Tibetan monks offered a workshop Sunday afternoon at the Yellowstone Art Museum. The seven monks are from Tashi Lhunpo, one of the four great monasteries of Central Tibet.
They have been touring North America since August to raise money to expand their monastery – now located in India after Chinese communists forced the monks out of Tibet. The monks are also trying to raise awareness of the Chinese imprisonment of Tibet’s second-highest religious leader, the Panchen Lama, said Lobsang Dhondup, a Tibetan who serves as translator for the contingent.
The monks will host an interfaith breakfast today from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Billings Dharma Center, 244 Lewis Ave.
From 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., the monks will offer a public lecture, “Tibet yesterday and today – tradition vs. Politics, and the plight of the Panchen Lama.” The lecture is at MSU-Billings in the Library Lecture Room 148, located on the ground floor between the library and the Liberal Arts Building.
It wasn’t until 1995 that the Dalai Lama recognized a 6-year-old boy as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Hours after the announcement was made, the boy was kidnapped, Dhondup said.
“He’s 14 now and we still don’t know where he is,” Dhondup said.
