By EDWARD WONG, New York Times
Published: February 25, 2009

TONGREN, China — Snow fell across this mountain valley as red-robed monks in a prayer hall beat drums and chanted in tantric harmony, a seemingly auspicious start to Losar, the Tibetan New Year.

But a monk watching the ritual on Wednesday morning made it clear: This was a ceremony of mourning, not celebration.

“There is no Losar,” he said, standing in this monastery town on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. “They killed so many people last year.”

A few weeks ahead of the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, and a year after a crackdown on renewed ethnic unrest in this area, Tibetans are quietly but irrepressibly seething. Monks, nomads and merchants have turned the joyous Losar holiday into a dirge, memorializing Tibetans who died in last year’s conflict and pining for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.

An informal grass-roots boycott is under way. Tibetans are forsaking dancing and dinner parties for vigils with yak-butter candles and the chanting of prayers. The Losar campaign signifies the discontent that many of China’s six million Tibetans still feel toward domination by the ethnic Han Chinese. They are resisting pressure by Chinese officials to celebrate and forget.

“It’s a conscious awakening of an entire people,” said Woeser, a popular Tibetan blogger.

Tibetans here and in other towns, including in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, say government officials have handed out money to Tibetans to entice them to hold exuberant new year parties. On Wednesday, state-run television showed Tibetans in Lhasa dancing, shooting off fireworks and feasting in their homes.

At the same time, the government has drawn a curtain across Tibet. Officials have shut down access to many Tibetan regions to foreigners and sent armed guards to patrol the streets.

Here in eastern Qinghai Province, near the Dalai Lama’s birthplace, the boycott of festivities began as early as January, during the Chinese Lunar New Year. On Wednesday in Tongren, called Rebkong by Tibetans, one of the few bursts of firecrackers took place outside a Chinese paramilitary compound.

“The government thinks we should celebrate this holiday properly,” said Shartsang, the abbot of Rongwo Monastery. “Certainly this year people haven’t celebrated it in the same way they did in past years.”

Shartsang was one of more than a dozen monks interviewed over three days at Rongwo, called Longwu in Chinese. The 700-year-old monastery is a sprawling complex of golden-eaved temples and labyrinthine alleyways that is home to 400 monks. It draws pilgrims from across the Tibetan plateau.

The government has stepped up security across Tibet. Here, more than 300 security officers with riot shields were seen training in the stadium on Wednesday afternoon. On Monday night, a unit of officers marched in formation along a cordoned-off road.

Chinese officials are wary of the boycott’s mushrooming into larger protests, and of Tibetans taking to the streets next month, which marks the 50th anniversary of the uprising that led to the Dalai Lama’s flight from Lhasa. Most Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama, who advocates autonomy, but not secession, for Tibet.

Last March, China was convulsed by the largest Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in decades. It began when the suppression of protests by monks in Lhasa led to ethnic rioting by Tibetans. Eighteen civilians and one police officer were killed, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Riots and protests flared up across western China. Tibetan exile groups say hundreds of Tibetans died in the crackdown.

Rongwo Monastery was a locus of resistance. Even before the riots in Lhasa, monks joined Tibetan townspeople to protest the way the police had handled a dispute between Tibetans and ethnic Hui Muslims. More than 200 monks were detained in that incident. During the March uprising, security forces surrounded the monastery, only to be met by stone-hurling monks.

Over the summer, leading monks were detained in a nearby school and forced to undergo patriotic education, which meant studying Chinese law and being told to denounce the Dalai Lama.

Waves of crackdowns have fueled resentment.

“They broke into my room and took away all my photos of the Dalai Lama,” said one monk, 53, as he held up a pile of five empty glass picture frames. “Then they led monks away with their wrists bound by wires.”

… Read the rest of the article here.

© Leo Golan for Tibetan Incense Blog, 2009. |
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Post tags: China, Dalai Lama, Politics, Tibet

Tags: buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, Opinions, Politics

Two sets of photos of Sand Mandalas by MettaMomma (Louise Ritchie)

Tibetan Monks Creating Peace Mandala in Tallahassee, 2007

Taken during the January, 2007, visit of Tibetan monks in Tallahassee. The monks laboriously created the sand mandala by memory over about 5 days, and then ritually destroyed it. Doing this illustrates everything’s impermanence.

Tibetan Monks Creating Peace Mandala, 2009

Tibetan Buddhist monks visited the Mary Brogan Museum in Tallahassee and over seven days meticulously made a peace sand mandala. The next day, they ritually destroyed it, sweeping it up to signifying everything’s impermanence. This is a way of exposing people to the way of relieving suffering: accepting that everything changes and ends; choosing to let go of attachments.

The monk poured sand into the lower tool, and then gently rubbed the upper tool against it, allowing the sand to slowly flow out.

To illustrate the impermanence of all things, a Tibetan monk begins ritually destroying the sand mandala of peace that a group of monks had meticulously made over seven days.

MettaMomma about herself:

Once when I was taking a picture, my friend John said, “The artist appears and the butterfly spreads its wings.” While he was talking about the literal butterfly that I was photographing, his words were a metaphor for how I have experienced the world since I fell in love with photography after taking a Miksang workshop in Tallahassee in spring, 2007 with Miriam Hall, who’s herspiral on flickr. Prior to that, I thought that I lacked any type of artistic talent, and I almost didn’t dare to take the Miksang workshop.

However, through the weekend that I spent learning Miksang, a contemplative art, I learned to trust my instincts and to see the world with such fresh eyes that literally I now feel as if the whole world is new and beautiful. It’s as if during the rest of my life, I wasn’t truly seeing. I now feel that I am an artist and the whole world is art.

This perspective has encouraged me to also become deeply involved in the arts. The inside cover of the summer, 2008 “Yes” magazine features a full page color picture from my “Wings of Peace” set. I’m now taking acting classes, have been in two local theatrical shows, and am taking ballroom dancing. I also have been trained as a Miksang photography teacher and plan to offer my first workshop in September, 2008.

If you’d like to find out more about Miksang, check out the Miksang group here as well as this link: miksang.org/m/index.html

Warmest appreciation to everyone who has taken the time to comment on and favorite my pictures. You have done a lot to help me improve my skills. Appreciation, too, to the many flickr members including my contacts whose work has inspired me to try new things and to see even more of the world’s beauty. From you, I’ve learned about the wonder of macros, waterdrops, lighting, and the evocative beauty of rain.

If you like my site, view it as inspiration to open yourself to the possibilities in your own life.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

P.S. I am an Obama Momma. Yes we can be the change that we dream of!

© Leo Golan for Tibetan Incense Blog, 2009. |
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Post tags: Buddhism, Buddhist Art, Buddhist_Symbols, Pictures, Sand Mandala

Tags: buddhism, buddhist art, Buddhist_Symbols, Pictures, Sand Mandala

A rare opportunity to view the Buddhist arts of the mystical kingdom of Bhutan – “The Last Shangri-La”.
At the Asian Art Museum through May 10th.

Located in the Himalayas to the east of Mount Everest and Nepal, Bhutan is unique as a sovereign nation that has maintained its culture, arts, and religious and political traditions intact. Bhutan is one of the few countries in Asia that was never colonized by its neighbors or Western powers. The exhibition provides an exceptionally rare opportunity to view some of the most sacred and beloved Buddhist arts of Bhutan. Many of the objects remain in ritual use in temples and monasteries and have never before been accessible to a Western audience. In an unprecedented effort, the exhibition also documents ritual Buddhist dance forms through video footage that will be shown on monitors situated in the galleries. The exhibition comprises more than 100 works of art dating from the eighth to the twentieth centuries, including thangkas (paintings on cloth), gilt bronze sculptures, and ritual objects. Bhutanese monks will remain in residence at the Asian Art Museum for the duration of the exhibition, performing daily ritual observances for the sacred artworks.

“The recent coronation of Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, Bhutan’s first democratic king, introduced many to this remote Himalayan nation steeped in tradition,” says Jay Xu, director of the Asian Art Museum. “The Asian Art Museum is pleased to bring to San Francisco the remarkable exhibition under royal patronage The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, which provides an unprecedented view of Bhutan’s spiritual and artistic traditions that are so inextricably woven into its culture. The unprecedented access granted to the organizers and the resulting exhibition are a gift from Bhutan to the world.”

“In the eyes of the Bhutanese, these objects are not ‘art’ in the conventional sense, but are sacred images, supporting Buddhist practices,” says Terese Tse Bartholomew, curator emeritus of Himalayan art at the Asian Art Museum and guest curator of The Dragon’s Gift. “The daily veneration of the objects by the monks who will remain in residence at the Asian Art Museum throughout the exhibition testifies to their spiritual significance. Even in the temples in Bhutan, these sacred works are rarely seen. Perhaps one object at a time might be brought out for ritual use. I cannot stress enough what a remarkable opportunity it is for Western audiences to see these works. The phrase ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ is overused, but in this case it most certainly applies.”

Bhutan has a population of roughly 700,000, comparable to San Francisco, yet its geographic range is similar to that of Switzerland. Located in the Himalayas to the east of Mount Everest and Nepal, Bhutan is known as “Drukyul, the land of the Thunder Dragon,” by speakers of Dzongkha, its official language. Bhutan has the distinction of being one of the few countries in Asia that was never colonized. It also has the distinction of adopting an uncommon official policy of defining the quality of life through Gross National Happiness, emphasizing mental and spiritual well being over material prosperity. Bhutan is the only existing Vajrayana (“Tantric” or “Esoteric”) Buddhist kingdom in the world, and the Drukpa lineage is the dominant school and state religion. The country is well known for its vigorous efforts to preserve its Buddhist heritage and traditional culture, which remain vibrant and active today. Since the 1960s the country has embarked on deliberately slow-paced reforms with the intention to preserve its own identity. Foreign dignitaries and the media were allowed into Bhutan for the first time during the coronation of the last king in 1974. Foreigners to this day are still restricted with only 20,000 tourists allowed access each year on heavily supervised trips.(…)
Read the rest of The Dragon’s Gift Tour: Now in San Francisco (239 words)

© Leo Golan for Tibetan Incense Blog, 2009. |
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Post tags: Bhutan, Buddhism, Buddhist Art, Buddhist_Symbols

Tags: Bhutan, buddhism, buddhist art, Buddhist_Symbols, Himalaya, News

This album accompanies The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan art tour, one of the most highly anticipated exhibitions of Buddhist art to be held in recent times.

For over five years, the Honolulu Academy of Arts has conducted ambitious fieldwork and research in Bhutan. Enjoying a close working relationship with the Royal Government of Bhutan, the Honolulu Academy of Arts research teams have been given unprecedented access to the nation’s treasuries of sacred art and dance.

The Dragon’s Gift offers a rare opportunity to introduce some of the most sacred Buddhist images of Bhutan to the wider international audience. From the wealth of material surveyed, the organizers of the exhibition have selected over one hundred objects of superior aesthetic achievement and deep religious significance, the vast majority of which have never before been seen in the West. Nearly all of the works of art presented in this book are from active temples and monasteries and remain in ritual use. Most of the items are either painted or textile thangkas, or gilt bronze sculptures, which date primarily from the 17th to 19th centuries — a golden age in the Buddhist arts of Bhutan.

Ranging from depictions of Tantric deities to individual portraits of Buddhist masters, the exhibition and catalogue represent outstanding works of art with a wide iconographic scope. Local Bhutanese experts and accomplished monks were consulted throughout the research process, representing the important indigenous perspective on these sacred works. For the Buddhist people of Bhutan, these sacred items are conceived as supports along the journey to enlightenment, and are of vital spiritual significance.

Complementing the sacred works of art is the documentation of the ancient Cham dances of Bhutan, which the dance preservation team had the privilege of observing. Having documented over three hundred hours of sacred and secular dances, they have compiled a first collection of the few surviving treasures of the trans-Himalayan movement tradition. These different approaches to the visual and moving arts provide further insight into the unique experience of Buddhism in Bhutan. A brief sampling of the variety of dance lineages, some many centuries old, is included on the DVD included with this book.

Beautifully illustrated, this catalog also includes curatorial notes and photos, close-up details, photos of gatherings and monasteries, as well as 12 essays contributed by leading Bhutanese and Western scholars.

Beautifully illustrated, with high quality full color reproductions on gloss paper. Very helpful is the mapping of surrounding deities in many of the thangkas.

Text: www.snowlionpub.com

The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan
by Honolulu Academy of Arts
Edited by Terese Tse Bartholomew and John Johnston
Cloth, 9.5” x 12”, 390 pp. Includes DVD.

© Leo Golan for Tibetan Incense Blog, 2009. |
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Tags: Bhutan, Books, buddhism, buddhist art, Buddhist_Symbols

Phayul, February 24, 2009
By Phurbu Thinley

Exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tuesday said he admired the resolute decision made by Tibetans both in and outside Tibet to forgo “celebratory activities” during the Tibetan New Year or, Losar, which begins tomorrow.

“I admire the determined move by Tibetans, inside and outside of Tibet, not to indulge in celebratory activities during this New Year,” the Tibetan leader said in his New Year message to the Tibetan people.

In the text message posted on the Dalai Lama’s official website, the supreme spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan people extended his New Year greetings to them.

“On the occasion of the Earth-Ox New Year of the 17th Rabjung cycle in the Tibetan Royal Year 2136, I would like to greet all Tibetans, both inside and outside of Tibet. I pray that there be peace and prosperity, and that our just cause may see gradual resolution,” he said.

“However, last year in Tibet we witnessed hundreds of Tibetans losing their lives, and several thousands facing detention and torture, in response to the widespread display by Tibetans all over Tibet of their discontentment with the Chinese authorities’ policies,” the Dalai Lama said.

Losar is traditionally the biggest holiday for Tibetans, but Tibetans in Tibet and around the world vowed not to celebrate it this year as they want to remember those who died in last year’s protests against Chinese rule.

Tibetan exile groups say at least 200 Tibetans were killed and more than a 1000 went missing in the subsequent Chinese military crackdown.

“Therefore, since they faced immense difficulties and sufferings, the occasion of this New Year is certainly not a period when we can have the usual celebrations and gaiety,” His Holiness added.

The Dalai Lama said: “Instead, everyone should utilize this period in abandoning non-virtuous acts and engaging in positive actions …”

“The dedication should also go to those currently undergoing suffering so that they may immediately be able to enjoy the happiness of freedom. Through such an accumulation of collective merits we should all strive for an early solution to the just cause of Tibet.”

The boycott of Losar celebration, which actually comes just two weeks before the 50th anniversary of the abortive Tibetan uprising, has been a cause of concern for Chinese authorities in Tibet.China’s military last month began a crackdown in Tibetan capital Lhasa, with raids on residential areas, Internet cafes, bars and rented rooms, Chinese state-run media reported. Security forces rounded up nearly 6000 “suspects” for questioning and detained up to 81 during the operation “Strike Hard” by Jan. 24.(…)
Read the rest of Dalai Lama said he admires forgoing Losar celebrations (279 words)

© Leo Golan for Tibetan Incense Blog, 2009. |
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Post tags: China, Dalai Lama, Politics, Tibet

Tags: buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, Politics