Monks’ tea ceremony at W&J draws a crowd
Monks ring bells and chant as part of the Tara Puja tea ceremony Thursday at Washington & Jefferson College.
Monks ring bells and chant as part of the Tara Puja tea ceremony Thursday at Washington & Jefferson College. The tea ritual is aimed at invoking protectors and removing worldly obstacles that affect day-to-day life.
The Gaden Shartse Monastery of Tibet perform the Tara Puja tea ceremony at Washington & Jefferson College.
Geshe Lobsang Khamchuk Rinpoche pours tea as part of the Tara Puja ceremony Thursday at Washington & Jefferson College.
The Gaden Shartse Monastery of Tibet perform the Tara Puja tea ceremony Thursday at Washington & Jefferson College. The Tara Puja is done in most Tibetan Monasteries daily to dispel obstacles to daily living and relationshipos. It is a lively, active practice involving lots of chanting and musical instruments, including the drum, bells, cymbals and conch. Tara Puja is the female emanation of the Buddha of Compassion, the ritual is invoking her to help relieve the suffering of all sentient beings.
Monks pray during the Tara Puja tea offering ceremony Thursday at Washington & Jefferson College.
Six monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery of Tibet continued the Washington & Jefferson College Art Series kickoff Thursday with a Tara Puja tea ceremony at Olin Fine Arts Center.
More than 150 people attended the ceremony, in which the monks, wearing maroon tunics, sat in chairs on stage and chanted and played instruments for more than an hour.
The tea ritual is aimed at invoking protectors and removing worldly obstacles that affect day-to-day life and relationships.
Among the protectors it invokes is Tara Puja, a female emanation of the Buddha of Compassion, to help relieve the suffering of all beings.
“The purpose of our tour is to share with all people our culture of loving and kindness, as well as our practices and paths to inner peace and compassion, and to raise funds,” said Geshe Phuntsho, who became a monk in 1986.
One of the prayers, the Golden Nectar Offering, usually lasts for 18 hours.
“We’ll do it in a shorter time,” said Phuntsho, who encouraged the audience to meditate and visualize divine beings in whom they had faith, or to focus on areas of sickness in their bodies during the ceremony.
Among the monks visiting W&J was Geshe Lobsang Khamchuk Rinpoche, who was recognized as the reincarnated high lama Gedun Jinpa by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1990.
Throughout the week, the monks completed a sand mandala, created with finely colored sand, and hosted lectures.
Mandala is one of the most unique traditions of Buddhism, and the monks spent between 75 and 125 hours laying millions of grains of sand into place on a flat platform.
It is the third time W&J has hosted the Gaden Shartse Monastery. The monastery was previously in residence at W&J in 2008 and 2011.
The goal of the W&J Arts Series is to bring culturally significant performances to students.
The college tries to bring the monks back every four years so that students who are not able to travel to Tibet get a chance to meet the monks and to broaden their understanding of the world beyond the United States.
The tour helps to support the Golden Shartse Monastic College, which originally was founded in Tibet in the 15th century. Following unrest in Tibet, the monastery was re-established and moved to its current location in a remote corner of southern India in 1969. A small group of elder monks and 15 young boys, all of whom who had managed to escape the destruction in Tibet, settled on land given to them by the Indian government.
Today, the college is leading the revival of Tibetan monastic education, and has more than 1,600 resident students, teachers, scholars and spiritual practitioners.