Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boys member who went by the stage name MCA, had long practiced Tibetan Buddhism before his death, which was announced Friday in several news reports.

The cause of his death is unclear, but Yauch, who died at age 47, had been battling a cancerous tumor in his salivary gland in since mid- 2009 and was vocal about the role spirituality had played in his recovery efforts. Yauch, who was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, had practiced Buddhism since 1994.