Tibetan monks bring ancient culture to Milledgeville
Just as the brightly dyed sand from half a world away mixed with the muddy clay of the Oconee, a culture that predates our own by centuries mixed seamlessly with the old South as Milledgeville hosted “The Mystical Arts of Tibet,” a four-day residency by monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Karnataka, India.
The sand was from a mandala, or sand painting, which was just one of the events hosted by GCSU Arts Unlimited and Allied Arts throughout the residency, which included several lectures, art exhibits, and a performance.
Equal parts art exhibit, history lesson and awareness demonstration, the residency, which was part of the Town and Gown Series co-sponsored by GCSU and Allied Arts, seemed to have tremendous support from the campus and the community.
“We felt like this was a very unique experience both for the community and the college,” said Randy Cannon, executive director of Allied Arts said. “We have been very pleased with the turnout for the events; we’ve had tremendous participation from the university…so we felt like it was a real good investment in our community and just a wonderful opportunity to see something really unique to the area. I have been shocked at the response.”
The opening ceremony on Oct. 2 at Allen’s Market included ritual chanting and music, which involved multiphonic singing, a process in which each monk ,or Lama, produces three musical notes to form a complete chord. After the chanting, the monks began construction of the mandala, an intricate process that would take the monks 24 hours to complete over the course of their stay. Using 18 colors of dyed sand from a specific hill in India, the monks painstakingly placed sand with pinpoint precision using a tiny funnel-like device.
“(The) Mandala is actually an ancient form of spiritual art,” monk Thupten Tendhar said. “It originated from India about 2,500 years ago during the time of Buddha and then it gradually came to Tibet with Buddhism, which came to Tibet in the 7th century. A mandala is also a part of that spiritual practice as well as beautiful art.”
Mandalas are based on symmetry; they represent balance found in nature. They are dismantled once completed, Tendhar said, and offered to specific deities by being added to moving bodies of water. The positive energy they possess is then believed to travel to the ocean and distributed throughout the world.
From an artistic perspective, the mandala is nothing short of spectacular. Valerie Aranda, an art professor at GCSU, required all of her students to attend the event in hopes that that they would be inspired to “take the perspective of other cultures.”
“I think (the mandala) is beautiful,” Aranda said. “How (the monks) bring everyone together to share this process is incredible.”
Students seemed to agree that the mandala, which would be extraordinary in any medium, was even more impressive because of its sand construction.
“I thought it was gorgeous,” said Jennifer Lowe, a sophomore who’s undecided about her major. “I didn’t expect it to be so colorful and so intricate.”
For the monks who create it, the utility of the mandala extends beyond he artistic to the spiritual. The composition of the mandala is not simply aesthetically appealing shapes and colors, but rather a specific design that has specific ritualistic interpretation.
Appropriately, considering its academic context, the mandala constructed last week represented wisdom. Other designs, including those for love and compassion, longevity, conflict resolution, death, healing and enlightened activities are memorized as part of training in the monastery.
On the evening of Oct. 2, Geshe Chodak gave a lecture entitled “Symbolism of the Mandala”, in which he explained the mandala in greater detail
“The mandala actually is a transformation into an enlightened body, enlightened speech and enlightened mind, and to get this transformation, we are trying to accumulate lots of virtues and merit. And also by constructing the sand painting… we believe that it will help us accumulate those virtues and merits, which we believe are necessary for achieving the state of enlightenment,” Chodak said.
Chodak gave another lecture on Oct. 4 entitled “Tibet Today: The Story of a Diaspora,” in which he described the impact of China’s seizure of power in Tibet, including his own escape to India.
Tibet was an independent nation with its own language, currency, government and foreign relations prior to the 1949 invasion by the People’s Republic of China. The PRC then reorganized the provinces within Tibet, absorbing a portion into Chinese provinces and naming the remaining portion the Tibet Autonomous Region while maintaining Chinese authority.
Tibetans claim that the Chinese sought to abolish their religion and culture and absorb what had been Tibet into China. In the decade that followed, many Tibetans, including the 14th Dalai Lama, fled to India to escape persecution and genocide. The Dalai Lama continues to be the political and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people from exile in Dharamsala, India, where a democratic government has been established. In 1988, the United States passed a resolution that condemns the abuses occurring in Tibet. The following year, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Chodak said that the Tibetan people would not mind living under Chinese rule if they were free to maintain their identity.
“We keep saying that if we are supposed to live under China, we want to live with the freedom to practice our own culture and identity.” Chodak said. “It’s not just spiritual (beliefs) that China wants to uproot from Tibet, it’s also the culture and identity.”
According to Dr. William Risch, associate professor of history, the conflict between Tibet and China dates as far back as the Ming Dynasty when Tibet was a Chinese territory.
“In many ways the Chinese, after World War II, …are trying to reassert that which had been Chinese,” Risch said. “The thing is that Chinese Communism had always been national in essence, not just about liberating the working class but about liberating the Chinese nation from foreign influence…in many ways that’s what they are trying to do, that’s how they see their actions with Tibet. They are bringing Tibet under Chinese native control and keeping out potential foreign influences. It is also true that they have been trying to centralize power, more or less deprive the Tibetans of their cultural rights and so on, (with) no real talk of autonomy whatsoever. For Tibet now its maybe perhaps exploiting it more for this quasi-capitalist, quasi-socialist economy that that China has, but I think the goal still remains the same. They just want to bring Tibet into their modern, industrialized semi- capitalist society. The goals in fact remain the same in many ways- cultural matters aren’t as important; they don’t want anything that would challenge the authority of the central government.”
The closing ceremony for the mandala was held on Oct. 5 at Allen’s market. The monks were dressed in ritualistic attire as th
ey played music to offer their mandala, which they had finished only moments before, to the appropriate deity. After walking around the mandala three times (once each for body, speech and mind) Chodak quickly drew a line in the mandala in each of the cardinal directions, beginning with the East, with a ceremonial tool.
A gasp went up from the audience as more lines were carved into the brightly colored sand.
The lines, ten in total, were all drawn from the
outside toward the center to bring positive energy to the deity who is represented in
the center circle. With the lines complete, Chodak took a pinch of sand from the center circle and placed it on his head, signifying his unity with the deity.
Chodak then drew even louder gasps from the crowd when he brushed a wide swath through the mandala.
According to Buddhist philosophy, everything in life is ephemeral, including the mandala.
“It would be hard to dismantle something you worked on for so long,” said Chris Stiles, a sophomore who is undecided about his major.
That portion of the ceremony complete, the monks brushed small amounts of sand into plastic bags and then distributed them to the audience as a blessing.
The monks then began a caravan to the Oconee River where, after music and chanting for the deity and the water spirits, the remainder of the sand was poured into the river. From there, it would begin its journey down the Oconee and into the Altamaha, until it eventually spills into the Atlantic Ocean as the monks intended.
That evening, in the final component of the series, the monks presented “Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World healing, ” a collection of five songs and dances used in ancient temple rituals that are believed to bring about world peace and harmony. In each performance, the monks were dressed in elaborate, brightly colored costumes that seemed to captivate the audience.
Part one included dances to invoke goodness, purify the environment and eliminate negative energy. Also performed was a demonstration of a philosophical debate as they occur in the monastery and a snow lion dance, which is said to symbolize the enlightened mind.
Part two consisted of performances to demonstrate the temporary nature of all things, release the mind from the control of the ego and bring blessings and creative energy. The final performance, called Sangso Shijo, is said to promote peace, harmony and creative living.
The monks are doubtlessly accomplishing their goals for the “Mystical Arts of Tibet’ tour: To share Tibetan culture with the rest of the world, to raise awareness about the plight of Tibet, and to raise money to support Tibetan refugees. With sincere smiles and calm demeanors, they managed to turn spectators into supporters and audience members into friends. Perhaps Tendhar said it best in his closing remarks:
“We strive to see you happy, smiling and loving, everyday, everywhere and forever.”
After the performance, the monks were available for questions, pictures and even hugs from an enthusiastic and visibly moved audience.
“It was just amazing. All of the stuff that they’ve been doing this week has been really cool but it was just really neat to get to see everything that they do and all the costumes and all the dances and stuff ,” Kayla Peavy, a sophomore art major said. “I cant stop smiling – I’m just all happy and glowing – I got hugged by a monk. It was awesome. It was so cool… it was the best hug ever.”
After spending considerable time interacting with GCSU students, the monks, who are continually searching for knowledge themselves, have a few words of wisdom for young scholars.
“During the time of study, definitely sometimes we face difficulties, including not being able to understand what the teacher has taught,” Chodak said. “This shouldn’t discourage one’s motivation to study, but one should learn from that experience and should keep on studying so that one’s wisdom becomes very enriched and helpful for many others.” Tendahr agrees that using knowledge to help others is the most important facet of wisdom.
“I would say that love and compassion are very important things, both for oneself and for others, both in short and longer runs,” Tendahr said. “Education sometimes, as we are growing in this world, it is a very important part of our lives; it becomes our moral responsibility to become very productive as opposed to someone who harms others, and so on. So with this I would say that when you do study and you do practice, and then afterwards, when you go to the society, please go as a good human to bring prosperity to the community, to the society, to the nation and to the whole world in a larger sense.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 13 2006. Filed under Features.
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