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Buddhist Monks Create Sand Mandala to Help
Heal Those Affected by September 11
Atlanta – Millions of grains of sand, hundreds of hours,
10 monks and one mission: To make an offering in memory of the
victims of September 11 and in honor of their families, the rescue
workers, and the many who endured with strength and courage.
In Atlanta, Tibetan monks from
Drepung Loseling Monastery are creating “A Mandala Sand Painting of
the Female Buddha Healing Tara for the Healing of America” at
Oglethorpe University Museum of Art. This is the third in a series
of mandalas to honor the victims of September 11 and their families.
The first two were hosted in New York and Washington, D.C. at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the
Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery, respectively.
This offering by the monks will be
completed on December 21, but will remain on display until February
15 in conjunction with “The Female Buddha: Women of Enlightenment in
Tibetan Mysticism” exhibition which features 72 masterpiece
watercolors, or tangkas, and a eight pieces in wood and bronze.
Admission to the museum and to view the mandala is free.
To construct the mandala, millions
of grains of sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat
platform over a period of days or weeks.
“Visitors will be mesmerized by the
precision of the Tibetan monks’ visual creativity,” said Lloyd Nick,
director of Oglethorpe University Museum of Art. “It is a
transcendent moment for all that witness this ancient magic.”
The Drepung Loseling Monks will
create a Healing Tara, the female Buddha traditionally associated
with healing and protection. Tara is often called “Mother of All the
Buddhas,” for she symbolizes the enlightenment energy from which all
goodness in the world is born, and from which all enlightened beings
emerge.
The building of the sand mandala at
the Sackler Gallery in New York City drew over 45,000 people.
“This mandala will provide Georgians a unique opportunity to
travel to the roof of the world without leaving the state,” said
Glenn H. Mullin, curator and world-renowned scholar of Tibetan
culture and student of the Dalai Lama. “Similar events in New York
and Washington, D.C. drew record crowds.”
The mandala construction schedule until December 20 is:
Wednesday – Friday, 2 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday, 1 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
There will be chanting and meditation at the mandala site on:
Wednesday – Friday, 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday, 4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Lecture and Consecration Ceremony: Saturday, December 21
2:30 p.m. Lecture by Geshe Lobsang Tenzin
Negi - “Symbolism of the Mandala: A Roadmap for Inner
Transformation”
3:45 p.m. Mystical Chants for
Consecration and Empowerment
Dismantling Ceremony (members only)
Saturday, February 15 at 2:30 p.m.
Admission is free to the events listed above, as well as to the
Oglethorpe University Museum of Art.
In conjunction with the building of the sand mandala will be two
special presentations by the Drepung Loseling Monks:
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A Tantric Celebration of Music,
Mantra and Meditation for Healing
Ten monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery present an evening of
temple music and chants for healing, with mantra and meditations
in which the audience can participate. Playing 10-foot trumpets,
drums, bells and other traditional instruments, and chanting in
the famed multiphonic style in which a single singer
simultaneously intones the three notes of a chord, they create a
transcendental atmosphere in which the energies of the female
buddhas manifest as healing forces.
November 29, 7:30 p.m., Conant Performing Arts Center on the
campus of Oglethorpe University. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at
door. Advance tickets are available at the mandala site in
Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, or by phoning Tibetan
Traditions at 404-816-5510.
- A Winter Solstice Performance: Mystical Music
and Sacred Dances of the Female Buddhas
Wearing rich festival brocades and playing traditional temple
instruments, the Loseling monks give a winter solstice performance
of a selection of music and dances associated with the female
buddhas. Multiphonic chants and transporting monastic dances
associated with the female buddhas are presented here in America for
the first time.
December 21, 7:30 p.m., Conant Performing Arts Center on the
campus of Oglethorpe University. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at
door. Advance tickets are available at the mandala site in
Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, or by phoning Tibetan
Traditions at 404-816-5510.
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