the song 7 Years in Tibet as as single and on the LP Earthling. A Mandarin version was also released. He appears on the Rosie O'Donnell TV show and performs it, plus references his association with Tibetan Buddhism.

Bowie on Rosie 1997 "7 Years in Tibet", Brian Sherman, YouTube, duration: 10.31 minutes.

2001

* Tibet House performance, 26 February 2001.

2016

* 10 January - David Bowie passes away in New York city after an 18 month battle with cancer.

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References

Bowie on Rosie 1997 "7 Years in Tibet", Brian Sherman, YouTube, duration: 10.31 minutes.

Charles, Ryan, David Bowie studied Buddhism: His Tibetan Buddhist teacher responds to his death, Wakan Films, 12 January 2016.

From Rock Star to Monk? David Bowie's Buddhist Journey, The best philosophy of life, 9 October 2024, YouTube, duration: 49.37 minutes. [AI generated]