Ngari Institute Foundation

The Great Compassion Mandala Tour visited Colorado in October 2018 (Reported by David Resch)

The tour was led by Geshe Tsewang Dorje, director of the Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Ladakh, India, and was designed to share the beauty of Himalayan Buddhist culture and to spread a message of kindness and compassion. During the Colorado portion of the tour, 3 sand mandalas were constructed: one at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, one at the public library in Pueblo, and one at Congregation Beth Evergreen in Evergreen, Colorado. Wonderful ceremonies were performed in conjunction with the initiation, construction, and dissolution of each sand mandala, and all were very well attended.

Additionally, several other events were held in conjunction with the Great Compassion Mandala Tour.  Renowned scholar Dr. Robert Thurman gave a free lecture on Tibetan mandalas at Colorado College. Chelsea Beach, founder of the Himalayan Art School in Colorado Springs, gave a lecture about Paubha painting, a 1,000-year-old genre created by the indigenous people of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. Geshe Tsewang and the other monks performed an “eye opening” ceremony for the paintings of Chelsea and her current students. During the eye-opening ceremony, the figures in the paintings are thought to become imbued with the spirit of enlightenment.

The Great Compassion Mandala Tour was a huge success in Colorado. The monks were a big hit and their welcoming presence led to many wonderful interactions. The message of kindness and compassion reverberated through all of the events, and the big smiles on all of the attendees’ faces were surely indicative.