Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, May 2, 1996

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

WILD LIFE, TAMED MIND

SERAJE MONKS IN MULTI-MEDIA TOUR

Contact: Kaj Kangas (416)653-6394

A troupe of twelve Tibetan monks on a North American tour from Seraje Monastery will be performing their multi-media program, Wild Life, Tamed Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Tibet in Sacred Music and Dance, at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall, at 8 PM on Thursday May 30, 1996.

A special Healing Ceremony is also scheduled for Saturday, June 1st at 8 PM at Convocation Hall. A number of events to publicize the visit of the Seraje monks are additionally planned. The monks, together with their translator, who is a Tibetan Buddhist nun, are available for interviews and in-studio videotaping sessions.

Seraje Monastery was one of the great monastic institutions of Lhasa, Tibet. Reconstructed by Tibetan refugees in South India, the new Seraje is now a thriving monastic college, one of the cornerstones of the Tibetan's ongoing struggle to carry their rich culture forward into the twenty-first century.

The touring Seraje monks are specially trained in the classical ritual arts of music, ritual chanting, dance and sand painting. Wild Life, Tamed Mind is a unique theatrical display of these traditional sacred arts of Tibet which are performed in elaborate and colorful costumes. This display, in which the monks portray real and mythical animals, spirits and Buddhist deities, is combined in Wild Life, Tamed Mind with slides and video illustrating the landscape, history and culture of Tibet.

These dramatic performances are embedded in a narrative that brings to life the history and way of life of Tibet through some of its greatest characters. In Act II, the story expands into the unique spiritual culture that blossomed in Tibet with the development of Tibetan Buddhism. This introduction of the religious heritage of Tibet will touch on the basic ideas of Buddhism, along with a glimpse of monastc training, including public debate, ritual recitation and meditation.

The history of the land and people of Tibet will be illustrated by slides, and video projections will deliver views of life at Seraje Monastery, as well as dramatic recent footage from inside Tibet and a message from the Dalai Lama.

Wild Life, Tamed Mind was written by David Patt, the author of A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands, and makes abundant use of the brilliant photographic library of the anthropologist Peter Gold (Navajo and Tibetan Sacred Wisdom; Altar of the Earth). The program will be narrated by Ani Thubten Dekyong, a Tibetan Buddhist nun who has taught and translated for lamas around the world and founded the Kacho Ghakyil Nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Tickets for this event are available at the door or through Ticketmaster. The price is $18. This is a fundraising event for the Seraje Monastery.

For further information, photographs and to arrange interviews or a video-taping session with the monks and Ani Thubten Dekyong, contact Kaj Kangas at the number listed above. Visit the monks' web site at: http://www.io.org/~gaden/SeraJeTour/Sera_Je.html

Submitted by: Dan Sargeant