Six monks visit area to tell of their culture
By GRETA HALE
Staff Writer
ghale@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA — Bill Kirchner, of Medina, has learned something new about Tibetan monks since they’ve been staying with him.
They love Jackie Chan movies.
“They sit there and watch it and laugh and laugh and laugh,” Kirchner said.
Kirchner, a coordinator of Jewel Heart Cleveland, a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma center, has six monks staying at his house for about four weeks. They spoke Sunday afternoon at the Wellness and Total Learning Center in Ashtabula.
Kirchner said the monks are very happy, especially considering they had to flee from their homeland in Tibet to escape religious persecution by the Chinese Communist government.
“They are the kindest, most content people I have known,” Kirchner said.
Kirchner described an unusual sight his neighbors saw last week. One of the monks cleared the sidewalk with a snow blower, still wearing his maroon robe.
The monks are originally from Tibet but live in a refugee camp in south India and attend Ganden Shartse Monastic College.
The focus of the monks’ tour is on harmony, world peace and the plight of Tibet, said Lobsang Wangchuk, a monk who is originally from California, but now lives in the monastery in south India.
Geshe Nawang Longtok, 73, enrolled in the monastery when he was 9.
Through an interpreter, Longtok said the essence of Buddhism is that “you shouldn’t harm others.”
Life in a monastery begins early in the morning and ends late in the evening, Longtok said.
Longtok is a Geshe monk. He worked from 5 a.m. to midnight, six days a week for 25 years studying Buddhist philosophy. Geshe monks in general must complete 10 to 17 years to finish their basic education and six additional years to receive the higher degree of a Geshe monk.
During a ceremony Sunday, six monks dressed in maroon robes rhythmically chanted a section of the monastery text together for about 40 minutes. Longtok did a tea offering. He poured tea in a glass, which overflowed into a bowl. He also periodically rang a bell. The monks threw rice on the carpet as part of the ceremony.
Some of the 20 audience members closed their eyes and meditated, while others stared at the monks.
After the long prayer chant, Julene Schwarz, of Ashtabula, said, “That was beautiful. I’ve never heard anything so beautiful.”
She is Catholic, but enjoys studying other religions and believes there are different roads to God, she said.
After the ceremony, one of the monks, Geshe Jangchub Sangye, talked about daily life at the monastery. He started the monastery at age 12.
While at the monastery, monks study philosophy, logic, reasoning, evolution, karma and the code and conduct of monastic life. They must take 253 vows they are to maintain until death, he said.
The monastic college the monks attend is sustained by rice farming, which brings in about $5,000 a year; private donors; and donations from international tours.
The monks will visit 50 cities and towns in the United States during the nearly two-year tour.
The monks made a sand painting, which is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as part of an exhibit of objects that belonged to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s previous religious and political leader.
“(Sand paintings) represent what the world would appear as if you became an enlightened being,” Wangchuk said.
Kirchner said the sand paintings are destroyed after monks spend hours working on them. That teaches the Buddhist idea of impermanence.
Luanna Hale, of the Wellness and Total Learning Center, said the center sponsored the event so people in the community could become more aware of other cultures and religions.
Wangchuk talked about the plight of Tibet.
He said after Tibet was overrun by Communist China, more than 6,000 monasteries were destroyed and 2 million Tibetans lost their lives.
One of six Tibetans in 1959 was a monk. The Chinese government has killed 1 to 2 million monks, Kirchner said.
Seven million Chinese moved into Tibet, and now only 6 million Tibetans live there. Sterilizations and abortions were forced on Tibetans by the Chinese government, Wangchuk said.
“Tibetans are now a minority in their our country,” he said.
He also said Tibetan culture could quickly disappear if it is not kept alive in India refugee camps.
Despite the occupations, Tibetans still believe in peace, a Buddhist belief.
There was little guerrilla resistance to the Chinese occupation. The CIA, however, did give Tibetans some weapons, Wangchuk said.
The Chinese cultural revolution destroyed centers of Tibetan learning. Tibetan language is not allowed to be taught in schools. In fact, if a Tibetan displays a picture of the Dalai Lama, they can be arrested, Wangchuk said.
One of the monks at the event lived in a monastery in eastern Tibet and walked 24 days across the mountains to seek refuge after the Chinese occupation, Kirchner said.
Tibet was an attractive land for the Chinese government because it was originally a very large country, has the world’s vastest mineral resources and borders many countries in the heart of Asia, Wangchuk said.
Chinese missiles in Tibet are pointed at the United States, Wangchuk said.
