February
13 ,
2004
Tibetan
Monks to Construct Sand Mandala in Blanchard
|
|
Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling
Monastery will construct a sand mandala in the rotunda of Blanchard
Campus Center February 17–20. The opening ceremony, accompanied
by formal prayers and chanting for consecration and blessing,
is scheduled for 11 am on February 17.
The event will conclude on Friday, February 20, at 8 pm with chanting followed
by a lecture on the current situation in Tibet and the basics of Buddhist ideas
in Blanchard’s Great Room. A question-and-answer period will follow. All
events are free, and the public is welcome.
Sand mandalas, commonly used by Hindu and Buddhist monks as an aid to meditation,
are intricate designs painstakingly constructed from colored grains of sand,
work that requires the greatest skill and concentration. The completed mandala
(“circle” in Sanskrit) is a symbolic diagram used in the performance
of sacred rites and as an instrument of meditation. To symbolize impermanence,
a central teaching of Buddhism, the entire work is swept away after its completion.
Monks will be engaged in creating the mandala from
11:30 am to 5 pm on February 17; from 10 am to 5 pm on February 18 and 19; and
from 10 am to 3 pm on February 20. The closing ceremony, during which the mandala
will be dismantled, takes place at 3 pm
February 20.
The Mount Holyoke visit, sponsored by Students for a Free Tibet, is part of a
religious tour to the United States and Canada by monks from the Tshulkhang section
of the Drepung Loseling Monastery, based in Mungod Tibetan Settlement, South
India. The tour, aimed at spreading the message of love, compassion, and wisdom,
and generating funds for the monks, will be conducted through August 2004 under
the guidance of Geshe Gangkar Rinpoche, the head lama of the Dzindu Monastery
in Tibet.he
un
he
counter is
923
|
