Sa Dingding (simplified Chinese: è�¨é¡¶é¡¶; traditional Chinese: è–©é ‚é ‚; pinyin: Sà DÇ�ngdÇ�ng)(born Zhou Peng (周é¹�) ; December 27, 1983) is a Chinese folk singer and songwriter. She is of mixed Han and Mongolian ancestry, and sings in languages including Mandarin, Sanskrit, Tibetan, as well an imaginary self-created language to evoke the emotions in her songs.[1] She also plays traditional instruments such as the guzheng and matouqin (horse-head fiddle).
Born to a family of wage-earning class in Inner Mongolia, China [2] inheriting Han Chinese ancestry from her father and Mongolian ancestry from her mother, Sa Dingding was influenced by the music of the ethnic minorities while living with her grandmother in Inner Mongolia until age 6.[2] She also became interested in Buddhism and taught herself Tibetan and Sanskrit. Later on, she moved to Beijing to study music at the PLA Academy of Arts.
At age 18, she released her first album entitled Dong Ba La under her birth name Zhou Peng, awarding her with the title of China’s Best Dance Music Singer.
In 2006, "Holy Incense" was used as the theme song for the movie Prince of the Himalayas, directed by Sherwood Hu.
In mid-2007, she released Alive, now available physically and as a download in many countries. The Hong Kong release of the album features a DVD containing music videos, a remix of "Alive", making of footage and a Chinese version of "Mama Tian Na", not featured on the album.
In 2008 she won the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for the Asia-Pacific region, earning herself the chance to perform at the Royal Albert Hall to a Western audience. In the same year, she also released a two track single called "Qin Shang".[3]
Dingding composed a song with Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest called "Won't Be Long" to raise funds for disaster relief after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The song was made available on Mouquet's Deep-Projects website. Mouquet and Dingding have collaborated on a forthcoming album Deep China.
Most recently, Dingding has appeared at Womad and the Harrogate Festival in the UK. On October 6, her official English website was updated with information about a European tour, going from November 7 to 17, making stops in Germany, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Las Palmas, Australia and New Zealand.
http://youtu.be/-5tOvDX3T-Y
Green Tara chant in the modern version by Sa Ding Ding
It's very joyful chant.
http://youtu.be/emVNDi4PLDs