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May 10: The world-famous Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir performs its unique style of multi-tonal chanting at the IMA. Indianapolis is offered another opportunity to explore Tibetan culture and spirituality … and perhaps discover ways to promote justice in this world.

When: Thursday May 10, 7:00 PM

Where: Pulliam Great Hall, Indianapolis Museum of Art 4000 Michigan Rd. Indianapolis 46208-3326

Free, to reserve a seat email education@ima.museum

In the 1980s Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart helped bring attention to the otherworldly chant-singing of the monks from the Gyuto Tantric University. The Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir has been very popular around the US and Europe ever since. Low and gutteral chants, each monk singing two or three tones simultaneously … it’s perhaps a little similar to Tuvan throat singing, but really is unlike anything you are likely to have heard lately. Very beautiful, listen to a sample here.

As if hearing the polyphonic chants of the Gyuto Monks weren’t enough, we have a chance to witness another aspect of Tibetan culture when the monks construct and deconstruct a kilkhor or sand mandala, an extraordinarily detailed and vivid work of art painstakingly constructed of colored sand … then carefully dismantled and consigned to water. This is

Friend-of-Provocate KP Singh (who provides the pictures of the monks making the mandala) describes this process from a mandala recently created at IUPUI by monks from the Drepung Gomang Manstery in southern India.

The Closing Ceremony at the University College at IUPUI Campus was an elaborate affair of sacred chants and traditional ceremonial rituals, explanations, and interfaith prayers under the “spiritual presence” of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. His portrait, placed on a raised platform with special decorations and traditional elements of worship across from the Sand Mandala, seem to bless the ceremony and multi-faith audience of students, faculty, and faith leaders. At the end, the beautiful Mandala, created so painstakingly over seven days, was reverentially dismantled and the “ashes” collected in a sacred urn. Small packets of the sanctified sand were offered to the gathering as a blessing. The Monks, accompanied by the people, then carried the urn in a procession to the White River and the entire remaining Mandala Sand was ceremoniously surrendered to the water after final prayers and playing of trumpets as a part of the immersion ceremony. The Closing Ceremony symbolized the impermanent nature of life, all creation, and our temporal experiences.

We are fortunate to have another chance to witness this important act of teaching and meditation. You can watch the construction of the mandala at IMA May 7th 2:00-5:00 PM; May 8th 9:00 AM to noon, and 1:30-5:00 PM; May 9th 9:00 AM to noon, and 1:30-5:00 PM. The mandala will be ceremonially dismantled May 9th at 5:30.

If this event sounds interesting … Be sure to see the Dalai Lama when he comes to Indiana October 23-28.

Know before you go … You can read about the 500 year old Gyuto Monastery here. More detailed histories are available, but unless you are serious about long lists of names of Tibetan monks, it will read like bad Tolkein.

• More important to know before you go is something about Tibet itself, since 1959 part of China. Joshua Kurtantzick’s recent article “The End of Tibet” makes it clear that the Tibetan people and culture are facing painful extinction.

• Exiled in India, he is Tibet’s most successful international spokesperson. The Dalai Lama receives pilgrims from all over the world — but the future of Tibet remains bleak. And Beijing is calculating that international interest in Tibet will dwindle once he dies.

• How to strip-mine Shangri-La: The Chinese are ecstatic over newly discovered mineral deposits. But they are in Tibet, where the ecology is fragile and human rights even more so.

• Here’s a tale of a journey on China’s controversial new train to Tibet.

For more information about Tibet after the event … You can get copies of CDs by the Gyuto monks. Follow late-breaking news from Tibet. A couple of good books about Tibet: The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama and Tsering Shakya The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. For Tibetan literature and poetry, visit www.thetibetanmind.org.

Local experts and organizations. Indiana is blassed with several important Tibetan organizations. Bloomington is home to the Tibetan Cultural Center. Indiana is also home to the International Tibet Independence Movement, co-founded by Ball State prof Larry Gerstein.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 10:37 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.