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Tibetan monks share their culture at Musikfest with song, dance, art, meditation
The Tibetan Monks of Drepung
Loseling will perform 'The Mystical Arts of Tibet' and create a sands
mandala at Musikfest Aug. 3-6.
(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / July 27, 2012)
By Steve Siegel, Special to The Morning Call
Beneath Musikfest's
normally boisterous and frantic face lies an inner eye of tranquility.
As a unique tonic to the festival's restless hustle and bustle of pop,
rock and polka, a troupe of Tibetan monks from the centuries-old Drepung
Loseling Monastery will soothe the eyes and calm the soul in a series
of programs featuring sacred music, dance, meditation and mandala sand painting.
Yeshe Phelgey, a Tibetan who spent 20 years in southern India and is one of the monks in the group, sees nothing incongruous with the Musikfest performance. For example, consider the sand painting, one of Tantric Buddhism's most unique arts. In the Tibetan language, this art is called "dul-tson-kyil-khor," which means "mandala of colored powders." Millions of grains of multicolored sand are being painstakingly laid into place on a table in geometric shapes and in a multitude of ancient spiritual symbols by the monks. The mandala will be finished by Saturday, and ceremoniously destroyed on Monday.
"The sand painting is exactly like the music festival itself — all different colors and designs exist in a place for a few days, and after it's finished nothing remains," Phelgey says with haiku-like simplicity.
Phelgey speaks with more than just spiritual knowledge. The monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery, based in Mundgod, South India, with a North American seat in Atlanta, Ga., have seen their share of performance venues. Endorsed by the Dalai Lama as a means of promoting world peace and healing through the sacred performing arts, they've performed to an audience of more than 50,000 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and shared stages with the likes of Philip Glass, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, Patti Smith, the Beastie Boys and many others. They've appeared in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and the Ravinia Festival, as well as in hundreds of university auditoriums, civic halls, festivals and churches across the country.
The sand painting began Thursday at Handwerkplatz in the Colonial Industrial Quarter of downtown Bethlehem. The monks first draw an outline of the mandala (a Sanskrit word meaning "circle") on a wooden platform. Then they lay the colored sand, which is placed by pouring from traditional brass funnels called chak-pur. Each monk holds a chak-pur in one hand while running a metal rod on its grated surface; the vibration causes the sand to flow like liquid.
Tonight, the monks will take part in the festival's opening ceremonies at AmericaPlatz at Levitt Pavilion SeelStacks by invoking a blessing of the site with multiphonic chanting and a variety of musical instruments. These might include trumpets, gongs, cymbals and singing bowls. The biggest crowd-pleasers by far are the long trumpets called "dungchen," which can be up to 16 feet long with a sound compared to the singing of elephants.
The opening program also includes Tibetan polychanting, a commonly used spiritual practice involving throat singing, a technique where multiple pitches are produced by each performer by controlling muscles in the vocal cavity, intensifying the natural overtones of the voice. In fact, the Drepung Loseling monks have even taken polychanting to the big screen, having performed on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack of the motion picture "Seven Years in Tibet," starring Brad Pitt.
The Buddhist search for inner peace pervades almost every aspect of Tibetan life, and that includes Tibet's sacred dance, with its vivid depiction of such fundamental themes as the triumph of virtue and the supremacy of truth. On Saturday and Sunday at Volksplatz, Tibetan sacred music will be combined with sacred dances, performed in vividly colored costumes and fantastical headgear.
"One of the most important dances we'll be doing is the 'Black Hat Dance,' which is designed to get rid of negative energies," Phelgey says. The implements held by the dancers in this ancient dance symbolize the transcendence of false ego-identification on the outer (the environment), inner (the emotions), and the secret (the subtle body-mind link) levels. Their movements symbolize the joy and freedom of seeing reality in its nakedness.
Other dances include the "Yak Dance," where a dancer dressed in a yak costume performs an ecstatic dance symbolic of the Tibetan spirit of rugged strength and playfulness, and the "Dance of the Celestial Travelers," where five dancers symbolize the five elements and together with a group of musicians invoke the sounds and movements of mystical beings from another world.
On Monday, the mandala sand painting will be destroyed in its own sacred ceremony. "Mandalas are intended to be dismantled," Phelgey says. "This is done as a metaphor of the impermanence of life." The sand is then swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half will be distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder will be deposited in a nearby body of water, from where it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.
A photography exhibition, "Tibet: Magical Land of Spiritual Wonders," is on display at the ArtsQuest Center through the end of Musikfest on Aug. 12. The exhibit, on loan from the Tibet Image Bank in London, features 21 stunning 10-by-10-inch color images taken by some of the world's foremost photographic artists. Images include the Potala Palace (home of the Dalai Lama), the Yumbu Lagang (Tibet's first castle), the Jokhang (Tibet's first temple), Samye (Tibet's first monastery), as well as many other spiritually important and culturally significant subjects.
Throughout the week, the monks also will offer handmade items for sale at Handwerkplatz, including sacred figurines, prayer wheels, musical instruments and paintings.
Patrick Brogan, ArtsQuest vice-president of performing arts, sees the monk's Musikfest programs as just another example of the fest's cultural diversity.
"I just think they add a unique cultural exchange that we can share with our audience, especially with the many layers of their presentation, like the stage performances of their sacred dance and music, the creation of the sand mandala, even as vendors of items for sale," Brogan says. "It's all part of our mission in engaging in all cultural activities, from Red Elvises and Celtic rock bands to the calm and introspection of these monks."
Steve Siegel is a freelance writer.
10:49 p.m. EDT, August 2, 2012
Yeshe Phelgey, a Tibetan who spent 20 years in southern India and is one of the monks in the group, sees nothing incongruous with the Musikfest performance. For example, consider the sand painting, one of Tantric Buddhism's most unique arts. In the Tibetan language, this art is called "dul-tson-kyil-khor," which means "mandala of colored powders." Millions of grains of multicolored sand are being painstakingly laid into place on a table in geometric shapes and in a multitude of ancient spiritual symbols by the monks. The mandala will be finished by Saturday, and ceremoniously destroyed on Monday.
"The sand painting is exactly like the music festival itself — all different colors and designs exist in a place for a few days, and after it's finished nothing remains," Phelgey says with haiku-like simplicity.
Phelgey speaks with more than just spiritual knowledge. The monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery, based in Mundgod, South India, with a North American seat in Atlanta, Ga., have seen their share of performance venues. Endorsed by the Dalai Lama as a means of promoting world peace and healing through the sacred performing arts, they've performed to an audience of more than 50,000 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and shared stages with the likes of Philip Glass, Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, Patti Smith, the Beastie Boys and many others. They've appeared in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and the Ravinia Festival, as well as in hundreds of university auditoriums, civic halls, festivals and churches across the country.
The sand painting began Thursday at Handwerkplatz in the Colonial Industrial Quarter of downtown Bethlehem. The monks first draw an outline of the mandala (a Sanskrit word meaning "circle") on a wooden platform. Then they lay the colored sand, which is placed by pouring from traditional brass funnels called chak-pur. Each monk holds a chak-pur in one hand while running a metal rod on its grated surface; the vibration causes the sand to flow like liquid.
Tonight, the monks will take part in the festival's opening ceremonies at AmericaPlatz at Levitt Pavilion SeelStacks by invoking a blessing of the site with multiphonic chanting and a variety of musical instruments. These might include trumpets, gongs, cymbals and singing bowls. The biggest crowd-pleasers by far are the long trumpets called "dungchen," which can be up to 16 feet long with a sound compared to the singing of elephants.
The opening program also includes Tibetan polychanting, a commonly used spiritual practice involving throat singing, a technique where multiple pitches are produced by each performer by controlling muscles in the vocal cavity, intensifying the natural overtones of the voice. In fact, the Drepung Loseling monks have even taken polychanting to the big screen, having performed on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack of the motion picture "Seven Years in Tibet," starring Brad Pitt.
The Buddhist search for inner peace pervades almost every aspect of Tibetan life, and that includes Tibet's sacred dance, with its vivid depiction of such fundamental themes as the triumph of virtue and the supremacy of truth. On Saturday and Sunday at Volksplatz, Tibetan sacred music will be combined with sacred dances, performed in vividly colored costumes and fantastical headgear.
"One of the most important dances we'll be doing is the 'Black Hat Dance,' which is designed to get rid of negative energies," Phelgey says. The implements held by the dancers in this ancient dance symbolize the transcendence of false ego-identification on the outer (the environment), inner (the emotions), and the secret (the subtle body-mind link) levels. Their movements symbolize the joy and freedom of seeing reality in its nakedness.
Other dances include the "Yak Dance," where a dancer dressed in a yak costume performs an ecstatic dance symbolic of the Tibetan spirit of rugged strength and playfulness, and the "Dance of the Celestial Travelers," where five dancers symbolize the five elements and together with a group of musicians invoke the sounds and movements of mystical beings from another world.
On Monday, the mandala sand painting will be destroyed in its own sacred ceremony. "Mandalas are intended to be dismantled," Phelgey says. "This is done as a metaphor of the impermanence of life." The sand is then swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half will be distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder will be deposited in a nearby body of water, from where it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.
A photography exhibition, "Tibet: Magical Land of Spiritual Wonders," is on display at the ArtsQuest Center through the end of Musikfest on Aug. 12. The exhibit, on loan from the Tibet Image Bank in London, features 21 stunning 10-by-10-inch color images taken by some of the world's foremost photographic artists. Images include the Potala Palace (home of the Dalai Lama), the Yumbu Lagang (Tibet's first castle), the Jokhang (Tibet's first temple), Samye (Tibet's first monastery), as well as many other spiritually important and culturally significant subjects.
Throughout the week, the monks also will offer handmade items for sale at Handwerkplatz, including sacred figurines, prayer wheels, musical instruments and paintings.
Patrick Brogan, ArtsQuest vice-president of performing arts, sees the monk's Musikfest programs as just another example of the fest's cultural diversity.
"I just think they add a unique cultural exchange that we can share with our audience, especially with the many layers of their presentation, like the stage performances of their sacred dance and music, the creation of the sand mandala, even as vendors of items for sale," Brogan says. "It's all part of our mission in engaging in all cultural activities, from Red Elvises and Celtic rock bands to the calm and introspection of these monks."
Steve Siegel is a freelance writer.
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