Anthar Kharana is a Colombian ceremonial musician, teacher and retreat leader whose life has been shaped by music, ancestral traditions, ceremony and relationship with the natural world. Turning 49 this year, his path reflects more than three decades of learning, practice, community and service.
Anthar was born in Ocaña, northern Colombia, a region connected to the history of the Hacaritama people. Music was present from childhood through a family lineage of musicians, while his ceremonial path began at the age of 14 through relationships with Elders and traditional healing practices in Colombia.
Over the years, his learning has been shaped through close relationship with Elders and traditions including the Muisca and the Murui-Muina people of the south of Colombia. These relationships have brought not only teachings, but also responsibilities and permissions to carry particular prayers, practices and medicines with respect for their origins.
Anthar is part of the Red Road and is a Sun Dancer. Through a Sun Dance held in Colombia, Colombian Elders came together with the lineage of the Lakota Chief Leonard Crow Dog, where he received the blessings of the Chanupa and Inipi, together with the responsibility to carry and share these practices within the guidance that was given.
For Anthar, these are not titles to collect, but relationships, commitments and responsibilities that continue to shape the way he walks, teaches and holds ceremonial space.
His path has also been shaped by the meeting of traditions from the North and South of the Americas, as part of the alliance of the Eagle and CondorNations.
A self-taught musician since childhood, Anthar gradually brought together sound, rhythm, ancestral instruments, and ceremony as interconnected parts of his work. In 2007 he also qualified as a Sound Therapy Practitioner through the British Academy of Sound Therapy.
After first travelling to the UK in 2003, he founded Tribal Sound Healing and later co-founded ANSU School of Sound in Scotland, where he taught for many years.
He has since facilitated more than 40 retreats in the UK, alongside ceremonies, workshops and longer programmes of experiential study.
Today his educational work continues through Ancestral Pathways School in England and KHARANA Sound Healing Academy in Colombia.
This path has never been walked alone. It has grown through Elders, teachers, musicians, friends, communities and people from many cultures who have shared ceremony, learning, friendship and life along the way.
In Colombia, Anthar is also the founder of Escuela Ancestral, an initiative supporting the preservation and continuity of ancestral traditions and the people who carry them.
Alongside his international work, he has held many retreats, gatherings and ceremonial processes in different territories of Colombia with local participants and communities.
During the retreat, participants may also meet some of Anthar's closest friends, Elders and members of the wider community who have accompanied this path over many years. Their presence brings something that cannot simply be taught through words, but is experienced through relationship, ceremony, stories, music, laughter and shared time.
Since 2012, Anthar has guided the Tribal Sound Healing Retreat in Colombia, welcoming people from the UK and other parts of the world into a journey rooted in the land, its people and its ancestral traditions.
Over 15 years, the retreat has continued to evolve while remaining grounded in relationship, respect and care for the places and people that receive the group.
At the heart of all of this work is the same intention: to create meaningful spaces where people can reconnect with themselves, with one another, with nature and with ancestral wisdom.