EVENTS
For up to date information on the Monks' tour of North America
visit https://www.sacredartsoftibettour.org/
The Monks' tour will return to Northern California in January 2024
The Monks will be making a sand mandala. Mandala means literally "that which extracts the essence." There are many different types of mandalas used by Tibetan Buddhists. They can be created in either two or three dimensions. The ones on the monks' tour will be two‑dimensional sand mandalas. These are without doubt the most creative, labor‑intensive, and concentration‑intensive of all mandalas created. The ones provided on the tour will require between 75 and 125 hours of effort, completed by several monks at a time. Each sand mandala represents the architectural layout of the entire palace of a specific deity. This year the Monks will create a Green Tara Sand Mandala.
Gaden Shartse Monastery
Gaden Sharste is at the forefront of the revival of Tibetan Monastic education, with more than 1600 resident students, teachers, scholars, and spiritual practitioners. More than 70% of the members are between the ages of 10 and 25 and 80% of these were born in Tibet. To this day, young monks arrive at the Monastery weekly from Tibet, seeking shelter and education. Due to the success of the academic program and the quality of the teachers at the monastery, Gaden Shartse has established a reputation as being the leader in the field of Buddhist and Tibetan studies.
After the invasion of Tibet by the Chinese in 1949, 48 surviving members of the College fled south across the border into India. There they settled in army tents in a remote jungle area that was about a night's journey from the city of Mysore. Slowly they built a mud and bamboo thatched dwelling in which the monks ate, slept, studied, debated, and prayed together. Many died from sickness and exhaustion; others survived but remained ill and bedridden. Those who survived became very resourceful, teaching themselves how to farm the land by means of trial and error. In 1972, three years after settling, their fields were green with their first successful crops. Fifteen Tibetan children from the local Tibetan refugee camp enrolled in the newly founded monastery, funded by the selling of the produce. A simple everyday routine was set up, combining education with physical labor. A rudimentary teaching staff of Tibetans, well‑versed in history and Buddhist teachings, was established.
Today an in‑depth education are offered in all aspects of Buddhist philosophy and practice is the focal point of the academic program at Shartse. The duration of the monastic program is 24 years. The students interact with their teachers on a daily basis. Accommodation, food, and instruction are all free and are provided by the monastic administration. Shartse offers complete basic courses in Tibetan History, Literature, Poetry, Grammar, English, and Mathematics, which are studied as prerequisites for the more advanced courses of Elementary Dialectics, Buddhist Logic, the Prajnaparamita (the study of Wisdom/ the Heart Sutra), Madhyamika Philosophy, Vinaya (Ethics), and Abidharma (Epistemology).
Purpose of the Tour
The 2023 Tour from Gaden Shartse Monastic University will arrive in the West soon and we look forward to sharing the Buddha's teachings, seeing and
visiting our new and old friends and touring the varied locales, climates and customs.
The Primary Purpose of Tour is to present the Tibetan Perspective of the Buddha's teachings, numerous Empowerment's, Lectures, Mandalas have been in
preparation for months to make this possible.
Secondly, Gaden Shartse needs to maintain the University Temples, classrooms, library. texts, kitchens, food, grounds, and fields. If we were to guess $2.00(USA) is needed to maintain one monk for one day and that includes a small weekly stipend for necessities, then this represents vast sums of money, for over 1000 monks, everyday. We wish and want you to come stay with us and share our life. It has been suggested Gaden Shartse needs a guest house in Bhodgaya for transiting monks and students. This is still in discussion.
To be of service to the world community by nurturing peace, harmony, compassion, and tolerance.
To raise funds to preserve Tibetan culture and educational supplies, teachers, buildings, maintenance, and outreach at Gaden Shartse Phukhang Monastery
in the Tibetan Refugee Settlement at Mundgod, India.
