T h e   T i b e t   H o u s e

On a balmy morning that grew into a blistering noon, the Festival was inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Buddha Jayanti Park in New Delhi. Earlier in the morning, regular walkers at the beautiful park were somewhat baffled by the crowds that had suddenly descended upon their secluded haven. When told it was because of an impending visit by His Holiness, most smiled in quick comprehension and some even stayed back for the event.

Arrangements for the event had been made in the section of the park that is overlooked by the giant Buddha statue that was presented to the government and people of India by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1993. As His Holiness and representatives from various Buddhist cultures took their places for the inaugural ceremony of the International Festival of Buddhist Music and Ritual, along with an audience that comprised people of numerous nationalities, it was in the gentle presence of this Buddha statue. No other venue could have been more appropriate than this, to draw the different cultural and geographical expressions of the Buddha’s dharma into one harmonious melody.

One has often heard of debates and differences of opinion between the schools and sects of Buddhism. Though they all follow the Buddha’s teachings and retain the core truths expounded by him, they are separated by differences in understanding and interpretation, practice and ritual—some doctrinal, others cultural. For instance, the Buddhism of Sri Lanka could on the surface seem far removed from the Buddhism of Tibet. At the International Festival of Buddhist Music and Ritual, they were able to sit together, hear one another, and find the common thread that draws these diverse gems into one sparkling necklace.

This was in evidence right from the start at the inaugural ceremony, where not only did representatives share the same platform but also rendered sacred sutras from their own traditions and heard others do the same. The commonalities were hard to miss—there were three different renderings of the Heart Sutra in Korean, Vietnamese and Sanskrit! This intra-faith chanting began with the Tisarana in Pali led by Ven. Olande Ananda Thera from Sri Lanka and the Arya-triratna-anusmriti-sutram in Sanskrit by Prof. G.C. Tripathi and his group. This included the taking of refuge in the Three Gems—Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—with the triple repetition each of: ‘Buddham saranam gacchami; Dhammam saranam gacchami; Sangham saranam gacchami’. [‘I seek refuge in the Buddha; I seek refuge in the Dharma;I seek refuge in the Sangha.’] In this simple yet profound way, the Sakyamuni Buddha invited people into his sangha of seekers on the path of wisdom. Its chanting at the inaugural ceremony evoked ancient resonances and oriented the listeners towards a deep, quiet space from which to experience the sacredness of the event.

As the sonorous chanting of Tibetan monks arose, a rare phenomenon began to unfold before the audience. This was the famed ‘Golden Procession’, called ‘Tshokcho’, which had once been one of the two major Buddhist festivals celebrated in Lhasa, the other being Monlam Chenmo or the prayer festival. Instituted in the 17th century at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the Golden Procession included monks and nuns from all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism—Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya and Nyingma. They would encircle the Potala Palace like a giant rosary as the Dalai Lama watched from his rooms high up in the Palace.

Now recreated at the Buddha Jayanti Park, the Golden Procession included 25 monks each from the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and eight nuns from Shugsep Nunnery in Dharamsala, making 108 in all. Though the scale and time of the procession were curbed due to obvious constraints, the emotion of sacred celebration was retained and felt by both participants and members of the audience. The procession progressed amidst chanting, and was led by the Master of Ceremonies carrying incense, followed by contingents of monks carrying banners related to their school of Buddhism, and holy objects such as mandalas, conch shells, trumpets, other assorted musical instruments, and so on.

After the spectacle and excitement of the procession, it was time to move inwards once again, in preparation for the dharma discourse to be given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a short while. This opportunity was provided by the chanting of the Lotus Sutra in Japanese, led by Odashi Rev. Fukuoka. The sutra’s sombre syllables, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, that form an integral part of the spiritual practice of Nichiren Buddhism, were followed by the chanting of the Pacchima Sutta in Thai led by Ven. Mae-Chee Sansanee Sthirasuta. Then followed the Heart Sutra—in Korean led by Ven. Ma Myoung Chan (Ilun), in Vietnamese led by Ven. Vo Mong Doc Lap, and finally in Sanskrit by singer Vidya Rao.

With the final words of the Heart Sutra—Gate, gate; Paragate; Parasamgate; Bodhi svaha—still reverberating in the atmosphere, His Holiness embarked upon his discourse on the Eight-fold Noble Path given by the Buddha as a way out of humankind’s suffering. [Full version of teaching is given in an accompanying article.] The morning’s programme concluded with chanting of the Tenbarma by Tibetan monks, and much gratitude in the hearts of all present for the opportunity to witness such a unique and remarkable event.

This was just the beginning, and what followed were three evenings filled with dharma and delight, song and dance, and a new perspective on the cultures of Buddhism. But before, on the afternoon of October 8, His Holiness the Dalai Lama released a Tibet House publication titled Tibet House: Mission and Activities. This was accompanied by a brief talk to the participants on the ‘Importance of Inter-cultural Activities for a Deeper International Understanding’—a philosophy that underlies so much of His Holiness’ own work and that of institutions that draw their inspiration from him, such as the Tibet House.

For the evening programmes of the Festival, the action shifted to the India Habitat Centre located at Lodhi Road in New Delhi. Every evening, this bustling hub of cultural activities was transformed into an oasis of spiritual ritual and chanting, its auditorium, lawns and corridors speckled with colours of monastic robes from around the Buddhist world—Tibetan maroon-yellow, Sri Lankan ochre, Korean grey blue, Thai white, among others.

After this auspicious beginning, Tibetan monks from the Gongkar Choede monastery, now established in Dehradun in Uttaranchal, presented the famous ‘drum dance’ of their tradition. Performed with large drums, the dance created an atmosphere of rhythm and harmony, thus suggesting a resonance of the perfect balance that is believed to lie at the very heart of nature, and forms one of the meanings of ‘dharma’ in the sense of eternal, natural order.

The finale of the first evening of the International Festival of Buddhist Music and Ritual was provided by a spectacular performance by the Korean monks of the Yeongsanjae—a traditional monastic opera from Korea. The Yeongsanjae is a dramatisation of the delivery of the Lotus Sutra by the Buddha Sakyamuni on the Mount Grdhrakuta, and its performance included sutra chanting, ritual dance, and a musical ensemble. Though traditionally the Yeongsanjae would take three days to perform, its duration had been considerably scaled down here. Nevertheless, the chanting and ritual dance as well as the visual grandeur of the opera conveyed an interesting and original interpretation of an event that occurred more than 2,550 years ago in India—another reminder of the many lands, languages and peoples the Buddha’s dharma has travelled in the intervening centuries since his time.

The second day’s programme commenced with a very special presentation—that of the Chod ritual by nuns of the Shugsep Nunnery, Dharamsala. Chod is an ego-severing rite that was evolved by a great yogini of Tibet—Ma-chik-lab-dron—in the 11th century. Since then, its main practitioners have been women. Chod was traditionally practised in cemeteries and other isolated places, and consisted of visualising offering the practitioner’s body to deities, dakinis, or spirits, for the benefit of all sentient beings. The highest level of Chod practice involved the stage where it became possible for the practitioner to actually cut off her ego.

The short, sombre and deep Chod was followed by the Carya Dance from Nepal, said to be a form of ‘meditation in action’. Traditionally these were performed at Tantric Buddhist ceremonies to verses composed by great yogis of India and Nepal. The presentations were made by performers dressed in the elemental colours of blue, green, yellow, white and orange, and consisted of the Dance of Five Transcendental Buddha, the Dance of Manjusri, that of Vajrayogini, and the Sixteen Lasya Deities of Offering.

There was nothing meditative or quiet about the next event—Kandyan dance from Sri Lanka led by Y.G. Rupathunga. This was perhaps the most joyous and spontaneously robust performances one has ever seen, and quite understandably swept the audience off its feet. Viewers’ hands couldn’t stop clapping as the dancers leaped in air with abandon, danced to a hypnotic drumbeat, turned non-stop cartwheels, and exhibited skilled proficiency at jugglery. Clad in crisp white, their torsos and foreheads flashing silver, the dancers performed beautiful animal movements and abstract impersonations. One wonders whether this could be referred to as a ‘Buddhist’ dance form in terms of content or whether it is more a cultural expression, but it certainly did wonders in terms of the false impression held by many associating Buddhism with a certain grimness and joylessness associated with a wrongful interpretation of the First Noble Truth. There was certainly a lot of joy going around the India Habitat Centre that evening as the Kandyan dancers lit up the sky with their joie de vivre!

The third day marked the Grand Finale of the Festival, with most of the performers giving shortened versions of their presentations. These included the Korean, Sri Lankan, Mongolian, Thai and Carya performances. Though the Tibetan element was missing, it was still a great opportunity for those who couldn’t attend the earlier evening programmes to get a glimpse of the rich fare gathered by Tibet House for this truly amazing Festival.

I am sure just as viewers received a taste of the variety that is inherent in Buddhism today at the International Festival of Buddhist Music and Ritual, so must the participants. In this sense, the Festival bridged a gap in the worldwide Buddhist sangha—it brought some parts of it together and made them aware of their commonality, as also their diversity. In doing this, Tibet House has begun an important dialogue that must now continue in different ways, through different mediums and at different forums.