TORONTO – July 14 – The Canada Tibet Committee Toronto (CTC) and Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) chapter at the University of Toronto will host a talk by monks from the historic Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Tibet. The talk will take place on Tuesday, July 22 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at J.J.R. MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, Room 2158 at One King’s College Circle. This special event is one of many talks the monks will make during their first North American tour in Canada, and is open to the public and all University students.
The Tashi Lhunpo monks will talk about their personal hardships and struggles they faced while under Chinese occupation in Tibet. This event will shed light on the difficulties and oppression many Tibetan monks still experience in their own country. The talk also aims to raise awareness of the adverse human rights situation in Tibet, as a result of the illegal Chinese occupation.
The Tashi Lhunpo monastery has faced hardship, as have all Tibetans, since the start of the Communist Chinese invasion into Tibet in 1949. With the invasion, came the attempt to silence Tibetan Buddhist practice and religious freedom. Countless Tibetans have been killed and jailed for continuing to live and promote their peaceful, non-violent, religious beliefs.
The monks bring with them the peaceful nature of their tradition, marked by ceremonies, teachings, and the creation of ritualistic artwork. The tour consists of Cham performances (monastic dance), sand mandalas, Buddhist chanting and music. Their outlook is refreshing in a time when many feel fear and anger.
Bringing a healing energy and a peaceful message, these seven Tibetan Buddhist monks from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery have begun a tour of North America. One of the four great monasteries of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, Tashi Lhunpo monastery now operates in India after being brutally expelled from Tibet.
The tour will aid the struggling Monastery, which houses 250 monks while in need of construction and funding for meals. No student is denied entrance to the monastery, which is the seat of the Panchen Lama. The 11th Panchen Lama is currently being held as a political prisoner by the Chinese government, denying him of his religious training and rightful role as the leader of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. The whereabouts and condition of the 14-year-old child, known as the ‘World’s Youngest Political Prisoner’ remains unknown, despite international campaigns for his release.
