A group of Tibetan lamas from Drepung Loseling Monastery are creating a mandala, a work of sacred art, in the Crimson and Gold Ballroom, Overman Student Center, Pittsburg State University.
“This is the Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour, which was founded in 1989 in Atlanta, Ga.,” said Tenzin Phentsok, who serves as translator and spokesman for the group.
An opening ceremony with Tibetan music was held at noon Monday, then the lamas set to work drawing out the diagram for the mandala. The various sections will be filled in with brightly colored sands. “This will be a special mandala of wisdom for the students,” Phentsok said.
Viewing hours will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Wednesday, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. A public lecture on “The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala” will be given at 7 p.m. today in the Governor’s Room, Overman Student Center.
The tour started last February, according to Phentsok.
“Within this year, we have visited about 25 states in the United States,” he said. “I think we have visited 30 or 35 venues.”
Phentsok said the lamas frequently visit universities, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, museums, cultural centers, galleries and churches.
“We have three main objectives in bringing this tour to North America,” he said. “First, we want to share Tibetan culture and traditions, and make a contribution to world peace and harmony with our traditions. Our sand painting is a main activity, and we also do concerts of sacred music and a sacred dance for world healing.”
The second objective, Phentsok said, is to raise awareness of the fact that Tibetan identity and culture is highly endangered in its own homeland. The small nation was invaded by China in 1959, and has lived under communist rule since that time.
The Dalai Lama, spiritual ruler of Tibet, and others fled after the invasion and formed a Tibetan community in exile in southern India. The community continues to grow as others escape from Tibet.
“Seven of us here were born in Tibet and fled during the 1990s,” Phentsok said. “We came through the mountains without sufficient food or clothing for a month, or two months, through lots of dangers, to get to India. We did it for spiritual freedom. We have no spiritual or religious freedom in Tibet.”
There is no admission charge for viewing the mandala, but books by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan art objects are available for purchase, and donations will be accepted.
“All proceeds from the tour will go to our refugee monastery in southern India, for their necessities of food, health care and education,” Phentsok said. “That is the third objective of the tour.”
The PSU visit will end with a closing ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday, when the sand mandala, painstakingly built grain by grain, will be destroyed.
“This shows the impermanence of life,” said Ananda Jayawardhana, PSU associate mathematics professor. Like the lamas, he is a Buddhist, though he said the religion has taken a different form in Tibet than in his homeland.
“Oceans become continents, and continents become oceans,” Jayawardhana said. “Everything is change.”
