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Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India are spending seven days creating an elaborate “Medicine Buddha” sand mandala in Bishop's Hall at Christ Church Cathedral in Louisville, Jan. 1-7. Medicine Buddha sand mandalas are created whenever a need for the healing of the environment and living beings is felt. The public is invited to view the creation of the mandala and to attend the closing ceremony Sunday, Jan. 7.
Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India are spending seven days creating an elaborate “Medicine Buddha” sand mandala in Bishop's Hall at Christ Church Cathedral in Louisville, Jan. 1-7. Medicine Buddha sand mandalas are created whenever a need for the healing of the environment and living beings is felt. The public is invited to view the creation of the mandala and to attend the closing ceremony Sunday, Jan. 7.
The monks visit is sponsored by Interfaith Paths to Peace, Christ Church Cathedral, St. William and St. Agnes Catholic Churches, and the Drepung Gomang Institute of Louisville. The opening ceremony for the creation of the sand mandala, which also was open to the public, was Monday, Jan. 1. This ceremony also served to honor Louisville’s first resident Tibetan monk, Geshe Sangye Gyatso, who on Jan. 1 entered his fifth calendar year of service to the Louisville community.
Visitors may view the mandala's creation anytime between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (EST) today through Saturday, Jan. 6. The closing ceremony will be held on Sunday, Jan. 7, beginning at 11:30 a.m.(EST).
The monks will take seven days to create the intricate patterns in the mandala, literally one grain of colored sand at a time. When the mandala is completed on Jan. 7, the design will be swept away, and its sand will be deposited in the Ohio River.
According to Terry Taylor, executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace, the chief coordinating organization for the event, “Our world is filled with war, conflict, starvation and genocide. It is greatly in need of healing. We believe that the beautiful act of making this healing mandala will help us focus on the need of each person in our community to reach across religious boundaries to work together for peace and justice.”
About Louisville’s first resident Tibetan monk
Geshe Sangye Gyatso, a, highly revered scholar and one of the original 62 monks that re-established Drepung Gomang Monastery in exile, arrived in Louisville in the summer of 2003. He holds regular teachings in the philosophy and spiritual practice of Tibetan Buddhism. He has begun work with members of DGI to initiate new educational and community outreach programs.
About sand mandalas
In the creation of a sand mandala, millions of grains of sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform over a period of a week. When finished, to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, the colored sands are swept up and poured into a nearby river or stream where the waters carry the healing energies throughout the world.
Formed of a traditional prescribed iconography that includes geometric shapes and a multitude of ancient spiritual symbols, the sand-painted mandala is used as a tool for re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants.
The subject of a Tibetan sand painting is known in Sanskrit as a mandala, or cosmogram, of which there are many types. In general all mandalas have outer, inner and secret meanings. On the outer level they represent the world in its divine form; on the inner level they represent a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into enlightened mind; and on the secret level they depict the primordially perfect balance of the subtle energies of the body and the clear light dimension of the mind. The creation of a sand painting is said to effect a purification and healing on these three levels.
About the Drepung Gomang Institute
The Drepung Gomang Institute was established in 2000 and is a non-profit organization, working in cooperation with the monks of Drepung Gomang Monastery as a sister organization.
Drepung Gomang Institute has two primary goals:
To help preserve the endangered Tibetan culture that leads a fragile existence in communities of exiled refugees living primarily in India and Nepal;
To offer the larger community of Louisville, of Kentucky, and of the U.S. the opportunity to study and practice Tibetan Buddhist traditions and philosophy.
In the summer of 2003, the first resident teacher, Geshe Sangye Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, highly revered scholar, and one of the original 62 monks that re-established Drepung Gomang Monastery in exile, arrived in Louisville. He holds regular teachings in the philosophy and spiritual practice of Tibetan Buddhism. He has begun work with members of DGI to initiate new educational and community outreach programs.
Drepung Gomang Institute offers teachings in Buddhist philosophy and practice, along with Tibetan language, cultural and historical studies. Intensive teachings, retreats and cultural programs are led by qualified visiting Tibetan masters and offer opportunities to broaden our community’s knowledge of Tibetan traditions and spiritual practices.
The directors of Drepung Gomang Institute also work directly with the monastery in long-range planning and in the development of new programs, as well as national cultural tour coordination.
The Drepung Gomang Institute does not seek to convert individuals to the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism. As an organization, we follow the injunction of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to monks who prepare to come to the West:
“You do not need to go make more Buddhists. We don’t need any more Buddhists. You should rather go and help make good people”.
The monks of Drepung Gomang follow a philosophy of tolerance and compassion toward all, and constantly seek to find what we as people share, rather than focusing on that which divides us. This is the spirit of Tibetan culture that DGI hopes to help in its struggle to survive.
Further information about the Drepung Gomang Institute may be obtained by contacting Carol Stewart, executive director, at 502.451.896 or writing her at carol@gomanginstitute.org
