First Chinese Sanskrit Pop Singer

Sa Dingding, who won the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the Asia Pacific category in 2008, is being promoted as the first Chinese Sanskrit Pop Singer by China's official media. She is being promoted by the provincial government of Tibet and if she garners enough attention she might sing at the inauguration of the May 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which is expected to draw the top business firms.

Sa Dingding’s profile in China Tibet Online

She is the first pop singer who sings in Sanskrit. She is also famous for her ethnic clothes and Tibetan Buddhist style of music.

Although she is famous for her ethnic characteristics clothing and Tibetan Buddhist music, she is not a Tibetan girl. Her parents' ancestral home is Shandong province and her grandmother's ancestral home is Inner Mongolia.

Only people who can endure loneliness can be successful. As a musician, she dropped fame and learned Sanskrit by herself. She visited all the Chinese cultural sites to find inspiration and to derive affluent nutrition for her music. Her musical inspirations all come from Chinese civilization and culture.

Times of India reports

Apparently, the local government is pushing her to give up song writing and singing in languages other than Sanskrit so she can be presented to the world as a symbol of China's rich cultural heritage.

"It is possible China may be trying to show that Sanskrit is part of its cultural heritage. What better way to draw world attention than to get a lovely voice to sing pop?," a Shanghai based expert on Chinese culture told TNN.