Professor Khangkar Tsultrim Kelsang visits from Kyoto to discuss the different views of Madhyamaka philosophy as presented in Tsongkhapa’s fifteenth-century classic The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam rim chen mo), and in twentieth-century scholar Gendun Chopel’s Adornment for Nagarjuna’s Thought (Klu sgrub dgongs rgyan).
Suggested donation $10. Students $5.
In Tibet, especially in the city of Lhasa, the arrival of autumn signals the beginning of kite-flying season. Enjoyed by all ages, kite flying can be a pleasant pastime or a fierce competition where flyers coat their string with crushed glass in order to cut down other kites in a kind of midair battle.
Join us as we explore this hobby enjoyed by many across the Tibetan Plateau, and learn how to make your own Tibetan kite.
Scholar Humchen Chenaktsang introduces us to the world of the the ngakpa ("yogin" in Sanskrit), a lay practitioner of Tantric Buddhism. In the eighth century, Padmasambhava established the ngakpa tradition in Tibet so that lay people could receive spiritual and cultural education. Through study and practice, both men and women practitioners can attain the highest spiritual realization and develop powerful skills, such as the ability to make divinations, perform tantric rituals, and even control the weather.
Join us as we celebrate Losar 2011 with an evening of traditional Tibetan music and food and an exhibition of New Year's offerings from across the Plateau.
Join us for an introduction to layé, a captivating genre of Tibetan song in which singers extemporize lyrics that are almost always about love! In an illustrated talk, ethnomusicologist Yin Zhuoma of the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, discusses the forms and styles of layé, as well as the unique spectacle of the large-scale layé performances at the annual June Festival in Rebkong.
Eight years ago, ten artists came together to undertake an experiment. In a former Sichuanese restaurant along Lhasa’s Barkhor, they created the Gendün Chöpel Artists’ Guild and Gallery, and changed what it meant to be an artist in Tibet forever.
Jetsün Kushok Chimey Luding was born into the prestigious Sakya Khön family, which was established in the eleventh century by Khön Könchok Gyelpo. In the Sakya Khön family, the daughters are known as Jetsünmas and have an important role as religious practitioners and teachers. Until she was twenty-one years old, she lived in the Sakya Khön Dolma Palace in Sakya, and left Tibet for India in 1959. Presently she resides in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, with her family but as a popular lama, she travels all over the world to give teachings.
Join as we celebrate the Year of the Iron Tiger at Trace Foundation with a display of traditional Tibetan butter sculptures and a demonstration of their construction.
Scholar and writer Tseten Dorje will present his research on the culture, customs and cuisine of eleventh-century Tsongkha, an extensive region in contemporary Qinghai Province. This culturally diverse region, situated at the confluence of Tibetan, Mongolian, Turkic and Han cultures, is generally considered to have included modern-day Xining, Kumbum, Datong, Drotsang, and Kokonor. The region is the birthplace and namesake of Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of Ganden Monastery near Lhasa, and the Gelukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism.
Kadrung Nornang’s Rules for Formal Letter Writing was written in 1888 by Nornang Wangdü Tsering, a Chair-Secretary in the Tibetan government. The book is a comprehensive manual of the rules and etiquette in the composition of all manner of correspondence, including formatting and margins of letters, how to properly address letter recipients according to their rank or position, how to use a seal and wax to close the letter, and so on.
