Tibetan Monks in Residence Nov. 12-17 

SALISBURY, MD---The cultural highlight of the year at Salisbury University begins Monday, November 12, with the visit by 11 monks of Tibet’s famed Drepung Loseling Monastery, says June Krell-Salgado, SU cultural affairs coordinator. The monks will be in residence through November 17 constructing an elaborate sand mandala which they believe brings purification and healing.  They also will be lecturing and concluding their stay with the famed sacred music sacred dance performance for world healing.

The internationally renown multiphonic singers, whose sellout performances in Carnegie Hall received national acclaim, have made Salisbury part of their international tour of “Sacred Music Sacred Dance,” which is sponsored by Richard Gere Productions Inc. and the Drepung Loseling Institute, the North American Seat of the Deprung Loseling Monastery.  The visit comes with the blessings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

Two of their recordings achieved top 10 listings on the New Age charts and the monks participated in the soundtrack of the film Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt, and performed to an audience of 50,000 on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., as part of last year’s 2000 Fourth of July celebration.

During their busy week at SU, the 11 monks will construct their mandala in the University Gallery (Fulton Hall), a painstaking ceremony where millions of grains of colored sand are laid out in a complex pattern.  The public is invited to view the entire process and participate in part of its five ceremonies.  They are:  Opening ceremony—Monday, November 12, noon;   Drawing of the lines—immediately following the opening ceremony;  Mandala construction—Monday-Thursday, November 12-15, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.,  Friday, November 16,  10 a.m.-9 p.m. and  Saturday, November 17,  noon-2 p.m.;  Mandala consecration and closing ceremony—Saturday, November 17,  2 p.m.; and Dispersal ceremony—Saturday, November 17, immediately following the closing  ceremony, at Schumaker Pond by the Ward Museum.

The monks will also lecture on the symbolism of the sand on Tuesday, November 13, at 7 p.m. in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center.  A second lecture  follows on Thursday, November 15, at 7 p.m. in the Wicomico Room titled “Opening the Heart:  Arousing the Mind of Universal Kindness.”  The lecture substitutes for one originally scheduled with Dr. Mel Ang of the U.S. State Department, who had to cancel.

The “Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing” performance is Saturday, November 17, at 7 p.m. in Holloway Hall Auditorium.  Admission to all events is free and the public is cordially invited.

“We have been getting calls from Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey—even as far away as Massachusetts inquiring about this residency,” said Krell-Salgado.  “Not only their artistic reputations but their world view promoting purification and healing seems to be striking a chord.” Schools wishing to bring groups are asked to call the SU Office of Cultural Affairs and Museum Programs at 410-543-6271.   For information visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.