There are many endangered cultures around our world. I really didn’t have to travel halfway around the globe to find one to take to heart.
Heck, just 10 miles from where I live in the Pacific Northwest, there is a new tribal center, a beautiful structure built by a local Native American tribe. Part of the function of that center is to help carry-on and preserve the tribe's cultural traditions.
And yet it was a year ago in Kathmandu, Nepal that Leah and I wandered from a crazy-loud, incredibly intense urban bazaar where animals were being slaughtered in the streets as part of a cultural festival, into a quiet and peaceful square surrounding a Buddhist temple. In the months since those moments in the square -- there were many experiences like that on that trip -- I’ve been reading about Buddhist philosophy, and thinking about how Buddhists seem to be at peace in a chaotic world. I’ve also turned my attention and my cameras toward Tibetans, whose Buddhist culture is being brushed aside by the Chinese government, intent on “modernizing” Tibet.
I’ve made a number of new friends in the Seattle-area Tibetan community who have graciously educated me about their grassroots efforts to keep their ancient culture alive. Yesterday I traveled to the campus of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, where Tibetan Buddhist monks, visiting here from the Tibetan refugee community in India, will spend the next three days sharing their culture.
There will be Tibetan music and dance, and the monks will construct a four-foot wide mandala sand painting. Millions of grains of brightly-colored sand will be painstakingly poured into place, only to be swept away once the painting is completed two days from now.
The monks are allowing me to hang out with them again today and tomorrow. I plan to photograph the many hours of work they’ll put into the construction of the sand painting, and also its destruction. I invite you to check my post next Tuesday for a look at what I see.
Here a link to more information: http://www.mysticalartsoftibet.org/
