Salisbury University Kicks Off Tibetan Monk Residency
Salisbury, Md. — Salisbury University held an opening ceremony Tuesday for a Tibetan Monk residency, the ninth time the monks have stayed at the school.
Community members welcomed six monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery as they consecrated the site of their mandala sand painting through music, chants and recitation. The monks will spend the next several days carefully crafting the mandala, an important spiritual piece in Tibetan monastic practice.
There are several mandalas that have different symbolic meanings, the one being created at SU this year is one related to healing.
“The symbolism is — just a blessing, purification, healing, especially with this mandala is for healing for the communities — for the environment and also for the inhabitants in the environment,” said Twewang Punchok, one of the visiting monks.
SU first invited the monks in 2001 as part of annual cultural programming, which was centered on Asia that year.
“In those days, I would program by an emphasis, and that year it was about Asia. So, the majority of the events were centered around Asia. And we tried to do Pan-Asia because it reflects many different cultures,” said June Krell-Salgado, the former director of cultural affairs at SU. “And one [of the events] was the Mystical Arts of Tibet and they made sand mandala, because it’s philosophy, it’s the arts, it’s music. It hits many of the stones you want to hit when you’re programing cultural events.”
Krell-Salgado remembers the monk’s first visit to the university well, as it came shortly after the country was rocked by the 9/11 attacks. She says in the aftermath of the attacks the monks quickly switched the planned mandala structure to a pattern that represented healing.
“I thought it was perfect for the anniversary to have them do the healing mandala again. And we could all use a little healing right now,” Krell-Salgado said.
And for the monks, it’s another opportunity to visit with the people of Salisbury and stay with local host families they’ve become close with.
“For myself it’s the second time [I’ve visited] and there’s so many friends are here and know so many host families, they like us really…it’s so wonderful for us to see once again those family members and all the other friends,” Punchok said.
Punchok told WMDT that the residency serves three purposes; using the mandala remind people not to neglect their inner values, sharing issues the monks and others are having back at home especially with religious freedom, and as a way to financially support the monastery.
“The monasteries are actually the center pillars of the Tibetan world… everything done in the monasteries. If the monasteries are destroyed, then nothing is left. So this is very important,” Punchok said.
Krell-Salgado said having the monks on campus is beneficial for the students, who get to see and experience the way the monks view the world.
“They own their shoes, they own a watch and they own their robes and that’s it. And they are the happiest people you’ll ever meet. So it’s a real object lesson for the student as well as for any of us about what is happiness and how much do you really need,” Krell-Salgado said. “It gives students an opportunity to come in for a full week and see the progress. They get to ask questions. There are monks in there that are happy to answer questions for them about what they’re seeing.”
The university will continue to hold events with the monks throughout the week, including viewings of the construction of the mandala and an additional viewing once it’s completed, a Tibetan style dinner, a peace walk, and a lecture on the meaning of the mandala.
