ArtsCenter presents Tibetan cultural pageant

Traveling 8,000 miles from Karnataka, India to the Carrboro ArtsCenter, the Tibetan monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery will present the Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities a glimpse of their culture.

Tonight the Tibetan Cultural Pageant will feature attractions such as dancing, prayers, chants and debates.

“It’s a beautiful trip into another world, another civilization and another way of thinking,” said Art Menius, executive director of the ArtsCenter.

Marki Davis, a host for the event, thinks the cultural pageant showcases essential elements of the Tibetan Buddhist lifestyle.

The festivals put on by the monks are important to the livelihood of the Tibetan refugees — the profits they earn go towards healthcare programs and services for the residents of their Indian refugee camp.

Eve Barkley, coordinator for the monks’ tour, said that the refugees face adversity in maintaining their beliefs.

Tibetan monks were exiled by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

They are currently living in exile in the deserts of India, far from the mountains of Tibet, where the monks continue in a nonviolent fight to maintain their culture.

“They’re trying to preserve their culture, not trying to bomb China,” Barkley said.

The show will feature performances such as the dance of the mythological snow lion. A beast that symbolizes fearlessness and enlightenment, the snow lion will be the subject of one of the pageant’s most unique dances. It features two performers in a full-body, two-person snow lion costume who dance in unison to create an illusion for audience members.

There will also be a time for prayer and chants during the pageant, to bring blessings and well-being upon the audience and people of Tibet. The prayers also serve as means to seeking enlightenment.

The monks will also present attendees with a sand mandala as a way to symbolize the impermanence of life. The mandala is a circular creation intricately designed throughout a period of days with millions of grains of sand.

But, in order to demonstrate that everything does end, the monks will ritualistically destroy the piece at the end of the ceremony. Half of the sand will be given to the audience as a blessing; the rest will be placed in an urn and poured in a nearby body of water so that the sand’s blessings can travel around the world.

“They create beautiful things, and then wipe them away,” Davis said. “It’s a lesson in permanence.”

The Tibetan monks are coming to Carrboro not only to entertain audiences but to also forge long-lasting relationships and to present the vital lessons of Buddhist teachings.

”It’s a centuries-old way of thinking,” Menius said.

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