By IAN ROMBOLETTI
Staff Writer
BENNINGTON – Two Tibetan monks visited the local community college to share their culture and give the college’s new renovations their blessing on Monday.
Venerable Tenzin Thutop and Venerable Lobsang Gyaltsen paid a visit to the Community College of Vermont to perform a traditional Buddhist blessing on the building.
While 15 students and faculty members looked on, Tenzin and Lobsang conducted the ritual using red-and-yellow-flower petals, rice, and chanting to provide the newly renovated entranceway with their blessing.
Before the blessing began, Tenzin, the only one of the two who spoke English, talked to the group about his appreciation for the goal of the students and the building.
“I want to thank the students for their learning and adding the good of knowledge to the world,” he said. Tenzin proceeded to pass out petals and rice to the on-lookers incorporating them into the blessing.
After about five minutes of Tibetan prayer, which was highlighted by the monks throwing petals and rice into the air between verses, Lobsang instructed with a gesture to have everyone do the same.
The idea came from CCV Coordinator Evita Cobo, who the monks are currently staying with while they are in the area. She thought having the monks bless the new construction would be beneficial on multiple levels, she said.
“This is such an old building with that has been through a lot of changes. It’s important to recognize that spaces contain certain kinds of feelings and energies,” she said. The building, located at 324 Main St., was recently added to the state’s registry of historical buildings. The college added a new entrance way and is under construction for a new extension, she said.
Blessing a building is a common practice in Tibetan culture and the monks were happy to perform the blessing, said Tenzin.
The monks’ visit was also educational, giving CCV students exposure to Buddhism, said Cobo.
“We pray for the building for the building to continue to be a successful business, and we pray for the people in the building to accomplish the goals they have set for themselves,” he said.
Tenzin and Lobsang have been spending time at Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass., where they are creating a sand mandala for the college’s museum of art. They were both impressed by Williams College’s attention to the arts, said Lobsang, who was interpreted through Tenzin.
“The study of arts and different cultures helps us to see reality, that we are all human beings and our differences are not real,” said the 44-year-old Lobsang. He fled with his father from Tibet after the failed Tibetan insurrection against the Chinese in 1959.
He has been a monk for the past 18 years in the Namgyal Monastery in northern India, which is the Dalai Lama’s monastery. Tenzin, 34, has been with the monastery for the past 15 years, and learned English while studying at the monastery’s Institute of Buddhist Studies.
After the blessing, Tenzin and Lobsang experienced some American culture as they joined students for a lunch of their favorite American food, pizza.
