Tibetan monks share culture at church

Tibetan snow lion leaped along with the percussion music in the basement of the Catholic church.

A group of Tibetan monks wore the multi-person lion costume as part of a traditional
performance.

Earlier Wednesday, they shared pizza with students while dressed in their Tibetan red robes. One monk wore an orange IU sweatshirt over his floor-length garment.

The group of seven monks visited St. Paul’s Catholic Church  with the Tibetan Mongolian Cultural Center. They are visiting from northern India, where they live with
124 monks in their monastery.

They came to deliver a lecture about compassion and perform a traditional dance for the students.

“The goal is to teach our community about the positive aspects of interfaith collaboration and friendship,” said Lisa Morrison, the center’s director of marketing and
public relations.

The monks have been touring the United States since April. Though they have been staying in the TMCC in Bloomington during their time in the U.S., they have traveled to about 18 cities, including New York, Houston and Chicago to present their culture.  

Morrison said the monks have been attending St. Paul’s for programming since 2007.
Rev. Simon-Felix Michalski, known as Father Simon, is an associate pastor at St. Paul’s. He said a late St. Paul’s pastor first fostered the relationship with the TMCC.

“There is a great Christian-Buddhist dialogue going on in the world right now,” Simon said. “We share a lot in common with the Buddhists.”

A group of students and church staff mingle around the table, slices of pizza and plastic cups in hand. Some students stop to talk to the monks.

The ones who speak English respond with quiet enthusiasm. Outside the room is a selection of colorful gloves, scarves and crafts, hand-woven by the monks for purchase by the students.

After eating dinner, buying Tibetan crafts and interacting with the monks, the students were taken into a larger room to watch the traditional Tibetan cultural dance.

“Snow lion is the national animal of Tibet,” Tenzin Dawa, one of the monks,
explained.

Dawa is 25-years-old, but he has been with the monastery since he was about 4-years-old. This is his second time visiting the U.S.

“In the U.S. there are so many Tibetan centers,” Dawa said. “And so many Americans want to know about us, so we came here so the American people can learn about Tibetan Buddhists, so we can share our compassion and our love.”

Dawa described the cultural differences between being a college student in America and being involved in the monastery. Parents tend to be stricter and more involved in their children’s lives than in the United States, Dawa said, and he usually starts his day at 5 a.m.

“It’s very hard, but that’s the culture,” Dawa said
regarding his home country. “The United States is very free.”

After the dance, one of the monks spoke about compassion with the help of a translator. He explained that compassion should not only be thought of as a religious component and described how releasing self-negativity could improve the rest of the world.

“It’s very important to understand negative emotions,” he said. “If you know the negative emotions, you can distinguish them.”   

Morrison said this program has been received well in the past and that the center hopes to have the monks return to Bloomington next year.  

“This is a rare opportunity to see a true Tibetan group of monks who are presenting ancient culture and customs,” Morrison said. “I think being able to go and be with St. Paul’s is again furthering the mission of Tibetan culture to promote different religions and culture together.”