By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Seven Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery have developed a taste for fast food during their tour of North America.
They like Burger King.
The monks, who have visited 35 states and Canada to increase awareness of the plight of the Panchen Lama, their second-ranking spiritual leader, will perform traditional chants, music and dances tonight in Greensburg’s St. Clair Park.
The monks are not breaking any Buddhist tenets by eating at fast-food restaurants while they are on the road.
A vegetarian diet is not obligatory for Buddhists, according to the Dalai Lama, their chief spiritual leader. The teachings of Buddha are open and flexible, he has said. Although some Buddhists choose not to kill animals for their flesh, the Tibetan diet typically includes the meat of sheep, yaks and cattle.
Buddhism teaches that proper thinking and self-denial will enable the soul to reach nirvana, a divine state of release from misdirected desire. There are between 3 million and 4 million Buddhists in the United States. Pennsylvania is home to 30 Buddhist centers.
Kara Bialecki and Tim Prudar, operators of The Shop: Skateboarding From the Ground Up, on Main Street in Greensburg, are bringing the monks to their hometown.
“We’re hoping for a greater acceptance of different cultures,” Bialecki said. “We have a lot here. People in other countries don’t have anything at all and they can still be such beautiful people.”
Traveling by van and staying with sponsors, the monks were in Chicago last week. Their translator, Labsong Dhondup, said the tour is going well.
Americans have shown “warm hearts” and provided “a real good reception,” he said during a telephone interview.
Bialecki, 21, doesn’t call herself a Buddhist. But she’s working on it.
Raised Catholic, she began reading about Tibet and Buddhism in high school. “It’s a major part of what I’ve been doing,” she said, “a big focus in my life.”
She said she never had a feeling of identity with the Catholic Church. “I just couldn’t connect with it.”
Krupar, 25, said he, too, wasn’t getting much from organized religion. “I went to church and it didn’t catch me,” he said.
Bialecki introduced him to Buddhism, Krupar said.
The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lama, is one of the four great monasteries of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The original monastery was founded by the first Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Gendun Drup, in 1447.
Since the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1949, all the great monasteries, including Tashi Lhunpo, have been re-established in southern India. The monastery has more than 250 monks on its roster.
In May 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 6-year-old boy identified by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, disappeared. The Chinese government confirmed in 1996 that it was holding the boy and his family in “protective custody.”
Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Tibetan monks spend years learning as much as they can about Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetans believe that to be a noble undertaking.
Krupar said the monks’ serenity is infectious. The couple sponsored a visit by the monks when they lived in Florida.
“I’m a pretty even-level person,” he said. “But I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time they were around.”
Tonight the monks will offer a traditional Cham performance, which includes eight short ceremonies with a debate and dances, Bialecki said. They also will create sand mandalas — circular designs symbolizing the universe, wholeness or totality — and perform Buddhist chants and music.
The monks specialize in house blessings, prayers for the evolution of those who have passed on, and healing prayers for the removal of obstacles. Their prayers are performed with chanting, accompanied by horns, cymbals and drums.
The free performance begins at 6:30 p.m. Donations will be accepted, Bialecki said.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or (724) 850-1217.
