Sounds of an Endangered Tibetan Culture
The contrast of saffron and maroon robes … a pair of 10-foot horns that bellow like singing elephants … throaty tones reminiscent of Gregorian chants blended with the multiphonic rumblings of a didgeridoo … there’s no mistaking the Tibetan arts of the monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery.
Long before the 14th Dalai Lama fled a Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959, before Richard Gere, Robert Thurman and Phillip Glass founded Tibet House in 1987, before the Beastie Boys held the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996 and before Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun” debuted in 1997, Tibetans like the monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery have used song and dance to keep ties to their unique culture.
The monks and their arts have roots in both the ancient and modern movements credited with promoting and preserving this culture. Their original monastery dates to 1416, when it was founded in Lhasa by a disciple of the Buddhist teacher Tsongkhapa.
A replica was built in India in 1959 by monks who fled the Chinese Army’s violent crackdown on Tibet’s autonomy.
In 1991, after the Western success of the monks’ traveling arts show, they were invited to set up a North America headquarters in Atlanta, from which the show’s primary artists now operate.
In addition to traditional music programs, the monks host photography exhibits and performances centered on the creation of meticulously designed mandala sand paintings.
Contact :
Sharp Theater, Berrie Center, Ramapo College
505 Ramapo Valley Road
Nex Jersey
$18 to $23
Tel : 201-684-7888
Webiste : www.ramapo.edu
Author : Robert Bieselin
Source : http://www.northjersey.com
