See photo gallery of monks’ visit here
A peaceful week emerged in Bucks when the Tibetan Monks arrived on campus from Oct. 21-24. The Tibetan Buddhist Monks came out from the Drepung Gomang Monastery, based in India all the way to the Solarium Room located in the Newtown Campus to create a beautiful sand mandala sculpture for the community to see.
This four-day Sand Mandala and Craft Show event brought students, faculty, and members of the Bucks community together to watch the intricate work and detail that it takes to create this sacred Tibetan Buddhist practice.
Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning “world in harmony”. These Sand Mandalas are carefully made by adding one grain of sand or marble stone at a time using small tubes, funnels, and a scraper tool called chak-pur. Sand Mandalas are unique to Tibetan Buddhist customs, and when finished are released into a natural body of water so that all its healing properties and compassion may flow throughout the world.
This Tibetan Monk event was a way for them to represent their monastery through forms of expression such as art, and prayer. It takes many years of practice and study to be able to create this Tibetan art form. This group in particular has been out of Tibet for over 50 years, and now spend their time going around the country in hopes of spreading their Tibetan culture to others in order to support the 2000 monks still practicing back home in Tibet. Many of these monks escaped Tibet and consider India their adopted home.
The people of Tibet were exiled under the brutal Chinese oppression and in 1959 the Dalai Lama and over 80,000 Tibetans were forced to escape to India. In search of a better life, better education, and more possibilities, the Tibetans knew their only chance of survival was to leave home. Tibet became a place where they could not study freely nor practice their religion. Through it all, with the help of his holiness – the man of peace, the Dalai Lama and other members of the monastery, they travel around the world to continue to preserve the Tibetan Buddhist teachings.
These sand mandalas are a representation of world peace, compassion, love, and religious harmony. The Tibiten Monks consider harmony the root of happiness and want to spread the message to all outside of the Buddhist religion. The bright colors are not only used to represent the different earth elements; earth, wind and fire, but also to represent all the different people around the world. Within the sand made art piece are the symbols to represent all the other religions; Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and much more; a total of 14 different religious representations.
The Tibetan Monks wore the traditional yellow and deep red robes also known as Kāṣāya when creating the mandala. In India, yellow became the color of renunciation. Monks wear yellow so they can act as a constant reminder of the importance of not clinging, of letting go, of giving up according to Buddhanet.net. They have the world in mind as they add each grain at a time, contemplating on world peace, wellness, and long life for all human beings.
On the last day, once the visual prayer, also referred to at the world peace mandala, was completed, the monks offered a powerful closing ceremony where they motion pray and offer a dedication to all; but specifically to those who helped bring this tradition to the public.
The Monks were very thankful to the Bucks community for giving them a space to spread knowledge and represent their life work by giving special shout outs and garments to various members of the community such as Jeane Dolan, a representative on the Cultural Board, and Peter Chiovarou, the director of Community Programing and College Events.
When asked how he felt about receiving such an honorable display of respect, Peter replied “I don’t like the spotlight but it was nice to bring something to the community that’s rare, that these students have never seen or experienced. This artwork is phenomenal, the tedious craftsmanship is worth to see”
After the closing ceremony, there was a parade from the Solarium in the Rollins Center to Neshaminy Creek. The ceremony included the symbolic dismantling of the mandala, followed by a procession to the creek, where the sand was released into the water symbolizing the impermanence of all.
The Tibetan monks have been coming to Bucks since 2002, making several appearances throughout the years. They envision a peaceful community transformed through Tibetan philosophy, and practice of engaged compassion. Their calm presence was felt throughout campus and their views on passion, love, and tolerance was understood as the crowds of people gathered to learn more.