Join us for a special evening with one of the world’s foremost contemporary calligraphy artists Tashi Mannox. Tashi is not only a master of various Tibetan traditional scripts, but has innovated his technique and concept to develop his own unique artistic style while remaining rooted to the integrity of tradition. Having trained and studied with the great teachers of Tibetan calligraphy as a young monk himself, Tashi furthered his knowledge of Tibetan script, decoration, and design by traveling through India, Nepal and Tibet.

Join us for a talk by Geshe Lobsang Monlam on the future of technology as it relates to the Tibetan language. A monk and scholar, Monlam is famous for his development of Tibetan-language computer programs and is the most-well known computer developer amongst Tibetans. A self-taught programmer, he has worked on projects that range from font creation to the first Tibetan-language digital dictionary.

Join us on Tuesday, August 23rd for a rare opportunity to meet the artists behind a unique tradition. The Khyenle bronze workers of Derge are the inheritors of a traditional Tibetan art--metalwork based on wax and sand-casting--that has continued through five generations. With hand-crafted works that range from statues to jewelry, Khyenle (the name of both the company and the bronzework style) emphasizes the need for creativity that operates on a spiritual level as well as an aesthetic one.

Join us for a special evening with Khenpo Tsultrim Lodroe, abbot of Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Kham, as he discusses his work and efforts in promoting the use of Tibetan language among his followers, nomads, and the greater Tibetan community. Among his activities in this regard, Khenpo has founded libraries and schools, and has compiled dictionaries of new “daily” vocabulary for terms that previously had no Tibetan equivalent, which has been promoted throughout the community, especially in nomadic areas.

A nomad girl is orphaned on the eve of taking her college entrance exam. She leaves school and returns home to take care of the family’s livestock so that she might support her brother’s education. This is the story of Tsezung Lhamo.

During Transcending Tibet, you had a chance to see firsthand the work of more than 30 artists working with Tibetan themes. Now we're delighted to offer you the opportunity to learn from one of the masters himself, using three motifs commonly found in Tibetan art: symbols, animals, and clouds.

Join us this November for three Sunday workshops led by master painter Rabkar Wangchuk. Tickets for each session (including material fees) are available for $40, or as a set of three for $100.

འཛམ་གླིང་ཡང་རྩེའི་སྟེང་གི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་། ཞེས་པའི་དེབ་ཀྱི་ནང་ལ། མི་རིགས་ཞིབ་འཇུག་པ་དང་རིག་དངོས་སྐུ་གཉེར་བ་ཁེ་ལེར་ཧ་རི་སི་ནས། དབྱིན་ཇི་དང་རྒྱ་རིགས་རིག་དངོས་གསོག་གཉེར་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཇི་ལྟར་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཐོག་ལ་བོད་འདི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་ཞིག་ལ་སྒྱུར་ཐབས་བྱས་པའི་སྐོར་ལ་ཞིབ་ཅིང་ཕྲ་བ་བྲིས་ཡོད། དེབ་འདིའི་ནང་ལ། བོད་པ་མིན་པའི་མི་སྣ་ཚོས་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་གི་ནང་ལ་བོད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པ་བཞེངས་སྟངས་སྐོར་ལ་འགྲེལ་བཤད་གསལ་པོ་སྐྱོན་ཡོད། རྩོམ་པ་པོས་བོད་ལ་ཕྱོགས་སྐྱོད་མང་པོ་མཛད་པའི་ཉམས་མྱོང་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས། དེང་དུས་བོད་པའི་སྒྱུ་རྩལ་བ་ཚོས། ཇི་ལྟར་ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་པས་བློ

ང་ཚོའི་བོད་ཀྱི་རི་མོའི་སྒྱུ་རྩལ་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་དེ་༢༠༡༥ཡི་དཔྱིད་ཀ་བར་ལ་བསྒྱངས་པ་ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་དེའི་བར་ལ་དམིགས་བསལ་རི་མོའི་སྒྱུ་རྩལ་གྱི་སྔོན་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཞིག་གོ་སྒྲིག་ཞུ་བཞིན་ཡོད་པས། འདིར་མནན་ནས་གནས་ཚུལ་ཞིབ་ཕྲ་གཟིགས་རོགས། འགྲེམ་སྟོན་དང་སྣེ་ལེན་དེ་ལ་རྩེ་དཔེ་མཛོད་ཀྱི་ཁང་པའི་ཐོག་བརྩེགས་དང་པོ་སྟེ། 132 Perry Streetལ་གོ་སྒྲིག་བྱ་རྒྱུ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་བྱེད་སྒོ་གཞན་པ་རྣམས་དཔེ་མཛོད་ཀྱི་ཚོམས་ཆེན་ནང་ལ་སྤེལ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། སྐུ་མགྲོན་སྣེ་ལེན་ནི། ཟླ་བ་༡༡ཚེས་༦ཉིན། ཆུ་ཚོད། ༦ནས་༨བར་ཡིན།

ངེད་ཚོའི་ཚོགས་པའི་ལོ་ངོ་ཉི་ཤུ་འཁོར་བའི་མཛད་སྒོའི་དུས་ཆེན་དང་སྟབས་བསྟུན་ནས། བོད་ཀྱི་གློག་བརྙན་ཁྲབ་ཁྲིད་པ་གྲགས་ཅན་རྣམས་གདན་ཞུ་བྱས་ནས། ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་གློག་བརྙན་ཞིབ་འཇུག་པ་ཀོ་ལོམ་སྦི་ཡའི་སློབ་ཆེན་གྱི་མཁས་དབང་རོ་སྦི་ལགས་དང་། དེང་རབས་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་གི་གློག་བརྙན་སྡེ་ཚན་གྱི་ས་ལེ་ལགས། དེ་བཞིན་གློག་བརྙན་འགྲེམ་སྤེལ་ཁང་ཀི་ནོ་ལོར་སྦེར་གྱི་ཚོགས་གཙོ་གཞོན་པ་ཨེ་ལི་ཛྲ་སྦེ་ཐར་བཅས་མཉམ་དུ་བགྲོ་གླེང་གནང་བའི་ལེ་ཚན་གསར་པར་ཕེབས་རོགས། བགྲོ་གླེང་བསྒྲུབས་རྗེས་མཆོད་ཆང་དང་མཁས་དབང་རྣམས་མཉམ་དུ་བཀའ་མོལ་ཞུ་བའི་གོ་སྐབས་ཡོད་དོ། 

མཁས་དབང་ཨན་ཌོར་ཁུན་ཊི་མན་མཆོག་གིས་བརྩམས་པའི་དེབ། "རྣལ་འབྱོར་བ་དང་སྨྱོན་པ།"ཞེས་པའི་དེབ་ཀྱི་སྐོར་ལ་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་མཉམ་དུ་བགྲོ་གླེང་གནང་བར་ཕེབས་ཤོག དེབ་འདིའི་ནང་དོན་གཙོ་བོ་ནི། བོད་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་བ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རལ་པ་དང་། ཁོང་གི་རྣམ་ཐར་རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་གནང་མཁན་གཙང་སྨྱོན་ཧེ་རུ་ཀའི་དབར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་སོགས་ལ་དཔྱད་ཞིབ་བྱ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ནོ།

ང་ཚོས་དགའ་སྤྲོའི་ངང་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་ཞུ་རྒྱུར། ཟླ་བ་འདིའི་ནང་ལ་ཀུན་ཕན་ཐེབས་རྩས་ཨེ་ཤེ་ཡའི་ཚོགས་པར་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་བྱས་ཡོད། འབྲི་གུང་དགོན་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཉིན་ལྔའི་རིང་༼ཞོགས་པའི་ཆུ་ཚོད་༡༡པ་ནས་ཕྱི་དྲོའི་ཆུ་ཚོད་༦པ་བར་ལ་༽ རྡུལ་ཚོན་གྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བཞེངས་རྒྱུ་རེད། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་དེ་ནི་ཨེ་ཤེ་ཡའི་ཚོགས་པས་གཉེར་བའི་གདན་ས་མཐིལ་གྱི་དགོན་པའི་ཕུལ་བྱུང་གི་སྒྱུ་རྩལ་ཞེས་པའི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་དབུ་འབྱེད་ཀྱི་མཛད་སྒོ་ཞིག་རེད། རྡུལ་ཚོན་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ནི་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་སྒོར་མེད་དུ་མི་རུང་བའི་དབང་དང་ཆོ་གའི་ཉམས་ལེན་གྱི་ཡོ་བྱད་ཅིག་ཡིན་ལ། དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དག་ཞིང་མཚོན་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཤིག་ཀྱང་ཡིན། ང་ཚོས་ཁྱེད་རྣམ་པ་འགྲེམས་སྟོན་དེར

དུས་ཚོད། ༢༠༡༣ལོའི་ཟླ་བ་༡༠ཚེས་༡༠ ཕྱི་འདྲོ། ཆུད་ཚོད། ༦-༨

In the age of the iPad, join us for a day free of notifications, broken screens, and outdated software by celebrating the writing arts of Tibet, with calligraphy demos and hands-on traditional paper-making. We are delighted to host international special guests Puntsok Tsering (classical and modern calligraphy), Kunsel Dawa (Bönpo scripts), Tsultrim Gyatso (sand letters), and Jim Canary (Tibetan paper-making) for what promises to be an illuminating tour through a tradition as rich as it is beautiful.

Join us for our last in a series of talks by acclaimed director Pema Tseden featuring a screening of his documentary film The Weatherman’s Legacy, made for Discovery Channel Asia in 2004. Filmed in Pema Tseden’s hometown, the film follows a Tibetan shaman who wants to pass down his hailstorm-stopping and rain-making skills to a son who would rather run a video-rental business in the village. Worried that his reputation in the village is slipping, the shaman’s last hope lies with his grandson, who is beginning to learn the ancient incantations.

Join us in celebrating the beauty of the Tibetan written word with world-renowned artist Mipham Namgyal Rinpoche. We will explore traditional and artistic styles of Tibetan calligraphy with a talk, exhibit, and demonstrationby Rinpoche and special guests, calligrapher Phuntsok Dhumkhang and library director Pema Bhum.

Join us for a special evening with artist Rima Fujita as we celebrate her most recent children’s book, Save the Himalayas, with a reading, exhibit, and book signing. Save the Himalayas is Rima Fujita’s sixth book and her fourth to be translated into Tibetan. It tells the story of a brother, a sister, and a baby snow leopard who learn the importance of caring for the environment on a magical journey through the Himalayas on the back of a crane.

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.

Join us as we celebrate the publication of the most recent work by one of Tibet’s most influential poets, Jangbu (Dorji Tsering Chenaktsang), and catch a sneak preview of his upcoming documentary Precious Caterpillar. The Nine-Eyed Agate: Poems and Stories (Lexington, 2010) features English translations of Jangbu’s works by Dr. Heather Stoddard, of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures, Paris.

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 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.

In this age of digitalization, technology is playing an increasingly important role in both the preservation and sustainability of minority languages. From blogs and video sharing to text messaging and social media, powerful technologies are shaping the future of minority languages. This movement is stretching the boundaries of minority language communities beyond “geographical place” into a “digital place” bridging together communities from all regions of the world.

For centuries, in the shadow of the Himalayas, the strict traditions of classical Tibetan art were passed in an unbroken lineage from master to student. Beginning in the nineteenth century, those traditions came increasingly into contact with new styles and influences from Asia and the West, and the new media and challenges of Western modernity. In the last decade contemporary Tibetan art has flowered around the globe.

Traditional Tibetan histories often treat Nyatri Tsenpo not only as the first king who unified the minor kingdoms of the Tibetan plateau in 127 BC, but also as an epic figure of mythopoeic origin. Our understanding of this king is thus intertwined with mythic deification and embellishment. Old sources including Dunhuang documents (The Royal Genealogy, The Old Tibetan Chronicle) and extant inscriptions tend to serve as the primary clues into the history of the pre-Nyatri Tsenpo and subsequent Bugyel periods.

Join us for a fascinating exploration of the music and instruments used in Tibetan Buddhist rituals. Phursang Kelak Lama, ritual music director of Karma Raj Monastic University in Kathmandu, will present and demonstrate the typical elements and instruments of monastic ritual music, including chants, cymbals and drums, drungchen (long trumpets), and the gyaling (oboe). Along with ethnomusicologist Michael Monhart, Phursang Kelak Lama will explain musical notation and patterns, as well as the general meaning and role of music in Tibetan Buddhist ritual.

Friday: A special screening of the rough-cut of Helena Norberg-Hodge’s new documentary, The Economics of Happiness. In 1975 she was one of the first Westerners to visit Ladakh, or Little Tibet, where she witnessed the psychological, as well as ecological impacts of the global consumer culture on once thriving and sustainable communities. The film highlights the psychological, social, and ecological benefits of economic localization, and the steps—at the community, national, and international levels—that can bring us there.

Language standardization is often looked to by language communities as a means for language maintenance and strengthening cultural integrity, yet it may also contribute to varying degrees of linguistic discrimination and social conflict. In the case of Tibetan language, which has a diversity of spoken dialects as well as a standard written language, new challenges and opportunities presented by urbanization, economic development, resettlement, and other factors present strong incentives to switch to other dominant languages in everyday usage.

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.

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.

On Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, Trace Foundation will host the third event in its lecture series Minority Language in Today’s Global Society, which is entitled Vitality and Viability of Minority Languages. While many minority language communities recognize the need to maintain their languages, what are some tools available to help them gauge the relative health of their language and language communities? What kinds of policies have worked to support and maintain the vitality and viability of minority languages?

The talk focuses on the origin and growth of the mythical view of Tibet in the Western world. Travelogues, novels, fictional movies, and special events —which will be reviewed in a chronological sequence with the support of images— have contributed to the mystification of the Land of Snows and its reshaping as a virtual entity often detached from reality.

Join us for a presentation on recent research in Tibetan art history undertaken in Tibetan areas of northwest Yunnan Province, China, and in Lijiang, the former center of the Naxi kingdom of ’Jang Sa-tham. In this illustrated talk, Dr. Karl Debreczeny will highlight the legacy of Tibetan art in the region as well as recent discoveries.

KARL DEBRECZENY

curator

Rubin Museum of Art

Famed Amdowa poet and scholar Chenrangsé gives a talk on his background and career as a poet and writer, his influences, and the creative process.

JAMPA GELEK