4/22/2005

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

MONKS FROM TIBET TO VISIT SRU TO EXPLAIN PHILOSOPHY, LIFE

     SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Thubten Dhargye Ling and the monks of Gaden Shartse will present “Death, Bardo and Rebirth,” a lecture on Buddhism and Tibetan monk life, at 3:30 p.m. and “Tibetan Music, Monastic Chanting and Buddhist Philosophy” at 7 p.m. Tuesday [April 26] in Slippery Rock University’s Spotts World Cultures Building Auditorium.

      The program is part of the groups’s one-day campus visit.

      In addition the World Religions Film Night will offer “Kundyn,” the story of the exiled dali lama, at 7 p.m. Monday in Spotts with Dr. Andrew Colvin, instructor in philosophy, as discussant.

      The events are free.

      The Gaden Shartse Monastic college, which serves as the monk’s home, is a voluntary seat for Tibetan learning and a non-profit educational and cultural center. Its concentration is in Tibetan literature and history and all aspects of Buddhist philosophy and practice, including rituals and arts such as scroll and sand painting, along with languages and modern subjects. The monastery is maintained through agriculture, including 84 acres of farmland. The visiting monks are living as refugees in exile in India.

      Monks from Gaden Shartse have visited campus in previous years. The visit is sponsored by the SRU philosophy, English and Asian studies departments, the College of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts and the Office of International Initiatives.

PN, PgN, WPN