Drepung Loseling Monastery and The Loseling Institute

The program for the presentation, "The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music and Sacred Dance for World Healing" sets forth the following information about the Drepung Loseling Monastery and the Loseling Institute:

"Drepung Loseling Monastery was established near Lhasa, Tibet in 1416 and until the recent Chinese Communist invasion stood as the largest monastic institution in the world, housing about 10,000 Buddhist monks at its zenith. After the invasion, and the forced closure and destruction of the monastery, 250 monks managed to escape the holocaust and rebuilt their institution in Karnataka State, India. Over the years, young spiritual aspirants have fled Chinese-occupied Tibet and the ranks of Drepung have grown to some 2,500.

"The Tibetan culture is one of the most ancient on our planet and it is highly endangered as a result of the Chinese communist invasion of their homeland in the 1950's. Because of the wholesale destruction of their heritage there, the genocidal Chinese policies that have ensued during the Chinese colonization of Tibet, the Tibetans today live a fragile existence in the refugee camps in India. Our generation could be the last to see their artistic culture in its full richness, integrity and splendor.

"The Loseling Institute was formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1991, with the Tibetan name Losel Shedrup Ling, as a non-profit religious and educational organization, to serve as the North American seat for Drepung Loseling Monastery.

"Following the legacy of Drepung Loseling Monastery, and with the patronage of H.H. the Dalai Lama, the Loseling Institute is dedicated to providing both theoretical and practical knowledge of the Tibetan Buddhist arts and sciences to academic students/researchers and also lay aspirants, within the context of a Tibetan pedagogical framework."

In May, 1998, the Salt Lake City School District was provided a document titled, "The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing -- A Brief History of Drepung Loseling Monastery." That document stated,

"Drepung Loseling monastery was established near Llasa, Tibet by Chojey Tashi Palden. It had four departments, of which Loseling, or "the Hermitage of the Radiant Mind," was the largest, housing more than three quarters of Drepung's ten to fifteen thousand monks. It educated peoples not only from Tibet, but from regions as far north as Siberia and Buriat of eastern Russia to the Himalayan kingdoms in North India. Drepung Loseling was especially close to the Dalai Lama incarnations; the Second Dalai Lama made his residence here in 1494, and subsequent incarnations maintained this link through residence that he later built at Drepung Potrang.

"After the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959 and the forced closure and destruction of its 6,500 monasteries some 250 monks from Loseling managed to escape the holocaust and rebuild their institution in Karnataka State, South India. The traditional training program was thus preserved and soon news of their existence spread through Central Asia.

"Over the years many more young spiritual aspirants have fled Chinese-occupied Tibet and sought entrance into the monastery in the hope of learning, thus helping to preserve their traditional culture. The number of monks presently in the re-established Drepung Loseling have increased to more than 2500.

"The Loseling Institute, Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Practice, was formed in Atlanta Georgia, in 1991 with the Tibetan name Losel Shedrup Ling, as a non-profit religious and educational organization to serve as the North American seat for Drepung Loseling Monastery. The Loseling Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of wisdom and compassion. A center for the cultivation of heart and intellect, it provides sanctuary for nurturing inner peace and kindness, community understanding, and global healing.

"In 1997, Loseling Institute became an affiliate of Emory University at Atlanta, Georgia. In this capacity, Loseling Institute will be offering accredited courses in Tibetan Buddhism and culture beginning with the Summer Institute in May, 1998. The Loseling Institute is also dedicated to supporting Tibetan refugees living in exile in their struggle to preserve their cultural heritage. To meet this purpose, the Loseling Institute oversees the following Drepung Loseling projects in America:

- Mystical Arts of Tibet tours.

- Educational Fund, a sponsorship program that allows individuals to adopt a monk in training at Drepung Loseling Monastery.

- Tibetan Traditions, a non-profit company offering superb hand-crafted Tibetan rugs and gift items."

International Tours

According to the lecture program advertisement, "Exploring the Buddhist Model of the Mind," the monks are part of "the international tour of 'Sacred Music and Sacred Dance for World Healing,' sponsored by Richard Gere Productions and the Loseling Institute." An article in the September 19, 1998, Salt Lake Tribune stated that the world tour commenced in January and will result in monks visiting 100 U.S. cities in 18 months.

An information document provided to the Salt Lake City School District in May, 1998, titled, "The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing Background Information" states:

"The sacred performing arts have, in all ancient societies, been considered one of the most powerful vehicles for inspiring healing, peace and harmony within the world. Tibet, which preserved one of humanity's most ancient civilizations, was especially strong in this respect.

"Tibet's largest and most prestigious spiritual institution was the famed Drepung Loseling Monastery. The home of the early Dalai Lamas, it was founded in 1416 in order to collect and transmit the ancient Buddhist arts and sciences. At its zenith it often housed more than ten thousand monks, training them not only in the spiritual and philosophical traditions, but also in various sacred performing arts. They were particularly renowned for their tradition of multiphonic singing, in which each monk simultaneously intones three notes of a chord. This technique, exclusive to the five great Gelukpa monasteries of Central Tibet, was achieved through many years of training. Drepung maintained an extraordinary form of this rare skill, and thus led the Monlam Chenmo, Tibet's largest sacred music festival.

"The monastery was closed by the Communists in 1959 shortly after Chairman Mao's invasion of Tibet, and most of its monks were either killed or put in concentration camps. Approximately 250 of its members escaped to India, where they re-established a replica of their institution in the refugee camps of Karnataka State, India. There they worked to preserve Drepung Loseling's ancient heritage. This illustrious institute presently houses some 2500 monks.

"In 1988-89 eight Buddhist monks from this monastery undertook Drepung Loseling's first world tour. Jointly sponsored by the Canada Tibet Friendship Society and Richard Gere of Tibet House, NY, and billed as "Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Peace," the group performed their traditional monastic music and masked dances in 130 cities in North America and Europe. Wearing rich brocade costumes and playing 12-foot-long trumpets, they were greeted by full houses wherever they went. As well as theaters and auditoriums in dozens of universities, museums and civic centers, their venues included: the Herbst Theater, San Francisco; Symphony Space on Broadway, NY; the Sanders Theater, Cambridge; the Paramount Theater, Austin; and the Commonwealth Institute, London. They were previewed and reviewed in hundreds of newspapers, and made numerous radio and television appearances. The recording of the music from this tour (Tibetan Sacred Temple Music, Shining Star Productions, CA) held a top ten listing on the New Age charts for a full year, and in Canada achieved a number one on this chart.

"Inspired by the success of their first visit to the West, the monastery agreed to continue sharing their sacred arts for world peace and healing. Between 1991 and 1997 four more tours took place, each visiting over 100 cities in the United States, as well as many more in South and Central American, and also Europe.

"On each successive tour they have reached out to an increasingly broader audience, performing in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (NY), the Ravina Festival (Chicago), and the National Cathedral (D.C.), as well as hundreds of university auditoriums, churches, and theaters throughout the country. They have shared stages with artists such as Phillip Glass, Kitaro, Paul Simon, Patti Smith, Natalie Merchant, the Beastie Boys and many others.

"In 1997 their music was featured on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack of Seven Years in Tibet (Columbia), staring Brad Pitt. They have also performed with Philip Glass in the live presentation of his Academy Award nominated music/score and winner of best soundtrack awards at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Chicago Film Critics from the Martin Scorsese film Kundun (Disney).

"Two of their five CD's, Sacred Tibetan Temple Music (Shining Star Productions, Calif.), and Sacred Music Sacred Dance (Music and Arts Program of America, Calif.) Have achieved a top ten listing on the US charts (New Age category - 2,500 year old New Age Music!).

"The sixth and current world tour of the Drepung Loseling monks will be led by Za Choeje Rinpoche, one of the monastery's foremost reincarnation teachers, a highly regarded specialist in the tradition of the mystical Tantric arts. This group will again share Drepung Loseling's ancient sacred traditions, as well as creating sand paintings and other Tibetan cultural activities. Once again, they will visit over a hundred cities and draw from their traditional temple music and dances to create an arrangement of pieces believed to generate energies conducive to world healing. They will sing in the multiphonic technique, and play their traditional instruments such as cymbals, bells, drums, long horn trumpets, and high horns. The repertoire of masked dances will include the Dance of the Celestial Travelers, the Dance of the Sacred Snow Lion, the Skeleton Dance and the Dance of the Black Hat Masters.

"The Tibetan culture is one of the most ancient heritages on our planet. Although based in the Tantric Buddhist traditions of early Indian Civilization, it far predates the 2,500 years of Buddhist history. For example, many of its artistic symbols, such as the "eye of the god," and so forth, were also used by the native peoples of North America, a factor that most anthropologists feel support the theory that our North American natives migrated to this continent from Central Asia some fifteen to twenty thousand years ago, bringing these cultural features with them at that time. The minimalism of the Tibetan sacred performing arts, combined with their similarity to North American indigenous traditions, makes their extraordinary material very accessible indeed to North American audiences.

"The Tibetan culture is also highly endangered tradition. The Chinese Communist invasion of their homeland in the 1950's, the wholesale destruction of their heritage there, and the genocidal Chinese policies that have ensued during the Chinese colonization of Tibet, means that now the Tibetans live a fragile existence in the refugee camps in India. Our generation could be the last to see their artistic culture in its full richness, integrity and splendor.

"The Mystical Arts of Tibet tours have three basic purposes: to make a contribution to world healing an peace movements; to generate a greater awareness of the endangered Tibetan civilization, in its unique, sacred performing arts traditions; and to raise support for the refugee community in India.

Programs Included within International Tour

At least the following three programs are delivered in cities visited by the monks:

1. "Exploring the Buddhist Model of the Mind." This lecture is described by the advertisement for the First Unitarian Church lecture as follows:

"An enlightening presentation will be given by a Tibetan Monk of the Drepung Loseling Monastery that looks at the mind and how it determines the experiences we create in our lives, and how we evolve as individuals.

"Explore the Buddhist model of the mind - its nature and functions.

"Learn how the mind's health and stability can be consciously developed through practical meditation techniques of transforming one's everyday attitudes and actions to enjoy life in an individual community and global context.

2. "The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music and Sacred Dance for World Healing." The program introduction for this performance states,

"Ancient societies throughout the world conceived that ritual performance of sacred music and dance at auspicious times establishes communications with the higher powers of good and brings about healing on environmental, social and personal levels. In Tibet, whenever a monastery celebrated a spiritual festival, people from the surrounding villages and nomadic tribes would assemble in the monastery's courtyard for the three or four days of sacred music and dance. The present lama tour is designed as a development of this tradition. Their sacred arts have been streamlined in such a way as to maintain the essential integrity and purpose of each of the individual pieces in the celebration."

The program is as follows:

"Part One: (1 Hour)

"Introductory Comments to the individual pieces of Part One

"(1) Nyen-sen: Invocation of the Forces of Goodness

In a tapestry of instrumental and vocal sounds, the monks invoke creative awareness within themselves and the audience. They enhance the spirit of goodness in the environment as a prelude to the performance of Sacred Music Sacred Dance."

"(2) Man-del: Purifying the Universe

As they sing multiphonic style typical of Drepung Loseling's dominant role at the annual Monlam Chenmo Festal, the monks create a world as seen through the eyes of inner perfection. This is sent forth as an offering for world healing and is symbolized by the raising of a silver base on which mounds of rice are poured in a geometric pattern.

"(3) Sna-nak Gar-cham: Dance of the Black Hat Masters

This ancient dance for the elimination of negative energies and hindrances is in the style known as drak-po, or 'wrathful.' The implements held by the dancers symbolize the transcendence of false ego-identification on the outer (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.

"(4) Dak-zin Tsar-chod: A Melody to Sever the Ego Syndrome

Descending in a linage from Pa-dam-pa Sang-gay and the eleventh-century female mystic Ma-chik Lab-don, this tradition of meditative music is considered amongst the most hauntingly beautiful to emanate from the Land of Snows. Its purpose is to release the mind from the ego-clinging habit.

"(5) Tak-tsey Tong-ya: Intense Encounters of the Third Degree

A demonstration of the tradition of Tibetan monastic inquiry. Two monks engage on another in a process leading to deeper levels and implication of spiritual experience, thus enhancing the mind of enlightenment.

"(6) Seng-geh Gar-cham: The Snow Lion Dance

In Tibet the snow lion symbolized the fearless and elegant quality of the enlightened mind. When a healthy and harmonious environment is established by the creative activities of human beings, such as through the performance of sacred purification and healing music, all living beings, here represented by the snow lion, rejoice.

"Part Two (40 minutes)

"Introductory comments to the individual pieces in Part Two

"(1) Dur-dak Gar-cham: Dance of the Skeleton Lords

To remind the world of the ephemeral nature of all things, and of the liberating and balancing impact of an awareness of this reality, two monks appear as the forces of goodness manifest as Cemetery Lords. These are Dharmapala, or the "Protectors of Truth," with the message to point to mind toward authentic being.

"(2) Ten-trui yul-tru: Purifying the Environment and Its Inhabitants

Chanting in the multiphonic tradition, the monks hold up a mirror and draw into it the reflection of the world and its living beings. They then purify these through sound and meditation, as symbolized by the act of pouring waters from the sacred wisdom vase over the mirror. Traditionally this piece was performed whenever an environmental, social or individual healing was required.

"(3) Kha-dro Ten-shug Gar-cham: Dance of the Celestial Travelers

Five dances symbolizing the five elements and five wisdoms, together with three musicians, invoke the sounds and movements of the Celestial Travelers, the mystical beings from another world whose blessings strengthen the forces of life and light. These beings visit our world in times of stress and danger, bringing with them the creative energy that inspires harmony and peace.

"(4) Sang-tsol Zhi-jo: Incense Offering and Auspicious Song for World Peace

The monks send forth the smoke of incense, which the wind carries into the ten directions as a subliminal force invoking peace, harmony and the ways of creative living.

Among the information provided to the Salt Lake City School Board in May, 1998, were stage specifications titled, "Sacred Music Sacred Dance -Minimal Staging Requirements." That document reads as follows:

"Space Requirements:

"An auditorium, performing arts center, theater, or cultural center with a stage, or a church with a raised platform in the altar area are all suitable places for the performance. The performance can take place in an area as small as 20 feet deep and 25 feet long. Of course if the area is larger that is fine. The monks require a side entrance or a back curtain through which they can enter and exit. In some places this isn't possible and a screen arrangement will suffice. The monks need an area to change their costumes. This can be done back stage, behind a drop curtain or in a small room off stage.

"Preparation of Platform

"We are able to set up the stage in about one hour. We need two or three tables to make an altar. The tables need to be card table in height and five to six feet long. We need something behind the altar on which to hang a tangka (scroll painting). Usually a drop curtain serves the purpose. If there is no curtain, then a screen can do, even a projector screen if nothing else is available. We will also need tables at the entrance to display sales items.

"Lighting

"The lighting requirements are simple. We need DIRECT STRONG LIGHT. We don't need anything complicated. Blue or red lighting gels would be beneficial. If overhead lighting is not available, be sure the light stands are tall enough not to cast shadows from one performer to another. We need to be sure we have access to the lights on the day of the event. Be sure the building's electrician is on hand, especially if the performance is on a weekend. If a venue charges extra for lights, we need to know that ahead of time.

"Sound

"Three boom mikes set in a crescent should be suspended approximately one third of the distance from the front of the stage to the altar. (If boom microphones are not available, the sound will be adequate if the hall is small.) Also a microphone will be needed for the introductory remarks off to the side of the stage.

The following diagram is set forth immediately below the written stage instructions:

Stage Right

Stage Left

boom 1

boom 3

3. Mandala Sand Painting. An advertisement states, "Mandala Sand Painting (A Cosmogram for Enlightenment, Purification and Healing)" Below appears a picture of a sand painting, and below that the words, "The Mystical Arts of Tibet for World Healing." Below that is the following:

An eyewitness account of the opening ceremony is set forth in Section II.