Tibetan Monks from India to Visit UW

January 17, 2013
Three Tibetan monks

Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India will be part of the events during the Martin Luther King Days of Dialogue (MLK Days/DOD) week.

Tibetan monks will work on a mandala sand painting in the Skylight Lounge in the lower level of the Wyoming Union beginning next week. The opening ceremony for the mandala sand painting will take place at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at in the Skylight Lounge. The closing ceremony will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, also in the Skylight Lounge.

Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to watch during the week when the monks take turns working on the sand painting, which comes from the artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism.

At 2 p.m. Jan. 22, in the Wyoming Union Family Room, the Tibetan monks will present a lecture “The Psychology of Enlightenment.”  The monks will discuss the Buddhist maps of the mind, including its nature and functions.

The monks will present a lecture “Opening the Heart: Arousing the Mind of Universal Kindness” at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, in in the Wyoming Union Family Room. The lecture introduces “techniques for intensifying and enhancing love and kindness until they achieve full maturity and universality,” according to the Mystical Arts of Tibet program booklet.

The UW Student Activities Council (SAC) will host a community sand painting workshop and reception at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, in the lower level of the Wyoming Union.

At the workshop and reception, a representative from the monks will conduct a brief workshop on how to create a sand painting like the mandala sand painting. Participants will then have the option to create their own painting. The Tibetan monks will work on the mandala sand painting, and the community is encouraged to watch them build the sand painting during the reception.

Throughout the week, the community has the opportunity to make their own sand painting in the Skylight Lounge. Refer to the schedule posted in the Skylight Lounge and the SAC Web site (www.uwyo.edu/union/cac/sac) for specific times.

For more information about the Tibetan monks, visit http://www.mysticalartsoftibet.org/.

These events are part of MLK Days/DOD and are sponsored by Friday Night Fever and the Student Activities Council. Individuals who need assistance to attend the event should call the Campus Activities Center at (307) 766-6340.

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