By Robert King
Indianapolis -Elaine Irwin Mellencamp had been taking her two sons to visit the Tibetan Cultural Center for years.
“For my boys, it is a big and open space where they can run around,” she said of the 108 acres of countryside the center occupies south of Bloomington.
But Mellencamp, a model who has appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue and in various TV ads, began a closer relationship with the center in 2003, when the 14th Dalai Lama visited the center.
Mellencamp, wife of rocker John Mellencamp, was part of the group who welcomed His Holiness. She spoke on behalf of local school children who had authored essays on world peace.
When the cultural center’s new director, Arjia Rinpoche, took the reins earlier this year, he asked Mellencamp to join the board of the center’s interfaith temple, known as the Kumbum Chamtse Ling.
Mellencamp agreed and has been active ever since. She even persuaded her husband to display one of his paintings and sell a couple of his prints during an art festival fundraiser for the center earlier this year.
Mellencamp sees the center as an exciting part of Bloomington and a beautiful setting. But she also has taken a learning interest in the center, attending several beginner Buddhist classes.
“I consider myself a Christian but I go to a lot of the teachings and really enjoy the philosophy. I’ve taken my kids. They both enjoy it,” she said. “I think philosophically that just as a standard of living, Buddhism offers a very interesting approach of general living practices, basic kindness and compassion, and ways to embrace each other as humanity.”
