By Lisa Chamoff
NORWALK – In his first visit to this country, Tsewang Dorjee, a Tibetan Buddhist monk from the Drepung Gomang monastery, has been to 40 states over the past year.
His impression of America is that it’s a friendly but fast-paced culture, with people constantly rushing from one place to another and talking on their cell phones.
“It’s totally different from Tibet and India,” said Dorjee, sitting at a table piled with beads and silk scarves for sale in the United Church of Rowayton’s meeting house. “We’re just much more relaxed.”
Proving Dorjee’s statement, four monks nearby bend patiently over a small square, sketching an elaborate pencil design with rulers and a compass. It is the beginning of a “mandala,” Sanskrit for circle, an ancient form of Tibetan art made with colored sand that is slowly coaxed through metal funnels, called chakpurs, to create intricate designs.
The 11 monks have stopped in Rowayton this week as part of a yearlong North American tour to share the ancient Tibetan Buddhist culture and help raise funds for their monastery in southern India.
The original Drepung Gomang monastery, founded in 1416, served as one of the largest Buddhist universities in Tibet. After Tibet lost autonomy to China in 1959, many monks followed the exiled Dalai Lama to southern India, and the monastery was re-established there 10 years later.
Today, about 1,800 monks live and study at the Drepung Gomang monastery. They come from countries including Russia, Mongolia and Nepal, but many are Tibetan refugees.
“Many monks, they still flee from Tibet,” said Thupten Kelsang, a spokesman and translator for the monks. “By the end of this year, we may have 2,000 monks.”
Money raised from the tour will go toward a food foundation for the monks, many of whom are destitute when they leave Tibet. Aside from selling traditional items such as prayer flags and Mala beads, the monks suggest that people who attend events give a small donation.
During their six days in Rowayton, the monks have scheduled several activities. They will perform a fire puja, a special prayer for overcoming obstacles, tonight in the field behind the Rowayton Community Center, and will put on a cultural pageant and slide show Saturday night at Roton Middle School.
The focus of their visit, however, is the mandala. Among several different designs, the monks are constructing one called the “Buddha of Compassion,” at the center of which is a lotus flower representing the Buddhist deity Avalokitesvara.
“This is to create world peace and also peace for the individual,” Kelsang said.
Before beginning work on the mandala yesterday morning, the monks chanted while performing an opening ceremony to consecrate the site and summon good forces.
On Sunday, they will destroy the mandala, distributing small bags of sand to individuals and then sweeping the rest up to pour into the Five Mile River. This signifies the impermanence of worldly things.
This is the second time the Drepung Gomang monks have visited Rowayton and their fourth North American tour. The group will travel next to Easton, Pa., then back to Connecticut, where they will end their tour in Greenwich.
“So far we’ve had a very good reception, especially at many different universities and colleges,” Kelsang said. “People are very interested. They feel like we’re giving them a great gift.”
Dorjee said he noticed the Tibetan cause is popular in the United States. At a college the monks visited in Missouri during the tour, the local chapter of Students for a Free Tibet put on a concert where they were special guests.
The monks also have received a warm welcome in Rowayton, where they will stay in the homes of church members. Rowayton resident Tom Lucas, who stopped by the church yesterday with his 4-year-old son, Andrew, to watch the work on the mandala, said he saw the monks leaving from dinner at a neighbor’s house the other night and offered to take them out on his boat.
“This is great,” he said, watching the monks bowing over the mandala.
Church member Gillian Marshall, who has traveled in India and Tibet and met the Dalai Lama, organized the monks’ visit. She still has the small bag of sand from the mandala they made in 2002 in her wallet.
During their last visit to Rowayton, the monks raised more than $13,000, one of the largest amounts during the tour, Marshall said.
“It’s the private sector that keeps these people alive and preserves the culture,” Marshall said.
