It is a seemingly unlikely, almost bizarre partnership: Richard Gere, once America’s most-desired sex symbol and former leading man, and a solemn company of mantra-reciting, incense-wielding Tibetan monks. But there you have it.
Sanctioned by the Dalai Lama and conceived by Gere — now a veteran Buddhist and ardent disciple of the Lama — the Mystical Arts of Tibet, which is comprised of Tibetan lamas from the Drepung Loseling Monastery, cheerfully returns to Madison as the sole ticketed headliner for the sixth annual Madison World Music Festival.
Doubling also as the Wisconsin Union Theater’s first show in the 2009-10 World Stage Series, the sensational and spiritual event offers two main attractions over the course of five days: the creation of the mandala sand painting and the performance of Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing.
Mandala sand painting is an exquisite artistic and spiritual tradition from Tantric Buddhism that involves the elaborate painting of the mandala, a Sanskrit word for “sacred cosmogram,” with colored sand. Used as means to reconsecrate the earth and heal its inhabitants, the painstaking process of creating the stunningly colorful design with millions of grains of sand normally calls for three to five days of work until completion.
Visitors who stop by the Great Lounge of the Memorial Union sometime between Thursday and Sunday will be able to witness the monks constructing and eventually deconstructing a Manjushri (Buddha of Wisdom) mandala. According to Tsepak Rigzin, media liaison for the Mystical Arts of Tibet, this ceremonial act is believed to advance one’s level of wisdom.
Almost immediately after its completion, the mandala will be ceremoniously dismantled, and a portion of the colored sand will be dispersed among the audience as mementos of the enlightening experience. The rest will subsequently be poured into the waters of Lake Mendota.
“The logistics are to reveal that everything is transitory,” Rigzin said. “We are born, we survive and we die; this teaches us to live every moment with a deep awareness of transition so that attachment to desire does not become an obstacle to our accepting the realities of our life and death.”
The performance of Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing is scheduled to take place Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater and will prove to be just as sensational and soul cleansing as the mandala sand painting.
The two-hour performance of ancient temple music and dance is comprised of nine pieces, some of which are titled “Senggey Garcham: The Snow Lion Dance,” “Tentru Yultru: Purifying the Environment and its Inhabitants” and “Dakzin Tsarchod: A Melody to Sever the Ego Syndrome.”
“[The Sacred Music and Sacred Dance] is entirely authentic,” Rigzin said. “They are tailored to the Western audience in so far that it is performed on public stages and in public areas. These are extracted from actual ancient temple [and] monastic dances and songs, which are normally not displayed in public.”
Through these performances, the Mystical Arts of Tibet claims to promote peace and harmony, provide awareness of Tibet and its heritage and continue the preservation of Drepung Loseling Monastery’s monastic tradition in providing education, health and basic necessities to monks.
“We hope that the audience will accept this opportunity of enjoying [the] monks’ activities as one of the most memorable and uplifting moments of experience in their life,” Rigzin said. “This will be a good platform for everyone to feel the oneness of humanity and much more.”
For ticket prices and the complete schedule of the Mystical Arts of Tibet performance, visit http://www.uniontheater.wisc.edu/worldmusicfest/index.html.
