This album was recorded in Nepal at Tibetan Buddhist monasteries of the Gelugpa and Nyingmapa sects. Most of the cuts are Gelugpa, including part of the Chäd – a cleansing ritual. Other sections include the assembly call (with conch horns), prayer wheel, prostration rites, and more. A second group of tracks includes a ritual to Vajrayogini – a major female deity in Tibetan Buddhist practice. Various ritual instruments (thigh-bone trumpets, hand drums, cymbals, oboes, etc.) are heard.
The Tibetan Freedom Concert was the largest rock charity event of 1997, a two-day event held in June that featured many of the biggest names in rock and rap. Appropriately, it was filmed and recorded with the intention of being released later in the year as a charity record. The triple-disc set, The Tibetan Freedom Concert, is the extraordinary document of that weekend, containing one performance apiece from the 36 artists who appeared at the concert.