Kongar-ool Ondar, a Tuvan throat singer credited with popularizing the centuries-old musical tradition of his homeland to Western audiences, has died after emergency surgery to treat a brain hemorrhage, friends said. He was 51.

Ondar died Thursday at a hospital in Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, a Russian republic that borders Mongolia, said Sean Quirk, a longtime friend of the singer and manager of the Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash.

World star in Tuvan khoomei, ambassador of Tuvan culture Kongar-ool Ondar died in hospital Thuesday, 25^th of July. He was taken to hospital on the eve with a very high blood pressure. ‘He never paid attention to his health, never complained of headaches or heart pain he was often suffering from’, - sais Nachyn Shalyk, deputy director of the Center for the development of Tuvan traditional culture which was initiated and constructed by Kongar-ool Ondar. ‘It is a tremendous loss for all Tuva, - Tuvan head Sholban Kara-ool said in a special message to people.- We would feel it more and more with every passing day’