Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows:
Tibetan Buddhist Art Tour from Drepung Gomang Monastery

A Touring Exhibition

Drepung Gomang Monastery will launch its fifth tour September 2004.  This tour, Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows, will focus on sacred arts and the community and will be led by Khensur Rinpoche Tsultrim Phuntsok, the 77th Abbot of Gomang Monastery.

The 2004 -2005 tour for Gomang is to be different from the previous tours. The Sacred Arts Tour will be an exhibition with demonstration of intricate Tibetan arts and craftwork. With this tour we hope to have a higher amount of audience interaction with the monks and with hands-on displays so that visitors can learn about such crafts as sand mandala, mask making, butter sculpting and the printing of prayer flags. Visitors will be able to watch and question the artists at work and see the various stages of thangka painting first hand. They will also be able to view an exhibition of Tibetan art, each piece with its meaning carefully explained in English.

The idea for this tour came for various reasons:  first, it is a way to promote interest in the traditional Tibetan arts. These traditional handicrafts are in danger of being lost--swallowed by the Chinese culture in Tibet itself and by Indian and western influences in the exiled settlements. The monasteries are some of the last main sources of the true Tibetan traditions, so a tour based on the old crafts seems a good way to promote and maintain their religious arts culture.

More practically, during the past years, many monasteries have been sending tours to the West-- all based on the religious dances of Tibet, and an arts tour seemed to have the potential of a refreshing change. We hope to reach out to the arts communities as well as to those who already know and have been concerned about the Tibetan community.

Of course, the Tibetan political situation is a major focus of concern, and we also intend to show a slide program, which would follow the history of Gomang monastery.  This history will depict the beginning--the shaping and adapting of a monastic community as it struggled through the revolution in Lhasa; the hardships suffered by the original small group of monks who had managed to flee with His Holiness to the first refugee camp in North India; and then to the efforts to reestablish the monastery here in the south, having to adapt to the new surroundings, climate and the influences of outside cultures. Khensur Rinpoche Tsultrim Phuntsok, abbot of Gomang monastery for 9 years, can personally tell his version of the story, as he lived through each of the stages. A question and answer period will follow the slide program.

The courage and determination of Tibetans in their struggle to regain their homeland and keep their own language, culture and religion alive is condensed within this story of a monastery, and its will to keep their faith and culture alive in a changing world.

Any persons living in the USA who are interested in assisting the tour group in their area, please contact the USA tour coordinator, Jennifer Harris, at sacred@gomang.org

(For a complete description of the tour, Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows, please click here.)

In addition to Khensur Rinpoche Tsultrim Phuntsok, the Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows will comprise the following monks:  Tsultrim Nyingpo, painter and craftsman; Longtok Gyatso, thangka painter; Tsultrim Sherab, painter, mandala and butter sculptures; Lobsang Tenpa, painter; Kunsang Gyatso, tormas (tsampa and butter sculptures); and Chuchi Dhondup, thangka painter; Tenzin Dolma (Kristel Ouwehand), painter, mandala and butter sculptures and tour translator.

All of these artists were part of the group that did the main design and painting work on the new prayer hall that was inaugurated by His Holiness last year.  Longtok was the chief designer for the work—especially on the main entrance doors and the gates.  Dhondup was involved in the gold leaf application on the huge statues in the main altar and on the Dalai Lama’s throne.  Tsultrim Nyingpo painted one of the big thangkas outside the main doors. Kunsang, Tsultrim Sherap, Lobsang Tenpa, and Tenzin Dolma were part of the core group of painters that did the work both inside and out, as well as being part of the group that did the cement relief carving for the doorframes and window decorations.  It was a three-year job and all gained much experience and collected great merit.

For pictures and biographies of the members of the Sacred Art of the Land of the Snows tour group, please click here.
 

The 2003-04 tour group, led by Geshe Tenpa Sonam, has made many new friends during its travels in the USA.  Since last September, they have gone to 15 different locations in 11 states.  They started out at the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana at the dedication of the Chamtse Ling Temple by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and by December have traveled through the mid-west and New England states.  In January, they will go south to Florida and then travel out west to California, making many stops along the way.  In the spring they will return to the mid-west and will go once again to New England before they return to India in July of 2004.

Many friends have taken many pictures of the tour group.  If you would like to share moments of their journey, please go to their scrapbook page.

Tenzin Drolma (Kristin Ouwehand) is a woman from Canada who teaches art and English to students at Drepung Gomang College.  She regularly takes notes on happenings at the monastery and has agreed to share some of them with those persons who may be interested in what occurs during daily life at a Tibetan monastery in south India.

The Jung Gun-choes Debates

With the monastery's annual exams recently finished [November], the monks were able to relax briefly. The coming month, however, brings Jang Gun-choe (literally translated as "the winter debates in Jung") which is a month long debate sessions between the main Gelug monasteries of Drepung Gaden and Sera as well as Tashilumpho and Ratoe.

Jung Gun-choe has its origins so far back that no one can remember when it  actually began. In Tibet, the monks of Drepung, Sera, and later Gaden would make their way to a small monastery called Jung Gompa. (Tashilumpho was too far away for the monks to travel, as it was located in the Tsang province, a fair distance from Lhasa).   Jung Gompa was considered a sacred place, as it was only opened once a year for these special debate competitions.

In those days, the debates lasted a month and a half and were overseen by the abbot and disciplinarian of Ratoe monastery. During this time, their word was law for all the monks in attendance.  At Jung Gonpa, the monks of each monastery were allocated to separate buildings, and debates were held among the monks of each monastery separately, as well as all together. Approximately 100 monks would choose to attend from each monastery, and there was no accommodation for more.

It was said that "only crazy monks" attended the Jung Gun-choe debates, since, being held in December, the weather was fiercely cold. Jung Gonpa was situated in a remote valley surrounded by mountains and the wind would whistle through the debate ground. Hard hand claps punctuate each point in a debate, and as a result of the chapping from the cold, the monks would return to their own monasteries with their hands a mass of painful sores. It was considered a mark of pride if you could display painful, sore covered hands--as if you came back without sores, you obviously hadn't debated hard enough!

The subjects of the debates was purely logic (in Tibetan: Tsema Namdol) and for those monks who chose to undergo the hardships, it was a brilliant opportunity to learn.The root texts (Tsawa) were the same in all the monasteries as they were the texts brought originally from India, as well as those written by Tsongkapa and his two disciples, Gyaltsab Je and Khedup Je. But the real challenge came from defending and debating the texts of one's own monastery, as these were written as treatises on the root texts by the main teacher who had composed the base texts followed by each monastery. Thus, Loseling and Gaden Shartse studied texts by Panchen Sonam Dakpa, Gomang studied those by Jamyang Cheba, Gaden Jangtse and Sera Je's were written by Jetsun Pa and Sera Me's  were by Khedup Thendar. Being forced to defend and explain one's own texts and compare them with those of the others made the debates an invaluable learning experience, and many monks willingly suffered the discomforts of pain and cold for the chance to attend.

Here in the southern communities of India, the tradition continues, but since Jung Gonpa doesn't exist here, the sessions rotate once a year to the different monasteries, this year being the turn of Drepung. The texts and methods of the debates are the same, though the competition is no longer overseen by the monks of Ratoe, but by those of the monastery in which the debate is being held. Monks are now selected by their registration numbers. Though it is no longer a trial of cold and sore encrusted hands, and one can therefore no longer brag of the discomforts one had to endure, it remains a valuable opportunity for learning and enhancing one's understanding of logic as it is taught in the Buddhist scriptures.
 

THE VARJA (Dorje)

The Vajra is the quintessential symbol of Vajrayana Buddhism, which derives its name from the vajra itself. The Sanskrit term vajra means 'the hard or mighty one,’ and its Tibetan equivalent dorje means an indestructible hardness and brilliance like the diamond, which cannot be cut or broken. The vajra essentially symbolizes the impenetrable, immovable, immutable, indivisible, and indestructible state of enlightenment or Buddhahood
Vajras may have nine, five or three spokes. The spokes of a peaceful vajra meet at the tip whereas those of wrathful vajra are slightly splayed at the end. When paired with a bell their length can vary from four finger-widths to twenty-eight finger widths.

The upper sets of spokes of a five spoked vajra symbolize the five wisdoms, which are
 

• The Mirror like Wisdom--that which reflects all sense perceptions--is purified when one attains enlightenment and realizes mirror-like wisdom.
• The wisdom of equality arises after all the feelings of pleasantness, unpleasantness and indifference have been purified.
• The wisdom of individual analysis arises when the factor of discrimination, which distinguishes one object from another, is purified. It enables one to benefit each sentient being according to his or her needs and disposition.
• The wisdom of accomplishing activity arises when the basic ability to perform acts according to particular circumstances is purified.
• The wisdom of the sphere of reality arises when consciousness is purified and becomes the mind that is the seed of the wisdom truth body of Buddha.

In the case of the nine spoked vajra, the upper spokes symbolize the Buddhas of the five families and the four mothers, one between each of the Buddhas. The lower spokes represent the five wisdoms and the four immeasurable wishes of love, compassion, equanimity and joy.

The Sea-monster’s mouth from which each spoke emerges represents freedom from cyclic existence. Of the two lotuses at the hub of the vajra, the upper one symbolize the eight Bodhisattvas and the lower one, the eight goddesses. Paired with a bell the vajra represents method or compassion.

THE BELL (Dri bul)

A bell can be eight, twelve, sixteen, eighteen or twenty two finger-widths in height. Its base must be round, above which is a vase surrounded by the face of the goddess Prajnaparamita. Above these are a lotus, a moon disc and finally a vajra.

The hollow of the bell symbolizes the wisdom cognizing emptiness. The clapper represents the sound of emptiness. The eight lotus petals are the four mothers and four goddesses, and the vase represents the vase containing the nectar of accomplishment.
Paired with the vajra, the bell represents wisdom, and as wisdom and method are an undivided unity so the vajra and bell are never parted or employed separately.  The vajra represents the compassion of the Buddha, the masculine principle; and the bell represents wisdom, the female principle. To achieve enlightenment, those two principles must be combined. The bell is visualized as the Buddha's body, the vajra is visualized as his mind, and the sound of the bell is visualized as Buddha's speech in teaching of the dharma.

BEADS (Mala)

Beads are mainly used to count mantras which can be recitied for four different purposes:

• To appease,
• To increase,
• To overcome, or
• Tame by forceful means

The beads used with mantras intended to increase should be of gold, silver, copper or lotus seeds, and a rosary is made of 108 of them. The mantras counted on these serve to increase lifespan, knowledge and merit.

The beads used with mantras which are intended to overcome are made from a compound of ground sandal wood, saffron and other fragrant substances. There are twenty-five beads on this rosary. The mantras counted on them are meant to tame others, but the motivation for doing so should be the pure wish to help other sentient beings and not to benefit oneself.

The beads used to recite mantras aiming at subduing beings through forceful means should be made from raksha seeds or human bones in a string of sixty. Again, as the purpose should be absolutely altruistic, the one person capable of performing such a feat is a Bodhisattva motivated by great compassion for a being who can be tamed through no other means, for example extremely malicious spirits, or general afflictions, visualized as a dense black ball.

Beads made of Bodhi seed or wood can be used for many purposes, for counting all kinds of mantras, as well as other prayers, prostration, circumambulations and so forth.

The string common to all beads should consist of nine threads, which symbolize Buddha Vajradhara and the eight Bodhisattvas. The large bead at the end stands for the wisdom which cognizes emptiness and the cylindrical bead surmounting it symbolizes emptiness itself--both symbolize having vanquished all opponents.

Any donations and contributions are gratefully received.  You will be remembered in the prayers of the monks.