TIBET HOUSE US DRUM | WINTER-SPRING 2023

DEAR THUS MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF TIBET. . .

November 15, 2022— Commemorating the Holiday of Buddha’s Return from the Heaven Where He Freed His Mother

Greetings, very dear members and friends of Tibet House US! (THUS!)

By the way, I always enjoy our acronym, THUS, since a profoundly meaningful name for a buddha is Tathāgata, meaning “One who realizes ‘thusness,’” a term for the inconceivable reality of the world accurately known only by the fully enlightened. When you point out anything with a “thus,” tathā in Sanskrit, you are acknowledging it is “like” itself, meaning not quite just itself, in that all relative things have an illusory quality, as they are always more than they seem to be from a particular perspective—everything transcends what it seems to be. The term is complementary to the thing’s “thatness,” (tattva), which acknowledges that its transcendence does not interfere with its relative presence, actually supports it, even along with its illusory thusness quality—everything’s transcendence is immanent in its seeming presence. (Meister Eckhart used “is-ness” in the same way.)

I do love that our Tibet House US acronym is the subtle echo of this most profound discovery of the Buddha’s “inner science,” since the precious Tibetan culture of all the compassion-driven arts of life-beyond-death we are dedicated to preserving, presenting, and promoting stems from that discovery—absolute relativity of all things as infinite sensitive inter-connectivity of all beings throughout all time and space. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho!

I am happy to write to you on this 22nd day of the 9th lunar month of the Water Tiger Year (T.R.E. 2149)! This day is celebrated by the Tibetan people as the day when our Buddha Shakyamuni, known as “Teacher of Humans and Gods,” decided to return to the human plane to teach us all how to live better so as never to die except as a method of rejuvenation and upgrade! I have described the holiday in more detail in previous letters, so won’t go on about it here.

Why do Tibetans celebrate this teaching of the Buddha so wholeheartedly? The purely material world of this planet is experienced by most animals including us as seeming to be a theatre of suffering, with pain and

violence always thought to be nearby if not right in your face. The Buddha fully meets us there, so we can avoid unrealistic escapism and acknowledge it with his “first noble truth,” what I call nowadays, “first friendly fun fact!”— that suffering is normal for the unenlightened life. But he then shares his more important discovery with us, that this way of being in the world is not inevitable. He gives us a diagnosis of the cause, our inability to see through the seeming fixed reality of what presses down upon us, including even what seems to be the most dreadful thing we think of when we’re not too bad off—that is, “death.” He encourages us that if we investigate, we ourselves can find out that it all is not what it seems to be. We are not seeing deeply enough. His diagnosis gives us x-ray vision to see through even the atoms and subatomic particles to find our true existence to be a blissful oneness with the deepest energies of life. Infinite, and so peaceful, all done, but not nothing at all, and even still ever ready to enjoy by doing whatever needs doing for everyone else! He coaches us not to be impatient, that it takes time and perseverance to open to real reality, and he announces the blessed prognosis, that our actual reality is sheerest bliss, nirvana, perfect freedom from suffering, even in the midst of whatever’s happening. As my friend the Reverend Michael Beckwith likes to say, along with dear Jesus, “All right already!”

Buddha the educator finally sets up an eightfold curriculum and invites us in, to educate our mind, speech, and body to discover the goodness, beauty, and bliss of reality itself—encouraging us that it naturally supports our love of self and all others. What a relief! This education enables us to find out who and what we really are, where we are, and how we can enjoy being there for others as well! This is the very heart of Tibetan culture!

Of course not every Tibetan has gone all the way through this. But some have, and they have joyfully assisted many others to reach various stages along the way. They have found the educational core of the culture that emerged over many generations, once received from India, to be so effective, they live generally in good cheer, in tremendous friendliness, creativity, and resilience. So naturally, when the special times connected with the life of their great benefactor arrive, such as at this Buddha’s return from visiting his mom in heaven time, they

remember, they celebrate, they enjoy the amazing grace revealed as already there in the heart of life.

Back to Tibet House US—City Cultural Embassy & Menla Healing Spa Resort—our inspiring context. Hare Years are very energizing for great tasks, and the water element being prominent, it may help us flow through obstacles in our great task of nowadays. We have to build on our 35 years of service to His Holiness and the amazing people of Tibet by creating and stabilizing THUS, fortifying it even more solidly to continue through the next few generations—at least until the Tibetan people are free again to flourish and shower their blessings on the world from their lofty perch on the roof of the world, on the Third Pole of the Planet Gaia.

Therefore, given the worsening situation on the ground in Tibet, due to the Mao-ification of Chairman Xi and his persistence in the ethnicide/genocide of Tibetan identity and people, the critical importance of our enduring mission of preserving the seeds of Tibetans’ unique enlightenment-oriented culture turns out to confirm His Holiness’s far-reaching vision in founding and supporting THUS with lasting determination. THUS continues to be long-term vital for the future of the highland and her people, a tower of the mission perforce conducted mainly by the Tibetan diaspora and the network of Tibet Houses and other Tibetan Cultural Associations in free nations around the world, rooted in Dharamsala and New Delhi, and channeled through your precious THUS in the great city and state of New York, but reaching out more than ever all over the US of A and beyond.

In carrying out this mission of strengthening and fortifying THUS to not only survive and thrive itself, but also to become a major resource for other Tibetan culture supporting and enacting individuals and institutions worldwide, we travelled this October with a group of friends and supporters to Dharamsala where we visited a number of Tibetan culture-practicing institutions and enjoyed a deeply moving audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who at 87 years young was energetically kind and effusive in his blessing and empowerment upon this new intensification of our work for the longer future.

We were delighted to present to His Holiness some of the members of our outstanding Board of Directors who

had not previously met Him, as well as a number of new friends who have expanded our support circle in marvelous ways. I was especially pleased to present my former PhD/ student, scholar-practitioner, colleague as Tibetan Buddhist studies teacher and translator, Board Member Dr. David Kittay, and family.

Since then, we are also delighted to welcome to our Board of Directors three important new members: Geshe Dr. Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness’s long-serving translator and a major scholar and author in his own right; Michele Loew, famous practitioner and teacher of Hatha Yoga and co-developer with us of VajraYogaTM, a THUS signature brand of yoga bringing Tibetan yogas and Indic yogas together as part of His Holiness’s Fourth Life-aim, namely, to bring ancient Nalanda Indic Inner Science back from Tibet to India today, as India’s own heritage treasure; and Dr. Daniel Aitken, a practitioner/scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, and the dynamic publisher of Wisdom Publications, partner co-publisher of THUS’s Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences Series of works from the Tibetan Tengyur Collection of originally Indian Buddhist classics, in partnership with our American Institute of Buddhist Studies.

As I always say, dear friends, you all also are enacting our Love Tibet movement by giving and working with us to save its precious culture. Thank you all so much for your cheerful presence and contributions of every kind. We will need your help even more, to expand our presence in America for the next generations, inspiring all to save its culture of essential spiritual knowledge and downto-earth lifestyle. With all blessings for your health and happiness during the coming year of the Water Hare!

Faithfully yours, Robert A. F. Thurman, President November 15, 2022 c.e.; Tibetan Royal Year 2147

PS: Please remember your THUS mantra— LOVE TIBET! Along with Tibet’s mantra, OM MANI PADME HŪM

TIBET HOUSE US—Cultural Center of H. H. Dalai Lama patron HIS HOLINESS THE XIVth DALAI LAMA

honorary chair NAMGYAL CHOEDUP, US Representative of CTA/ H. H. DALAI LAMA

board of trustees

ROBERT THURMAN, president, PHILIP GLASS, vice president, INA BECKER, secretary, BEATA TIKOS, treasurer, ANONYMOUS, DANIEL AITKEN, PETER BACKMAN, ANNIE CHRISTOPHER, JANET FRIESEN, THUPTEN JINPA, SUSAN KESSLER, DAVID KITTAY, MARJORIE LAYDEN,MICHELE LOEW, MICHAEL MCCORMICK, JOHN MILLER, GESHE DADUL NAMGYAL, LAURA PINTCHIK, VEN. TENZIN PRIYADARSHI, JOHN REZK, LAURENCE H. SILVERMAN, NENA THURMAN, UMA K. THURMAN

honorary directors

ALAN B. ABRAMSON, LAVINIA CURRIER, PEGGY HITCHCOCK, NAVIN KUMAR, ADAM LINDEMANN, TENZIN NAMGYAL TETHONG, FORTUNA VALENTINO

tibetan ex-officio board CHHIME CHOEKYAPA, ex officio, Private Office of H. H. Dalai Lama VEN. GESHE DORJI DAMDUL, director, tibet house new delhi, india KELSANG & KIM YESHI, directors, norbulingka institute, dharamsala, india

visiting spiritual advisers

GYALWA KARMAPA OGYEN TRINLEY DORJE, NECHUNG KUTEN R., LAMA ZOPA R., KYABJEY LINGTSANG R., SAKYA TRICHEN R., LAMA PEMA WANGDAK, LELUNG RINPOCHE, LAMA TENZIN WANGYAL tibet house staff

GANDEN THURMAN, executive director, BEATA TIKOS, managing director, KYRA BORRÉ, special events, SONAM CHOEZOM, membership, ANNA VARSHAVSKAYA, office manager, TENZIN KUNSANG, program associate, MAGGIE MOHLER, programming, JOE COSEY, digital development, TASHI TSERING, programs/events, DELGIRA SAMTONOVA, social media, THOMAS F. YARNALL, publications, EMILIE APEL graphic arts and design

menla staff

NENA THURMAN, executive chair, MICHAEL G. BURBANK, executive director, LYNN SCHAUWECKER, managing director, AMBER HALLINAN, general manager, ALICIA OJEDA, executive chef, ISSIS ORREGO, front of house, JESSICA ROMANELLO, dewa spa, DAVID GIANGRECO, facilities, ADAM FOIZEN, events & operations, JUSTIN STONE-DIAZ, new media

tibet house drum

ROBERT A. F. THURMAN, editor-in-chief, KYRA BORRÉ, MICHAEL BURBANK, SONAM CHOEZOM, WILLIAM MEYERS, GANDEN THURMAN, BEATA TIKOS, TASHI TSERING, ANNA VARSHAVSKAYA, editors, JOE COSEY, WILLIAM MEYERS, MARC GREENE, design & production volunteers

SONAM WANGCHUK, TENZIN YESHI, et al.

THUS CULTURAL CENTER NEWS

We are hopeful that this year will be a good one. Every project and activity of THUS is proceeding forward.

The Repatriation Collection continues to grow with a steady addition of excellent and representative artworks and antique Tibetan crafts. The database of the collection will be available soon through the website, at first with just basic information and then as occasion allows more detailed commentary and explanation.

Publications and translations continue apace in our partnership with Wisdom Books. The latest developments are detailed elsewhere in this issue.

Programming of educational programs continues but has been complicated by technical issues, staffing issues, and the difficulties still arising from New York’s recovery from the pandemic—you may laugh, but as I write I am on day 3 of my second round of covid… Nonetheless, we have been presenting in-person, online, and hybrid programs here in the city. Our recent member survey, among other insights, made it clear that people are interested in more basic Buddhism offerings, so expect more of those in the spring, along with a return to first our weekly meditation sessions, and then daily if possible.

Visitors, tours, and events in the facility have begun to rebound, but ever so slowly. We’ve hosted a number of school tours, a trickle of tourists, and a number of gallery visitors, but it has to be said that the crowds and groups of visitors are much smaller than before the pandemic (I heard somewhere that it takes two or three years for societies to recover from the trauma of events like the pandemic, so perhaps things will change eventually).

Gallery Exhibitions continue, and many have enjoyed the current Mayumi Oda retrospective. Murals of Alchi will be coming next and you can read about that elsewhere. We are looking forward to a number of excellent exhibitions planned for the next couple of years.

Several conferences (Mentioned Elsewhere) are planned for the spring including, it should be noted, our 3rd annual Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit co-sponsored with our friends at Lion’s Roar magazine. The theme of this one is “Cultivating Goodness as a theme of HH the Dalai Lama’s teachings in the West” and will feature many interesting speakers and perspectives in the course of a 5-day free online presentation on March 16–20 . Please join us if you can.

Happily we are planning to return to an in-person Annual Tibetan New Year Prayer Festival Benefit Concert and Dinner on March 1, 2023 at our beloved Carnegie Hall. Come if you can and please donate generously if you like!

Trips also will be returning! We are now planning an India tour for the fall that will be of great interest, I’m sure; stay tuned!

In the background, the board is working on different plans for THUS’s future and sustainability, and the staff is working on the Sisyphean task of integrating all our processes and software in an easy -to -use website portal for members, attendees, and the public.

That’s all for now! Please have an excellent 2023 and enjoy it in good health and high spirits.

Oh, and please join us at one or many of our programs and events!

JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF TIBET

(IN EXILE)

As mentioned in the President’s letter, we undertook a special private trip—arranged by our friends at Geo Ex through the kind assistance of Brent Olsen—to visit Dharamsala, the unofficial capital of the Tibetan Diaspora, in order to introduce His Holiness the Dalai Lama to members of our board, old and new, as well as some friends and potential collaborators, all concerned to show Him our commitment to carrying on with our mission of helping Tibet and its People by making them better known to and understood by all the people of the world, essentially using simple truth as leverage for justice (of any and all kinds) as befits the nonviolent method chosen by the Tibetan people. Of course we sought His advice and blessings as well. But I digress—our audience came at the very end of the trip...

We began by assembling in New Delhi for roughly two nights, whereupon we began to get to know each other and to discuss our various takes on Tibet House US (THUS) and Tibet and how they might fit into our respective priorities in life, all things considered. This happened as it does in between activities on our free day in the city whereby one group started a day at the spice markets while the other took a tour of some new Buddhist monuments added to Delhi’s attractions in the place of the landfill that once graced the spot. I was on the latter trip and was charmed to hear about the creation of the stupa, by Nichiren Japanese Buddhists, honoring the Buddha’s life in ancient India, from our board member, Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi who began his spiritual life, as a child, in that Japanese Buddhist order before becoming ordained as a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The next morning we made our way to a Spice Air jet to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh in the foothills of the absurdly spectacular snow-capped Himalayas.The monsoon having just recently passed, the roads, while apparently neatly and freshly surfaced were nonetheless chewed and lightly undermined on the sides by the annual rains now frothing in the loamy whitewater rivers cutting through semi-suburban jungle and farmland surrounding us as we began the switch-backing up the mountains to the ersatz heart of the Tibetan diaspora, Macleod Ganj. It was a former British hill station where the families of British colonial administrators would ride out the blistering Indian summers in

relative comfort between the jungle below and snowcaps above. I hadn’t seen it in four decades and it was recognizable only in the most abstract formal sense of the basic plan of the central road running along the ridge it was perched upon. It looked like the quaint mountain village I remembered from my youth but stacked ramshackle on top of itself 5 or 6 times with additional stacks added, just down an alley, to any available patch of slope or ridgeline in any available direction. Tibetan and Indian shops alternated along the side of every road or path, each with several street merchants running interference before them. Jury-rigged water pipes were bundled with loose power and phone lines as they snaked along the paved open sewers flanking the streets with one or several coming or going from the stacks of buildings comprising this glorious madhouse sprawled across this spur of the host mountain. There was even a new gondola.

Basically, the place was a sleepy Indian village when the government made it the residence of the Dalai Lama in the ’60s, whereupon Tibetans, their institutions, their government officials, and a host of foreign visitors descended upon the place and built their houses, offices, businesses, monasteries, temples, and schools right onto any available patch of land—along with many more in the larger town of Dharamsala below. The Indians, both locals, and others, followed suit sensing opportunities in this new center for spiritual tourism and adventure fringed by a completely unofficial and ad hoc refugee “settlement” around the Dalai Lama’s residence in a once sleepy Indian hill town. Add to this the pampered wild

animals —mostly dogs, cats, monkeys, and cows taken care of as a matter of civic pride— running rampant between the range of overly large vehicles negotiating both directions of narrow one-lane streets full of people. I was told that things were so quiet because it was near to Diwali, India’s Festival of Lights, and many people had left for the more populous cities to enjoy that holiday with family.

Our hotel was slightly removed from the village center on a patch of forested slope just below an actual sleepy Indian hill town on the ridge above. Upon arrival we began several group meetings discussing, with our fellow travelers, Tibet’s culture and how and why we present its treasures to wider audiences and whether they might be interested in helping or perhaps collaborating on related projects involving the arts, technology, the environment, and healing from the perspectives of their projects and specialties. It was the process of making “stone soup” that we are well used to over the years of looking for ways to creatively deploy Tibet, broadly considered, in our contemporary world, albeit usually in far fewer dramatic settings—a constant search for donors, opportunities, and collaborators in furtherance of the mission. We also talked about what we all wanted to ask His Holiness when we had our moment, IF we had a moment; at least until some of the wisest among us kindly noted that He would say what He would say and we should focus on how lucky we were to have a chance to hear THAT, anything else would just be a bonus. It’s interesting how HHDL, among other notables from that land, embodies Tibetan ideals and virtues with such universally compelling magnificence and yet when many people think of Tibet they don’t necessarily see Him as a product of the place and its people and thereby accord them similar consideration; perhaps preferring to see virtue as an unfathomable spontaneous aberration rather than a fragile, and not at all guaranteed result of hard work guided by long experience generously shared over the generations so as to provide opportunity to those seeking it.

In the days before our audience we visited some of the cultural institutions preserving Tibetan arts, history, and medicine, thereby affording our traveling companions a crash course in the culture.We toured the Norbulingka center for Tibetan arts and crafts, looking through some of their workshops for painting, metalwork, woodworking,

and the like as well as through their shops. Their mission is the preservation of Tibetan arts, which they accomplish by training, housing, supplying, and retailing their artisans, one generation after another—a museum, boarding school, and store, all in one NGO. After a quick tour we lit candles in honor of loved ones past and present and then we held a meditation in their private chapel; the basic meditative inquiry into the nature of self that grounds all Buddhist practice—conducted in an explanatory demonstrative way rather than ecclesiastical, as befitted the group on the journey. This was followed by a tea, dinner, and a talk on the project by Mrs. Kim Yeshi, the founder and director.

In like fashion, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), opened its doors to our group and gave a special performance of several different Tibetan genres of traditional theater, dance and song such as opera, regional folk dances, festival favorites, and religious ritual dancing. Their director personally explained each piece. A favorite of the group involved two“snow lions” playing and fighting like a giant pair of Lhasa Apsos.

We also toured the Men se Khang’s displays of medicinal plants and minerals along with their astro-medical deities;

Tibetan medicine among its many influences from Persia, China, India, and Mongolia also incorporates astrology as well as spirituality within its methods. At the new Tibetan Museum we saw artifacts from 20th-century history as it was experienced by the people on the ground in keeping with the museum’s focus on the key events of this era. They also showed us a film detailing HH the Dalai Lama’s discovery as a reincarnated lama, using still images from our Man of Peace illustrated biography, to explain this unusual practice so central to Tibetan culture. There were other special meetings with prominent Tibetan lamas and activists.

At the end we had our interview with HH the Dalai Lama, whose remarks focused on the importance of a good heart and compassion, as is His wont. He told us a very candid story of fleeing from Lhasa in 1959 while the Chinese were alternately trying to capture Him or kill Him as they shelled the parts of the city wherein its important personages either lived or worked. He concluded with a very wistful remembrance of how happy He was when his group at that time finally made it to and over the border with India, to see a “smiling face,” presumably the Indians receiving His group, after weeks of sad or grim or terrified or angry people, including His own. As his other remarks moved directly to the importance of the work Tibet House US and others do for Tibet, its Culture, and its People, I came to think that He told us that story as a reminder of why we do this work and how we should do it: from a place of love and respect and comfort for people, not just the Tibetans, who could do with seeing a friendly smiling face, whatever else is going on…

I’ll leave it at that for now and just say thank you for all your support and interest, not just for us but for everyone who matters to you, and thanks for the cheerful friendship in doing what you do! We appreciate it as much as HH the Dalai Lama does!

—Ganden Thurman

REPATRIATION

New Donations

This large sculpture comes from Western Tibet, where the artists drew from Kashmiri examples and pulled iconographic elements from this style of sculpture; however, it also includes some obvious representation of a parting from the Kashmiri style. By the 11th century, Western Tibetan rulers had brought over many Kashmiri artists and works of art in order to create images for newly established Tibetan Buddhist temples in West Tibet. They were drawn from the artistic legacy of medieval Kashmir, as known from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries, one of extraordinary creativity.

Manjushri

West Tibet, 12th century Copper alloy and natural pigment Size: 20 inches

Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds

February 7, 2023 – May 7, 2023

Tibet House is pleased to announce that the Repatriation Collection will be contributing one of our first donations to the Collection, an 18th-century Bhavachakra, Wheel of Life, to the Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds exhibition, opening at the Asia Society on February 7th, 2023.

The first comprehensive exhibition in the United States to explore portrayals of hell across the Asian religious traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam, Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds, examines how systems of belief and the underworlds within them are manifest in the rich artistic creations of Asia. Exceptional and visually stunning artworks explore the impact of conceptions of hell on Asian visual culture over time. Didactic paintings, sculptures, and sacred objects introduce the notions of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Islamic cosmology, as well as ideas about judgment, punishment, and salvation after death—many of which are shared by these traditions. Exhibition artworks portray religious threats of fiery torture as a means to shape values and beliefs, to instill virtuous behavior, and to encourage atonement for sins— reflecting a universal human desire for spiritual transformation.

COLLECTION

Much of what is preserved was produced in the service of Hinduism and Buddhism. A seminal moment in Tibetan Buddhist art can be seen in the late eighth century when Padmasambhava arrived in Tibet and founded the Nyingma order, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism. With him came the first wave of external influence, from Kashmir. This wonderful sculpture is highly representative of the Kashmiri style that flourished under the Karkota kings and made its way into Western Tibet at the early stages of artistic development there.

We gratefully acknowledge this gift to the Tibet House US Repatriation Collection.

Buddha Shakyamuni Tibeto-Chinese, 18th century Gilt copper alloy Size: 13.9 cm. high

Recalling the vast bodhisattva assemblies that manifest when the Buddha teaches the dharma, Sarasvati’s Gift: The Art and Life of a Modern Buddhist Revolutionary, a new show at New York City’s Tibet House, draws forth the sacred feminine forces of heaven and Earth to bear testament to artist and activist Mayumi Oda’s transcendent vision. Devas, bodhisattvas, saints, mountain spirits, immortal sages, wrathful deities engulfed in flames, meditating skeletons, cherubim, nursing chubby babies, and a menagerie of animals and mythical creatures dominate the gallery space in monumental paintings from the artist’s career, flooding the eye with both the glorious and grotesque.

Oda’s bold, controlled line work against her loose, ecstatic use of color breathes life into her subjects and reveals the structure of nature within the transient chaos of existence. Tibet House Managing Director Beata Tikos says that being around the artist’s work on a daily basis is a reminder of our human condition: impermanence. This central Buddhist teaching is further elucidated in the inspirational story of Oda’s life, which she wrote about in an autobiography also titled Sarasvati’s Gift

Get a taste of the exhibit below and learn more about Oda at Tibet House, where this homage to her creative energy is on display until February 10, 2023. This Buddhist trailblazer beckons us to dance around her sacred fire and be set alight by her expressions of female power and beauty.

TRICYCLE Review on Mayumi Oda’s Exhibit by Frederick Ranallo-Higgins

ALCHI

An Immersive Exhibition of Radiant Perception

On View: April 20th, 2023 Tibet House US Gallery

We are delighted to announce an immersive experience of Peter van Ham’s unique and most important images of Alchi, covering the 14-foot walls of our 2,000-square-foot Gallery and recreating the enveloping floor-to-ceiling experience of the temples.

Co-sponsored with PhaseOne

The world-famous Buddhist monastery of Alchi sits at 3,500 meters, in Ladakh, Northwest India, and is the bestpreserved ancient temple complex in the Himalayas. Inside the multi-structured compound there are thousands of rare and incomparable paintings and sculptures dating back to the 11th century, providing fascinating insight into the spiritual and secular life of medieval Kashmir and Western Tibet. The monumental and well preserved artwork reveals influences from India, Tibet, and from all across Central Asia, as well as from Iran— perhaps even reading back to Ancient Greece. These are some of the oldest surviving paintings in the cultural realm of Tibet. Alchi defines a complex of five externally rather inconspicuous temple build- ings located some 60 kilometers west of Leh, the capital of Ladakh, on an alluvial platform above the banks of the Indus River nestled in a valley of citrus and apricot trees.

Surrounded by a whitewashed clay-brick wall formerly studded with stupas, two temples in particular inside this sacred enclave designated as the Alchi Chokhor are world renowned in this UNESCO world heritage site. These two temples, the Dukhang and the Sumtsek, are repositories of Buddhist art that is among the earliest and finest Himalayan art to survive to the present day. Tentatively dated to the period between the eleventh and the thirteen century, the paintings of the Sumtsek are unique in their depictions of secular scenes that vividly recount life in Kashmir and West Tibet in medieval times, and are also rare testimony of the integration of Kashmiri traits into West Tibetan culture.In addition, the level of finesse in the execution of these miniature-like paintings is breathtaking and their state of preservation stunning.

EXHIBITIONS

Peter van Ham, German researcher, author, photographer, filmmaker, and curator, has for 30 years focused on the Himalayas of India and Tibet for his internationally successful work. He is credited with many path-breaking publications on the arts and cultures of both the Western and Eastern Himalayas, and was among the first to travel and do extended fieldwork in regions that had been inaccessible for up to sixty years — he was given extra special permissions by the highest authorities for his ventures. His research activities were honored by fellowships in the Royal Asiatic and Royal Geographical Societies, London, as well as the Explorers Club, New York. In Frankfurt, Germany, Peter chairs the charitable Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Asian Heritage.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessed the comprehensive photographic documentation of the interiors of all temples of Alchi — for the first and only time in their history — which was produced by Peter Van Ham in 2017, using a special camera that provides images of the highest possible digital resolution. These photographs, at any scale, capture the miniature-like delicacy and broad range of color of the originals with a unique wealth of detail not readily perceivable by the general visitor on-site.

THUS–MENLA PROGRAMS

IN-PERSON AT TIBET HOUSE US

Sound Meditation

Franck Raharinosy, Mary Reilly Nichols & Viktoryia Kukandzina

January 15 | 6:00 pm

Classical Music Of Tibet Concert Tenzin Norbu, Tsering Lodoe, Jack Chance & Tenzin Nyeden January 18 | 5:00pm

Geshe Wangyal: With Blessing Of The Three Jewels Movie Screening & Discussion Robert Thurman & Ella Manzheeva February 4 | 5:00 pm

Spanner in the Works/Plan B

Curated by Arden Wohl with Sahra Motalebi, Steffani Jemison, Alexandra Butler , Lynne Tillman February 8 | 6:30pm

Navigating Grief And Loss: Support For Healing Half-Day Retreat

Kimberly Brown April 29 | 10am - 2pm

ONLINE PROGRAMS

Foundations Of The Buddhist Path Dr. Miles Neale

The Contemplative Studies Program Tuesdays, January 17, 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21 7:00-9:00 PM EST/US

100-Hour Mindfulness Meditation Teacher CertificationTraining Tibet House US & Dharmamoon David Nichtern & Dharmamoon Team

March 3 – June | Friday from 6:00 pm–8:00 pm ET, Saturday & Sunday from 10:00 am–5:00 pm ET

Navigating Grief And Loss: Support For Healing Eight-Week Course

Kimberly Brown

March 7, 14, 21, 28 & April 4, 25 (no class April 11 + 18)

2023 RESIDENTIAL & HYBRID RETREATS AT MENLA

Please check menla.org/retreats for up-to-date listings.

Deep Space Soundscape: a Yoga and Sound Retreat John Minks, Billy Pinkerton, and Anne Marie Miller February 10-12 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Sthira Sukha Iyengar Yoga Retreat Carolyn Christie & Hugh Millard February 17-20 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

The Eightfold Path Yoga Retreat Kevin Courtney March 18-25

Death Doula Training Henry Fersko-Weiss March 26-30

Releasing into Presence: A Meditation, Mantra, Music & Movement Retreat Nina Rao & Dorje Lopon Chandra Easton March 30-April 2 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Embodying the Inconceivable Liberation: the Non-Dual Wisdom and Art of Growing Altruistic Community Joseph Loizzo, Pilar Jennings & Robert Thurman March 31-April 2

Medicine Buddha Rejuvenation Retreat

Dr. Nida & Robert Thurman April 7-12 Hybrid Retreat Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Gratitude Yoga Retreat Gemma Farrell April 14-17

THUS–MENLA PROGRAMS

Love in Action: Christ & Buddha Andrew Harvey &Robert Thurman April 20-23

Hybrid Retreat Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Hiking Trail Maintenance Volunteer Weekend Adam Foizen & Michael Burbank April 27-30 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Cultivating Joy: A Ketamine-Assisted Therapy Retreat for Couples

Jayne Gumpel, Dee Dee Goldpaugh, Seema Desai, Donna Sorgen, Matthias von Reusner, Jeffrey Guss, Rebecca Hendrix April 27-30

Reconnect & Rejuvinate Heather Rice April 28-30

Building Capacity for Safety & Joy Luis Mojica May 5-7

Deepening Our Simplicity Parenting Support: for Simplicity Parenting Coaches, Group Leaders, and Care Professionals Kim John Payne May 18-19 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Deep Simplicity in Parenting Kim John Payne May 19-21 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

The Fundamental Principles Of Sound Healing from the Ancient Shamanic Tradition to New Science Lea Garnier May 19-21

Vajrayoga 300 Hr Spring Term: Closing Celebration Intensive Michele Loew & Robert Thurman May 30-June 5

Hybrid Retreat Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Friends of Fungi: a Hiking, Foraging, & Mushroom Cultivation Retreat John Michelotti June 2-4 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Awaken Radiance Retreat Tracee Stanley & Shawn Moore June 22-25 Sponsored by THUS/Menla

Holotropic Breathwork & Nature Immersion Workshop: a Journey into Expanding Consciousness and Rewilding in Nature Dr. Laurane McGlynn & Dr. Tom Francescott June 26-29

ONLINE CONFERENCES

2023 Art of Living and Dying Conference

Grandmother Maria Alice Campos, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, Terri Daniel, Henry Fersko-Weiss, Matthew Fox, Joan Halifax, Andrew Holecek, Richard Martini, BJ Miller, Frank Ostaseski, Paulo Roberto Silva e Souza, Therese Schroeder-Sheker, Jai Dev Singh, Robert Thurman, Marianne Williamson, and Alberto Villoldo March 23-26

The 3rd Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit: The Power of Goodness Co-sponsored by THUS and Lion’s Roar Exact date TBA

The Great Reflection Summit March 29–April 2

THUS–MENLA PROGRAMS

EVERGREEN COURSES FROM THE ARCHIVES

Please visit thusmenla.org for a complete list of Evergreen online courses

Real Life: Wisdom and Compassion in Action Sharon Salzberg & Robert Thurman Evergreen course available for purchase any time

The Inconceivable Liberation Ocean: Exploring the Flower Ornament Sutra Robert Thurman Evergreen course available for purchase any time

Sowa Rigpa: Foundations of the Healing Science of Tibetan Medicine Dr. Eric Rosenbush Evergreen course available for purchase any time

Devoted to Wisdom: Celebrating Buddhism & Bhakti Yoga Krishna Das, Robert Thurman & Friends Evergreen course available for purchase any time

Vajrayoga Yoga Alliance Teacher Training

Michelle Loew & Robert Thurman with Guest Teachers

Vajrayoga Spring Immersion Michele Loew & Robert Thurman May 30 – June 5, 2023

Menla’s 20th retreat season was a resounding success! We hosted substantially more group retreats than in any prior year, illustrating definitively that Tibet House US’ country retreat has fully recovered from the pandemic disruptions. Retreats at Menla are designed to deliver authentic teachings on spirituality and wellness in a variety of ways, with the aim of helping people to heal, gain new insights, and grow individually while accessing meaningful community together.

Now in its eleventh year of operation, our Dewa Spa continues to flourish as well, with our wellness services now available to book directly online, giving guests a seamless reservation experience. With an expanding team of first-rate therapists, trained to deliver unique Tibetan therapies in addition to more traditional spa offerings, our Spa continues to be in very high demand, from the many people on retreats and from droves of locals and visitors to our region.

Facility renovations and improvements continue, including the addition of a long-needed bathroom to our beloved Tara Sanctuary and an authentic Tibetan shrine room in the Conference Center, among other projects. The shrine room features the entire Tibetan canon, the Kangyur (teachings of the Buddha) and Tengyur (scientific texts), two gorgeous handmade Tibetan rugs from Nepal, meditation cushions, and a large Buddha statue bequeathed to Menla by the Thurmans’ late dear friend, Bobo Legendre, seated on a traditional teaching throne. Adjacent to the meditation labyrinth in our newest garden by the Vintage Barn, we have also created a new outdoor games area featuring bocce, shuffleboard, and horseshoe courts for leisurely afternoon fun and colorful sunsets behind Panther Mountain in the evenings.

We are delighted to announce that an anonymous donor has arranged to give us a gorgeous, modern floatation tank, which provides a wide array of mental and physical health benefits,—float centers are rare on the East Coast. We will house it in the lower level of the Conference Center adjacent to the fitness room, and we hope to complete renovations and add this service to our spa menu in the summer of 2023.

This year we published a beautiful full-color 35-page welcome guide to our resort and services, which is now found in each guest room and is available at the Front Desk. These brochures communicate our many offerings with stunning photos and inspiring language

that engages readers. Please be sure to check it out the next time you visit Menla.

We decided to host our annual New Year’s retreat in person again this year, to test the waters after two years of conducting it only online, and to our delight, we booked every bed very quickly! It will be a hybrid event, so if you haven’t registered and still want to celebrate and ring in the new year with us, you can still do so by going to the Menla Online section of our website (www.thusmenla.org). This year we’ll have Robert Thurman, Michele Loew, Alexander Mallon, Krishna Das, and Nina Rao leading classes in person, and then we’ll be virtually joined by stellar teachers Andrew Holecek, Sharon Salzberg, Alberto Villoldo, Marcela Lobos, and Jai Dev Singh. There will be a special focus on dreaming and the sacred feminine, in addition to our traditional weaving of dharma, yoga, kirtan and astrology.

In late March, we will host for the first time a Death Doula Training with Henry Fersko Weiss who sparked the contemporary end-of-life doula movement. End-of-life doulas or death doulas give non-medical care to dying individuals, their friends, and family. They make this difficult transition more manageable by offering emotional and spiritual support as well as providing informational guidance and presence at the bedside in the days and hours of vigil when death is close. They also offer grief support for loved ones after the death has occurred. The death doula training utilizes lectures, experiential exercises, discussion, case stories, and guided meditation. These methods are designed to help you discover for yourself, and through engagement with other trainees, what it means to face dying and death with dignity, honesty, and a recognition of its sacredness.

Next spring Dr. Nida returns to Menla after three years of virtual teaching. He and Bob Thurman are offering a Medicine Buddha Rejuvenation retreat in April. Takeaways will include: a thorough overview of the Medicine Buddha pure land and teaching from the Root Tantra, pointing out the Great Perfection reality, living the three life-bardos of lucid waking, dreaming, and meditating, practicing vajra yogas lead by Michele Loew, experiencing by individual choice external Tibetan therapies at the Dewa Spa, as well as forest bathing in the Menla forest gardens, and ceremonial blessings of longevity and rejuvenation according to the tradition of Yuthok Yonten Gonpo.

We have two big online conferences in the works for 2023, a new Art of Dying and Living conference and a new one we are calling The Great Reflection. The Art of Dying and Living is a new incarnation of a powerfully transformative series of events we started with the New York Open Center 20+ years ago, which introduced thousands of people to the profound exploration of the realities of death and dying as the doorway to living ever more vibrantly in the precious moments of life. Last year over a thousand participants joined us for this inter= active online conference, and we we look forward to even greater attendance this year.

The Great Reflection is a global community of renowned visionaries, conscious leadership pioneers, and innovators gathering annually to use the power of pause, to refresh, reenergize, and reimagine the more beautiful world we know is possible. Humanity has been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to rethink and re-architect the way we live and work. With record levels of burnout, mental exhaustion and anticipatory anxiety about the future, meaning has begun to surpass money as the goal of life, with millions opting to quit their jobs in search of it. The pandemic and mounting global crises have exposed the cracks in the prevailing paradigms of individual self-interest, zero-sum competition, and extractive forms of profit maximization that build wealth at the expense of people and the planet. The old systems are just not working anymore. Yet, the biggest risk we face is not the uncertainty of the old world crumbling—it’s meeting the new world with yesterday’s mindsets. We invite you to join a wildly inspirational community event to unlock your power of purpose, fulfillment, and joy.

Another stellar offering, and one which is totally unique to Tibet House US|Menla, is our ongoing series of Vajrayoga courses, headed up by expert yogini Michele Loew and THUS President, Robert Thurman, along with guest presenters such as Dr. Nida, Richard Freeman, and Mary Taylor among others. Vajrayoga is the confluence of sciences from the Hatha yoga and Indo-Tibetan Buddhist traditions. In these programs–both our Teacher Trainings and intensives designed for general audiences–we study the interconnected nature of Buddhism, Hatha yoga and Tibetan Naljor yogic practices and learn to practice the subtle anatomy software and Indo-Tibetan psychotherapies which help us uncover our original blissful nature. While

the West has until now been introduced to yoga and Buddhism as if they were separate streams of teachings and practices, Vajrayoga aims to explore and elucidate both their common origins and thorough integration on the path to self-awakening. This longterm initiative at THUS|Menla aligns fully with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 4th aim in life: to bring the ancient Indian Inner Sciences (“Adhyatma Vidya”), including the teachings of yoga and Buddhism, supporting human beings’ inner awakening for happiness and freedom back to India.

If you are seeking an authentic and profound yoga teacher training, either as a teacher or as a student wanting to seriously deepen your understanding and practice, we invite you to learn more about our Vajrayoga Teacher Training, running Oct 2022–May 2023. Robert provides students the philosophical and meditation education via Indo-Tibetan cosmologies and in-depth analysis of source texts, and Michele teaches application of the philosophy through physical asana and subtle body rituals. Graduating students will leave the program as a certified Vajrayoga teacher, one who understands the key principles of Vajrayoga and is capable of teaching a Vajrayoga class comprised of physical asana (Hatha Yoga and Tibetan Trul Khor), philosophical inquiry (Buddha Dharma and comparative nondual Indian philosophy) and subtle-body anatomy (Indo-Tibetan Inner Sciences). We study a variety of Dharmic and Yogic texts that include: the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, Mahāsatipatthana Sutta, Shankarāchārya’s Yogatārāvalī, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Yoga Vasishta, and the Vimalakirti and Flower Ornament Sutras.

PLACEHOLDER IMAGE

For general audiences, we also offer several weeklong hybrid Vajrayoga study and practice intensives throughout the year, such as the Vajrayoga Mahasiddha Reunion, with Robert Svoboda, Krishna Das, Richard Freeman, Mary Taylor, Michele Loew, and Bob Thurman taking place in May of 2023.

We will host many other wonderful retreats next year, and there unfortunately isn’t room to discuss them all, so please check our current upcoming events list and go to www.menla.org/retreats for the most up-to-date list. Many Tibet House US retreats at Menla are now offered in hybrid format, so check www.thusmenla.org for online attendance options.

By: Choekyi Lhamo

DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 9: The Tibetan delegation at the COP 27 climate conference in Egypt is putting Tibet into focus by apprising world leaders of the hazardous impact of climate change on the roof of the world. The representatives at the global platform include representatives from the CTA, rights groups and NGOs. The team has met with the Indian Union leader Bhupender Yadav, President of EU commission Madam Ursula von der Leyen, and Czech Republic’s delegation.

“Our team has been meeting with a number of representatives from all over the world. We are primarily focusing on how Tibet has been on the frontline of climate change, yet have no representation in the global stage where important decisions are made. In addition to not having an official delegation, the indigenous knowledge from inside the region has been strategically sidelined,” spokesperson Yangtso told Phayul.

The core team includes Dr. Lobsang Yangtso from International Tibet Network, SFT activist Khenzom Alling, TPI researcher Dhondup Wangmo and Tenzin Choekyi from Tibet Watch.

“This is a crucial time for Tibet and the wider world. Our country is at risk and our struggle to protect our homeland, our environment and our way of life will affect our future and that of a billion people across Asia. But in a cruel twist of fate, occupied Tibet is excluded from the talks,” said the joint statement issued prior to the conference.

“I would say that the scope for protests is impossible this year, unlike Glasgow in 2021, because of Egypt’s own political restrictions. But we have been trying to convey the lack of security for environmentalists and activists under the Chinese government, through the cases of Karma Samdrup, A-Nya Sengdra, among others,” Lobsang Yangtso said. At the Glasgow summit last year, the Tibetan team highlighted the unique twofold existential threat faced by the native Tibetans who on one hand are at the brunt of the climate change but are also receiving no global attention due to China’s forceful presence in the global economy.

MOMO CRAWL

By: Rinchen Namgyal

Excerpt from SFT (Students for a Free Tibet)

“Students for a Free Tibet hosted the 10th annual Momo Crawl in Jackson Heights, Queens. With around 10,000 people from all over New York City and beyond filling the streets of Jackson Heights to celebrate Tibetan and Himalayan culture, this year’s Momo Crawl was a record breaking success! Over 30 Tibetan and Himalayan owned-busi nesses participated in the community celebration. This year’s Momo Crawl was made possible by the tremendous team of organizers, including volunteers, Board Mem- bers, student leaders, and staff from Students for a Free Tibet working in collaboration with community sponsors and local business owners.

After a long day of eating and celebrating Tibetan culture, Jeff Orlick, Momo Crawl founder and longtime sup - porter, took the stage to announce this year’s winners. The first prize for Best Momo of 2022 went to Om Wok! Followed by Pha

yul 2 who took second place, and last year’s winner Nepali Bhanchha Ghar who took third. The honorable mention restaurants, tied for fourth place were Hamro Bhim’s Cafe and Himalayan Yak.

All of the funds raised at Momo Crawl will go to supporting SFT’s campaigns, youth organizing and direct actions. If you weren’t able to make it to this years Momo Crawl, we hope to see you in Jackson Heights for Momo Crawl 2023!”

“Sogan Tulku, known also as Pema Lodoe, is a man whose faith and commitment are unshakable. . . . This book is therefore a most valuable resource now and in the future. . . .”

—Gyalwa Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet

“Sogan Rinpoche was educated and trained in Tibet in a thoroughly traditional way, rare in this modern age. He studied and practiced at the feet of his main teacher, Khenpo Munsel, a renowned Dzogchen master in Eastern Tibet. Since leaving Tibet, Sogan Rinpoche has spent over a decade in the West. . . . His memoirs give an intimate and inspiring glimpse into the life of a Lama who bridges old Tibet and the modern world.”

—Tsoknyi Rinpoche

“Sogan Rinpoche is well known in the Tibetan community, and well known to be close to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has graced us here with a moving and at times heartbreaking account of his remarkable life. . . . Lively and unusually candid, Rinpoche has given us a privileged view of occupied Tibet, Tibetan culture under siege, and of the secular and spiritual journey of a highly accomplished Tibetan Lama.”

—Richard Gere

“It is Tibet House US’s honor to publish this remarkable story and my pleasure and privilege to welcome the world to Sogan Rinpoche’s vision of life. If he and most of his fellow Tibetans can remain positive and kind while enduring seventy years of national and personal invasion, dispossession, oppression, and torment, then why should we give up in despair at the challenges we all now face worldwide? By honestly and poetically showing us how we can take advantage of darkest adversity and turn it into golden opportunity, he has honored his noble teachers, including our kindest patron, the Great Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet.”

—Robert A. F. Thurman

LAMA WISDOM

I was introduced to the subtle teachings of the Lord Buddha, entered a monastic community, was recognized as a reborn Lama, met with a sublime master of the Buddha’s teaching, entered extended meditation retreat in sacred and remote places, went into exile in foreign lands, and encountered spiritual treasures in the fabled land of India and beyond.

I share my inner journey through the intense study, contemplation, and meditation on the profound secrets of the Dzogchen tradition of Buddhism.

—Pema Lodoe, the Sixth Sogan Tulku of Tibet

His first meeting with H. H. the Dalai Lama, in 1991

A Tibet House US Publication isbn 978-194131-208-7 (pbk.)

312 pages with 39 photo illustrations

THUS Love Tibet Readers Collection

this book tells the story of two Tibetan families whose nomadic but devoted way of life suffers from the impact of historic upheaval when their land is invaded and occupied by murderous forces of destruction. . .

Here, in this autobiography, it is a family of yak-herders on the vast Himalayan plains of Tibet who are forced to deal with the reality of extreme oppression by a violently expansive and autocatic state.

China’s Red Army and communist cadres systematically slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tibetans in the provinces of Amdo and Kham, intimidating with atrocities and seeking to enslave the survivors. The active resistance of the Tibetan people to the Chinese invasion in the 1950’s coalesced into a guerrilla army of freedom fighters, the Chushi Gangdruk. They waged war against overwhelming odds, losing to greater numbers, airplanes, and artillery. Fleeing to central Tibet, they helped their beloved Dalai Lama escape the 1959 massacre in Lhasa, to speak for his people in exile.

Paljor Thondup’s diehard Khampa family also rose up to repel the invaders. They fought their way west through the whole thousand-mile length of Tibet, ultimately withdrawing to sanctuary in the Mustang region of Nepal. . .

Welcome to this fascinating history of heroic courage in battles, both outer and inner! You will discover the brave heart of Tibet—one that, no matter what, remains undefeated.

—robert a. f. thurman

The story of Paljor Thondup’s life, related in this book, is one of the most remarkable human stories I have ever encountered. The arc of his life, from an idyllic but rough childhood in the Himalayan mountains to Santa Fe, New Mexico, is immense in its sweep of history and geography, and especially in the human story it tells. The journey from revenge and hatred for unspeakable crimes to forgiveness through the compassion and loving kindness of the Dalai Lama is one of the greatest stories ever told.

—douglas preston

COVER BY VIN DANG

THUS PUBLICATIONS

Soon to be included in the . . . THUS Love Tibet Readers Collection

A Dalai Lama in Love

The Poetical Adventures of H. H. Tsangyang Gyatso The Sixth Dalai Lama of Tibet

He left the Monastery for Great Böd, and true love, sweetly singing for the beloved Bödan People.

by

Annie Bien & Robert Thurman

with iconographic art by the legendary Robert Beer

But the Mongol, Manchu, Chinese and Tibetan politicians couldn’t see a Bödan Dharma King as the beacon of peace in their time.

Love Tibet

SUMMONED BY THE EARTH

Cynthia Jurs

This is the story of a young woman practicing the Dharma who feels a soul-gripping call for planetary healing from Mother Gaia and answers it with the guidance of an ancient enlightened angel from the Buddha Bliss Heaven of the West, the immortal Lotus-born Padma Sambhava, as transmitted to her by a 106-year-old hermit lama living high in the Nepal Himalayas. Her “mission impossible”: to enlist all humans, summoning their own divine-feminine spiritual energy, to administer global acupuncture on the geomantic power lines of the Earth’s subtle nervous system by means of secretly planting Holy Earth Treasure Vases fashioned of rare clays molded with holy relics of enlightened saints—up to 108, all over the globe—wherever the pollution wound is gravest, and the local human society affected is in direst crisis. This book provides a template for meaningful action and serves as a manifesto for us all—to rise up with the existential yoga of changing our lives to harmonize with the healing force of the Green Tara and her western counterpart, Mother Gaia!

—Robert A. F. Thurman

REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDED READING

His Holiness The Fourteenth Dalai Lama An Illustrated Biography

by Tenzin Geyche Tethong (Author), Jane Moore (Photographer)

This is a wonderful work, drawing on the experience of Tendzin Geyche Tethong’s forty years of serving as His Holiness’ close personal secretary and assistant. Full disclosure: He is also a very old friend of mine, since we met in 1964 when he became a monk and was first working as His Holiness’ personal assistant and I first came to Dharamsala in my effort to become a Buddhist monk myself while continuing my third year of study of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy under the tutelage of His Holiness. He remained in constant close service of His Holiness for the next forty-two years, so there is no one on earth as well placed as he to tell the story of His Holiness’ extraordinary life full of many hardships, breathtaking personal transformations, and stunning accomplishments on behalf of the suffering Tibetan people and the whole swirling world of struggling sentient beings.

The illustrations are outstanding, many of them unique and never before published. The Presence, the Kundun, in

photographs, old, from many eras, and even recent—as a baby, a scruffy child about to be discovered, a captive hostage held for ransom by a Chinese warlord; an enthroned, dignified, gracious living icon of a reincarnated, divine bodhisattva, messiah of his adoring people; a studious young monk with somber tutors, a teenage monk-king dealing with Mao and the old Panchen Lama in Beijing; a young man in desperate flight from invading troops across Himalayan passes, against all the odds; a harried administrator protecting and organizing a hundred thousand refugees in a foreign land; a scholar teaching new generations of monks, an elegant guru lama presiding over complex and exquisite ceremonies; and then, of course. the Nobel Peace Prize laureate traveling the world meeting popes and presidents, royalty and commoners, scientists and priests, the global celebrity Dalai Lama we all know and admire.

The book is helpfully arranged in four main parts, preceded by the author’s informative and touching introduction, a brief and beautifully illustrated history of Tibet, with a stirring foreword by His Holiness’ younger brother Tenzin Choegyal, the Ngari Rinpoche incarnate, who is himself a lively character throughout the story, reveling in his numerous provocative roles.

Part 1, “The Precious Protector in the Land of Snows,” covers his birth and discovery, family, enthronement, youthful studies, assumption of political leadership at fifteen, forced by the Chinese invasion, his brave attempt to get along with the communists while completing his formal studies, his near

capture in 1959, his people’s uprising to save him, his midnight escape before the massacre ordered by Mao and Deng, and his intrepid flight through the high passes and the reaching of exile exhausted but safe in India.

Part 2, “A New Home in India,” is impressive in its presentation of the time through the Sixties when HH proves to be a visionary diplomat and tireless administrator, organizing the exile community around a de facto Tibetan government-in-exile (TGIE), building upon the democratic reforms made by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in Tibet during the independence period from 1912 to 1950 to initiate from the outset the development of a modern democratic charter. The young Dalai Lama in his late twenties skilfully established this TGIE in Dharamsala amid the ambiguities of President Nehru’s attitude, which was kind and generous to the Tibetans by granting asylum and protecting and yet also was nervous and resistant to their efforts to reach out for help from the powers in the world to stop the Chinese genocidal policies, due to Nehru’s futile hope to befriend Mao (as if a Gandhi-inspired, culturally spiritual, independent India and barrel-of-a-gun communist China under dictatorship could ever become partners in common cause in not-quitepost-colonial geopolitics). Just as importantly, His Holiness also worked with the spiritually enlightened Government of India to preserve the precious Tibetan culture-in-exile: he set up a Tibetan-language public school system for the refugee children; reestablished in the south the culturally core monastic universities of Lhasa— Ganden, Drepung, and Sera; support-

ed the flourishing of all the Buddhist religious orders of Tibet, including even the non-Buddhist Bonpos; set up in Dharamsala the Tibetan AstroMedicine Institute, the Drama Institute (TIPA), a Library, Museum, and Archive (LTWA); created a Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS) in Sarnath near Varanasi; and the first Tibet House Museum and Culture Centre in New Delhi.

During all of this, a lifetime’s work in itself, His Holiness continued his own spiritual studies and practices, kept up the spirits of over a hundred thousand people undergoing hard times, and learned more about the modern world he was facing.

Part 3, “Reaching Out to the World,” looks beyond the miraculous establishment of a modern version of an entire country in exile, highlighting the importance of culture in maintaining a people’s identity and spirituality in preserving their mental health amid tremendous adversity, and focuses on His Holiness’ development of relations with all kinds of people around the world, along his famous “three main life aims”—as a human being, the strengthening of positive values, kindness and compassion; as a Buddhist monk, supporting interreligious harmony and cooperation; and as a Tibetan, speaking out to bring help to his Tibetan nation, to relieve their suffering under the boot heel of foreign oppressors. This part also shows His Holiness’ own spiritual development, working with his Namgyal Monastery to master the complex scientific and spiritual teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, both intellectually and experientially, and growing into the world-teacher he has become. It keeps up with the developments in China and Tibet, His Holiness’ creative responses such as his Five Point Peace Plan and his Middle Way approach, pragmatically asking for meaningful autonomy in a union with China instead of demanding the outright independence Tibet actually deserves, and ends with the confer-

ral of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

I was particularly moved by Tendzin Geyche’s brilliant touch of ending this section with a beautiful photo of His Holiness sitting in ethnic Sami costume in a meeting with President Ole Henrik Magga in the Sami parliament in northern Norway, which makes me think of His Holiness’ excitement in Oslo before the Peace Prize ceremony when he could only talk about his upcoming visit to the indigenous Sami reindeer people in the north!

Part 4, “Universal Compassion and Healing the World,” briefly traces His Holiness’ global impact since receiving the Nobel Prize through the ’90s and into this century, touching on his joyous nature winning the hearts of people everywhere, including the masses of the Chinese people (except for the entrenched leadership of the Chinese communist-capitalist imperium); his relations with all sorts of political leaders, his dialogues with scientists; his remaining a beacon of hope to his people in Tibet who continue to suffer unreasonably (over 160 people young and old, lay and monastic, have immolated their bodies during recent decades to protest the ongoing genocidal oppression they must endure); his concern for the people of China; his concern for the endangered ecology of Tibet and the accelerated melting of its glaciers; his offering of spiritual solace to the world through his thirty-four grand Kalachakra “Wheel of Time” ceremonies that create a temporary blessed space where people can at least subliminally feel that a “happy ending” to history is in the offing, no matter how remote it seems; his pursuit of a “fourth life aim,” that of repaying the kindness of the Indian people by encouraging them to rediscover and redeploy their own great historical cultural treasure of the Nalanda University inner sciences of wisdom and compassion, the vast literature of which exists in its fullest form only in the faithful translations into Tibetan of the great

libraries that were burned by foreign invaders a thousand years ago; his secular ethics and peacemaking efforts in Northern Ireland and the Middle East; his 2011 resignation from political authority and responsibility in the government-in-exile (nowadays “Central Tibetan Administration” [CTA]) and his insistence that future Dalai Lamas not be saddled with such responsibility, so that Tibetans, upon regaining their freedom someday in whatever form, should be fully democratic in their governance; his joyful ecumenism of all form of spirituality, so well exemplified by his relationship with the recently departed Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and finally his love of technology and his ability at almost 87 years of age to teach and travel widely, meeting and inspiring people from his Dharamsala sanctuary via the internet, Zoom, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

This conclusion of the book presents two prayers for us all. First, from page 268, “Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one’s own family, or one’s nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.” And from the last page, “We should employ science and human ingenuity with determination and courage to overcome the problems that confront us and attain our common goal of a more caring and a more peaceful world.”

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough for everyone who wants to meet His Holiness the Great Fourteenth Dalai Lama and be inspired by what a meaningful life can look like and can be emulated. Great deeds and great words and great pictures, each one worth thousands more!

T. Bob Thurman Professor Emeritus and author President, Tibet House US June 2022, Water Tiger Year

Sarasvati’s Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda— Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary

by Mayumi Oda

Sarasvati’s Gift , Mayumi Oda’s great gift—how wonderful to receive it in this beautiful, heartfelt, honest book. Sarasvati, the goddess of art, the Lady of the River of Beauty, is the cleansing divine flow of the waters of truth and beauty, and she emanates to heal and cleanse our stressed-out lives on our stricken planet through the undaunted art and golden heart of Mayumi Oda.

I knew Mayumi since 1966, when our two families were just starting to have our wonderful children. We have walked through the decades since then, each on our own distinct Buddhist paths, but ultimately shoulder to shoulder in the direction of the victory of truth and love in the golden future of this planet, trying not to get too stressed or to give in at all through

the long tunnel of obstacles under the self-destructive leadership of obsolescent elites. This book of hers is a revelation of the glory of her determined artistry, filled with all the kindness, beauty and power that flows from the indomitable feminine divine as nature, of nature, in nature, gentle and nurturing and ferocious in the defense of life. It chronicles her discovery of our mother Gaia’s inconceivable gracious abundance to us humans, giving us the opportunity to thrive in joyful celebration of her grace. Only when I read this book did I finally learn so much more of Mayumi’s youth, of her sufferings from the war-torn childhood, and understand more deeply her dreams, her insights, her bravery, and her irrepressible creative force. I also heard more keenly than ever her bone-deep, marrow-piercing message to us all to wake up, stop at once our busy-ness-as-usual, step back from our sleepwalking into catastrophe, and turn away from the path of greed and hostility and delusion, to restore our world—our earth, our oceans, our fire, our air, our space itself, and recover the joy of care and creativity, taking up the universal responsibility to make everyone enjoy the unending time we all will face together on this planet.

Mayumi and I were born the same year, 1941, and that sweet child with the sensitive soul of a fine artist had to cower in a homemade bomb shelter during the fire bombings of Tokyo, culminating in the all-toonearby nuclear horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She then had to grow up in a culture both rigid with samurai patriarchy and also deeply traumatized by war and devastation, loss and grinding privation. Kindness of family and friends and the expressiveness of art were her salvation clearly, and the experience of finding beauty in the rubble and turning stubborn love into creativity has been the triumph of her life, the great achievement of her art, and the depth and urgency of her teaching and its activism for life.

As I read the book, it brings me to tears, alone in my study, thinking of her suffering as a child. I marvel at how succinctly but thoroughly she chronicles the huge transformations the world has suffered and achieved in our lifetimes. Her life itself testifies to how far we have come on the people level, in spite of gigantic and intensifying dangers and catastrophes, truly to a new age of gentleness, sustainability, recovery of human intelligence, love and creativity. Her art and her activism and its facing of obstacles also show how we all still seem to be driven toward doom by insane leadership, a relative few sad but powerful people still imprisoned by habit patterns of ignorant, outmoded but obstinate convictions, personal rigidity, male chauvinist arrogance, and escapist self-destructiveness based on the subliminal nihilism of scientistic materialism.

ALOHA, E LO, LIFE! Mayumi radiates it from her person and in her monumental, iconic art. She is inspired by the Tibetan word thangka, literally “scroll plane opening” for each icon, thang meaning flat plane or expanse, like a plain, a steppe, the floor of a valley, and ka or kha, a face, an opening. In Tibetan art such scroll icons are seen as windows from our ordinary world of habitual perceptions into the sacred world of higher beings, embracing environments, inspiring realities. What we glimpse through those windows are deities, teachers, allies, havens, beneficial energies that inspire us to see more precisely, feel more deeply, understand more fully the realities of our worlds and the greater possibilities of our continuum of lives.

Mayumi’s works serve perfectly in that tradition, and, as with the best of it, are completely original. They express the presence of wisdom, its flowing with the indomitable power of universal love as kindness, care, tireless responsibility, and humorous self-confidence. If any art of our time expresses the irrepressible female, in all its magnificent aspects—beauty, sensuality, generosity, no-nonsense realism, tenderness, and even ferocity—it is the art of Mayumi Oda.

It is a privilege and a pleasure to welcome the book, lighting a small candle of praise at the altar of divine holiness—Sarasvati and her lovely, worthy, and delightful emanation, Mayumi Oda!

T. Bob Thurman

We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies

byTsering Yangzom Lama

Tsering Yangzom Lama shares a carefully written and intimate novel that greatly expanded my perspective. Beautifully titled, We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies is an exploration of connection to land, faith, and others. She writes from the perspective of a refugee who is integrated into the Western world after having to flee Tibet. Throughout the entirety of the novel, she examines how place can become one’s identity, and what happens when that place is taken away. She writes with such expression that everything comes alive.

As someone who feels a connection to Tibet, this novel provided me with a new perspective on the struggles and hardships Tibetans faced when having to flee their own land. It will make you question the absurdities of land occupation, and what it means for the people who come from the land being occupied.

There is no “sugar-coating” the story. Tsering Yangzom Lama is not trying to romanticize the life of a refugee, but rather to awaken us to the unimaginably harsh realities that come with having to flee from a place once called home. At the same time, she enlightens us with the realization that, even in a terrible survival situation, there is still much

to be thankful for. Although dealing with a very heavy subject, she offers a consolation of hope and peace.

This thought-provoking novel confronts readers with many questions about their own personal life: What is home to us? And how can we examine home as place? Is home always a place? These questions and many more come up while reading Tsering Yangzom Lama’s novel. It is an inspiration to read one this rich and insightful, I recommend it to everyone.

—Emilie Apel

“We can all learn a great deal from reading about the Dalai Lama's life. Read this beautiful book and be inspired by the extraordinary way that he has transcended even the most heartbreaking suffering, showing us how we can have love and compassion even for our so-called enemies. The more you learn about this man and his extraordinary life, the more inspired you will be.”

— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Man of Peace

The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet

Why the “life story” of the Dalai Lama? It is a story of one man taking on an empire, calling for truth, peace, and justice for his Tibetan people. Here in full color for the first time, people can come to know the whole drama of his lifelong struggle.

Since the age of 15, the Dalai Lama has defended his people against conquest and colonization by the stealth empire of the People’s Republic of China. Under its “dictatorship of the proletariat,” China invaded Tibet in 1950, decimating and then ethnically cleansing the Tibetan people. Since colonialism should not be practiced in our era of self-determined nations, China always pretends that the Tibetans are a type of Chinese, using propaganda and military power to crush Tibet’s unique culture and identity. Yet the Dalai Lama resists by using only the weapon of truth—along with resolute nonviolence—even worrying some of his own people by seeking dialogue and reconciliation based on his more realistic vision.

The great 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet has become the first global Dalai Lama, a prominent transnational leader of all who want to make the dramatic changes actually necessary for life on earth to thrive for centuries to come. Considered the incarnation of the Buddhist savior Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara—archangel of universal compassion—he is believed to appear in many forms, at many different times, whenever and wherever beings suffer. Representing the plight of his beloved Tibetan people to the world, he has also engaged with all people who suffer oppression and injustice, as recognized in 1989 by his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Most importantly, the Dalai Lama exemplifies his teachings throughout these pages, as he has throughout his life, and he radiates a powerful hope that we can and will prevail. Man of Peace presents the inside story of his amazing life and vision, in the high tension of the military occupation of Tibet and the ongoing genocide of its people. Spanish, German, and Tibetan language versions are now in preparation.

PURCHASE

Upcoming Schedule of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Registration is required for all teachings in Dharamsala in order to attend. Registration usually begins a few days before the actual start of the teaching and ends the day before the first day of the teaching. Registration hours are from 9 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm at the Branch Security Office in McLeod Ganj (Bhagsunath Road near Hotel Tibet). Kindly bring your passport for registration. A nominal fee of Rs. 10 will be charged.

For your information, as a long-standing policy His Holiness the Dalai Lama does not accept any fees for his talks. Where tickets need to be purchased, organizers are requested by our office to charge the minimum entrance fee in order to cover their costs only.

Please note that the dates given below are subject to change.

Teaching in Dharamsala, HP, India March 7, 2023

His Holiness will give a short teaching from the Jataka Tales followed by the Ceremony for Generating Bodhichitta (semkye) from approximately 8 am at the Main Tibetan Temple. Please note that all those who wish to attend the teachings in person are required to wear face masks.

Teaching in Dharamsala, HP, India March 8–9, 2023

His Holiness will confer the Chakrasamvara Initiation in the Krishnacharya Tradition (dechok nakpo pa wang) at the request of Gandan Tegchenling Monastery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia as well as several Tibetan lamas at the Main Tibetan Temple. On March 8 His Holiness will confer the preliminary initiation and on March 9 will confer the actual initiation.

For more information please see www.dalailama.com/live

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS

WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE CONTRIBUTIONS AT BASIC MEMBERSHIP

Ann-Marie Ahye

Keith Alcock

Volodymyr Andreiev

Kim Andrews

Gina Ang

Carol Arnold Jane Bailey

Arthur Banks

Greg Barbush

Thomas Bartlett

Wayne Batterman

John Baxter

Tammis Bennett

Susie Birchenough

Nancy Burgess Black, MD

Susan Bonanno

Susan Brandwayn David Brockett Michael Bruzik

Peter Buemi

John Burbank

Michael Burbank Ann Burke Janine Canner Winnie Chan

Teal Chimbio Fyrberg Karen Clementi Iris Cohen Holly Cook

Dorina Cragnotti

Brian Crowley

Ashley Cyrus Nicolette Czarrunchick

Audrey D'Costa Karen Dake

Sara Martha Davis

John DeChello

Jacqueline Deflorio Florence DeLosada

Alex Demac, MD

Steven Diaczuk

David Dietrich Eva Dillon Carol Doubler

Thereas DuBois

Greta Elbogen

Christine English Jose Esparza

Laurie Evans

Luis Avila Fernandez

John Ferraro

Michael Ferraro

Shawn Folz

Nazareno Fontanilla

Sesame Fowler

Maxime Francesca

Margaret Frest

Barbara Stelzer Friedman

Joan Frost

Stevie Fruehling Jill Ganassi Yaffa Gold

David Golden Wendy Gonzales

Samantha Good Karen Greenspan

Daniel B. Haber

Diane Heckman

Anne Hemenway

Jana Hicks

Becky Hoffbauer

Michael Howley

Jonathan Jackson Merry Janes Irene Javers

Anna K. Jones Derek Jones

Armeen Kabir

Dorothy Kahn

Stephanie Kallos

Michele Kempf Valarie Kis Timothy Kozak

Vikram Kuriyan Cynthia Ladds

Daphne W. Lam

Nathan Lawson Roberta Lee

Benjamin Lieberman

Clark Lightfoot

Brenda Loew Nancy Long Lee Martin

Jacqueline Mauer

Audrey Mazur

Zoe McCloskey

Talissa McCormick

John McElligott

Thom McGinley

Anthony J. McKiernan

Sophie Menin

Saite Moliga

Ian Morris

Christine Murphy

Ida Nalbandian

Michelle Neil

Jackie Nielson Mary Noll

Christopher O'Brien Mayumi Oda

DIRECTORY

DIRECTORY TIBET HOUSES

Tibet House- New Delhi Cultural Centre of His Holiness the Dalai Lama 1, Institutional Area, Lodhi Rd. New Delhi 110003 INDIA Phone: + (91) 11-24611515 office@tibethouse.in

The House of Tibet-Sweden Vivstavarvsvägen 200, 122 43 Enskede SWEDEN Phone: + (46) 8-643 49 47 info@tibet-school.org https://. tibet-school.org

Casa Del Tibet Barcelona Fundació Casa del Tíbet Carrer Rossello 181 08036 Barcelona SPAIN Phone: +(34) 93-207-5966 info@casadeltibetbcn.org https://.casadeltibetbcn.org

TibetHaus Deutschland Georg-Voigt Straße 4 60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany +49 (69) 7191 3595 info@tibethaus.com https://.tibethaus.com

Tibet House Brasil Alameda Lorena, 349 Jardins Paulista, São Paulo SP 01404-001, Brazil Phone: +55 (11) 3889-0646 info@tibethouse.org.br https://.tibethouse.org.br

Tibet House Holland Pakhuisplein 41 1531 MZ Wormer THE NETHERLANDS

Phone: +(31) 0-6-43119269

Tibet House California 2620 Capitol Avenue Sacramento, CA 95816 Phone: (916) 672 1048 https://.thcal.us

Casa Tibet Mexico Orizaba 93, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, Ciudad de México CDMX México

Phone: +52 (55) 5514 9643 https://.casatibet.org.mx/

Tibet House Foundation Varosmajor u. 23 Budapest XII 1122 HUNGARY

Phone: + (36-1) 355-1808

Tibet Culture House – Italy Via P. Pascoli 29 20093 Cologno Monzese Milano, ITALY Phone: + (02) 2532-287 https://.tibetculturehouseitaly. org

Tibet House Moscow Rozhdestvensky blvrd, 19 107045, Moscow RUSSIA Phone: + (7) 905 517-51-70 moscow@tibethouse.ru https://.tibethouse.ru

Tibet House Switzerland Foundation Via Maggio 1 6900 Lugano SWITZERLAND Phone: + (41) 76 571 7273

Tibet Open House Cultural Center in Prague, Czechia Ven. Yeshi Gawa Phone: +420 (222) 954-490 Email: yeshi@tibetopenhouse. cz Školskáhttps://.tibetopenhouse.cz 28, 110 00 Praha 1-Nové Mesto, Czechia

TIBET ORGANIZATIONS

Conservancy for Tibetan Art and Culture (CTAC)

1825 Eye St. NW St. 400 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: 202-828-6288 info@tibetanculture.org https://.tibetanculture.org

Dokham Chushi Gangdruk Contact: Gytatso New York, USA Phone: (917) 361-8566 Email: contact@chushigangdruk.org

International Campaign for Tibet

1825 Jefferson Place,NW Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 785-1515 info@savetibet.org https://.savetibet.org

International Tibet Independence Movement P.O. Box 592 Fishers, IN 46038-0592 Phone: (317) 579-9015 rangzen@aol.com https://.rangzen.org

Office of Tibet 1228 17th Street NW Washington, DC, 20036 Phone: (202) 948-2986 otdc@tibet.net https://.tibetoffice.org

Students for a Free Tibet 602 East 14 Street, 2nd Fl. New York, NY 10009 Phone: (212) 358-0071 info@studentsforafreetibet.org https://.studentsforafreetibet. org

The Tibet Fund 241 East 32 Street New York, NY 10016 Phone: (212) 213-5011 info@tibetfund.org https://.tibetfund.org

Tibet Justice Center 440 Grand Avenue, Suite 425 Oakland, CA 94610 Phone: (510) 486-0588 tjc@tibetjustice.org https://.tibetjustice.org

Tibetan Community of New York & New Jersey 57-12 Tibet Way, 32nd Ave Woodside, NY 11377 Phone: (347) 612-3407 https://.tcnynj.org info@tcnynj.org United States –Tibet Committee (USTC) 241 East 32 Street New York, NY 10016 Phone: (212) 481-3569 ustc@igc.org https://.ustibetcommittee.org

Voices of Tibet

Tibetan Oral History Project 595 Main Street, Suite 203 New York, NY 10044

Contact: Tashi Chodron Phone: (212) 355-1527 tashi@voicesoftibet.org

FRIENDS OF TIBET ORGS

Bay Area Friends of Tibet 1310 Fillmore Street, Ste. 401 San Francisco, CA 94115 Phone: (415) 409-6353 bafot@friends-of-tibet.org https://.friends-of-tibet.org

Los -Angeles Friends of Tibet Facebook page: https:// facebook.com/Los-Angeles-Friends-of-Tibet-132968430570/ friends@latibet.org

Project Tibet Inc. 403 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 Phone: (505) 982-3002 info@projecttibet.org

San Diego Friends of Tibet lesli.bandy@gmail.com Phone: (760) 315-2229

Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet 315 Meigs Road #A-104 Santa Barbara, CA 03909

Contact: Kevin Young Phone: (805) 564-3400 Email: keviny42@hotmail.com

Tibetan Bridge Fax: (212) 290-0214 samten@tibetanbridge.org https://.tibetanbridge.org

Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center 3655 S Snoddy Rd Bloomington, IN 47401 Phone: (812) 336-6807 https://.tmbcc.org tmbcc.kcl@gmail.com

RESTAURANTS

Baro 1376 Restaurant and Bar 75-32 Broadway Elmhurst, NY 11373 Phone: (781) 475-4434

Cafe Himalaya 78 E 1st Street New York, NY 10009 Phone: (212) 358-0160

Dawa’s Tibetan Restaurant * 51-18 Skillman Ave, Woodside, NY 11377 (718) 899-8629

Gakyizompe 47-11 47th Avenue Flushing, NY 11377 Phone: (917) 832-6919

Himalayan Yak Restaurant* 72-20 Roosevelt Avenue Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 779-1119

Khampa Kitchen* 75-15 Roosevelt Avenue Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (347) 507-0216

Lhasa Liang Fen 74-17 Roosevelt Avenue Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant* 177 1st Avenue New York, NY 10003 Phone: 917-388-2230

Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant (Queens)* 76-03 37th Avenue Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: 347-952-6934

Lungta Restaurant 75-16 Broadway Jackson Heights, NY 11373 Phone: (917) 745 1777

MOMO

78 5th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217 Phone: (718) 622-4813

Momo Ramen 160 Havemeyer Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 Phone: (347) 529-5999/ (347)463-9773

Momo Sushi* 75-26 37th Avenue

Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 622 4813

Nha Sang Restaurant* 83-17 Broadway Elmhurst, NY 11373 Phone: (347) 730-6117 website: https://nhasangeats.net

Om Wok Restaurant* 40-13 78th Street Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (929) 615-2827

Om Wok Restaurant* 89017 Northern Boulevard Queens, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 639-8800

Phayul* 37-65 74 Street Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 424-1869

Punda Tibetan Restaurant* 39-35 47th Avenue Sunnyside, NY 11104 Phone: (718) 806-1845

Spicy Tibet* 75-04 Roosevelt Ave Queens, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 779-7500

Wasabi Point* 76-18 Woodside Avenue Elmhurst, NY 11373 Phone: (718) 205-1056

STORES

Beautiful Tibet Inc. 322 Bleecker Street New York, NY 10014 Phone: (212) 414-2773 info@beautifultibetstore.com https://.beautifultibetstore. com

CC Brow Bar Freight Entrance HMF2 78 West 47th Street Ste. 303, New York, NY 10036 Phone: (917) 472 7748/ (703) 997-4157

Danang Publications: Himalayan Plaza Email: danangpublications@gmail. com (646) 978-9998

Danang Tsongkhang (store) Himalayan Plaza 76-11 37th Avenue, Suite 201

Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (929) 510-7077

Dharmaware Inc. 54 Tinker Street #E Woodstock, NY 12498 Phone: US: (888) 679-4900 Intl: (845) 679-4900 https://.dharmaware.com Distinctly Himalayan Imports Wholesale 300 Enterprise Drive Kingston, NY 12401 Phone: (845) 876-6331 sales@distinctlyhimalayan. com https://.distinctlyhimalayan. com

Do Kham* 117 1st Avenue New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 966-2404 https://.dokham.com

Dolma Inc.* 417 Lafayette Street, Fl. 2 New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 460-5525 dolmarugs@gmail.com https://.dolmarugs.com

dZi –Tibet Collection Phone: 800-318-5857 info@tibetcollection.com https://.dzi.com

Eastern Knots, Inc.* Handmade Tibetan Rugs 3263 33rd Street Long Island City, NY 11101 Phone: (646) 894-5476 info@easternknots.com

Himalayan Arts Gift Shop* 10 Main Street #408 New Paltz, NY 12561 Phone: (845) 256-1940

Himalayan Eyebrow Threading Salon 75 West 47th St. 2 Fl. New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 840-0084

Himalayan Vision* 127 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 254-1952

Jewels of Buddha 28-42 Steinway Street Astoria, NY 11103 d obelgasi@hotmail.com jphuntsok@yahoo.com

Phone: (347)-415-6078

Karma Nepal Craft* 266 Bleeker Street New York, NY 10014 Phone: (918) 926-0834

Karma Nepal Craft - Brooklyn 169 Seventh Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11215 Phone: (918) 926-0834

Kathmandu Artifacts* 4625 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224 Phone: (412) 742-4461

Kunye Tibetan Healing Center: Himalayan Plaza, 76-11 37th Avenue, Suite 201 Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 255-1622

Kyichu Tibetan Handicrafts* 45-53 47th Street Sunnyside, NY 11377 Phone: (929) 522-0207

Land of Buddha I 20%* 128 MacDougal Street New York NY 10012 Phone: (646) 602-6588 sales@lobny.com https://.lobny.com

Land of Buddha II 20%* 11 St. Mark’s Place New York, NY 10003 Phone: (646) 602-6588 sales@lobny.com https://.lobny.com

Mandala Tibet – Park Slope* 59 7th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217 Phone: (718) 789-0071 mandalatibet@aol.com https://.mandalatibet.com

Mandala Tibet –Bedford* 132 North 5th Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 Phone: (718) 302-0005 mandalatibet@aol.com https://.mandalatibet.com

Modern Tibet–Wholesale* 86-30 Chelsea Street Jamaica, NY 11432 Contact: Tsering Naktsang Karma Yangzom Phone: (917) 912-8788 Phone: (917) 470-8310 moderntibet@yahoo.com

https://.moderntibet.com

Padma Tibetan Handicrafts Inc. 234 Thompson Street New York, NY 10012 Phone: (212) 673-8491 PEMA Boutique 187 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11211 (347) 916-1517

Pemcho Design Designer Pema Chodon Phone: (718) 205-7820 pemcho4@hotmail.com

Potala Tibetan Store 46-07 90th Street Elmhurst, NY 11373 Phone: (718) 255 5833 https://.potala.com

Real Things Handcrafted yoga mats and meditation cushions 652 Huron Street #1 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Phone: (416) 788-3755 connect@realthings.ca https://.realthingscushions. com

Tea Tibet Dr Tashi Rapten Phone: (845)-268-7717 https://.teatibet.org

Tibet Gallery* 1909 9th Street, Ste. 120 Boulder, CO 80302 Contact: Tenzin Pasang Phone: (303) 402-0140 https://.tibetgallery.net

Tibet Home 417 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 460-5688 https://.tibet-home.com

Tibet Jewels* 197 Bleecker Street New York, NY 10012 Phone: (212) 260-5880 jyambala279@gmail.com

Tibetan Art & Crafts* 7 Rock City Road Woodstock, NY 12498 Phone: (845) 679-2097 https://.tibetanartsncrafts.com

Tibetan Market* 40-23 76th Street Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Phone: (929) 423-5653 https://tibetanmarketnyc.com

Vision of Tibet I 416 Main Street Rosendale, NY 12474

Phone: (845) 658-3838 Windhorse Trading Inc. 33-31 71st Street Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Phone: (718) 565 8804

TIBETAN NANNY HOUSEKEEPING AGENCY

Tibetan Care 349 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016 Phone (646) 599-2645 Email:pema@tibetancarenyc. com https://tibetancarenyc.com

Tibetan Nannies 68-01 Central Avenue Flushing, NY 11385 Phone: (646) 266-9694

Tibetan Nanny 14 Wall Street, 20th Floor New York, NY 10005 Phone: 866MY-NANNY info@tibetannanny.com

Jamling Law Firm 37-32 75th St. 2nd Floor Jackson Heights, NY 11373 Phone: (718) 500-3141 https://.jamlinglaw.com

TIBETAN BUDDHIST STUDY CENTERS

Center for Buddhist Studies Columbia University 80 Claremont Ave, Room 303 New York, NY 10027 Phone: (212) 851-4122 ba2165@columbia.edu https://.cbs.columbia.edu/

Center for Dzogchen Studies 157 Northfield Rd. Litchfield, CT 06759

Phone: (203) 387-9992 https://.dzogchenstudies.com

Chuang Yen Monastery 2020 Route 301 Carmel Hamlet, NY 10512 Phone: (845) 225-1819 https://.baus.org

Dandang Library: Himalayan Plaza 76-11 37th Avenue Suite 201 Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (929) 510-7077 Deerpark Buddhist Center 4548 Schneider Drive Oregon, WI 53575 Phone: (608) 835-5572 https://.deerparkcenter.org

Dharma House NYC 6006 39th Avenue Woodside, NY 11377 (between 60th St. & 61st St.) Phone: (718) 635-2849 https://dharmahouse.org

Drikung Meditation Center 29 Mohawk Street Danvers, MA 01923 Phone: (888) 390-5580 Drikung Kagyu

Tibetan Meditation Center 9301 Gambrill Park Road Frederick, MD 21702

Ven: Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin Phone: (301) 473-5750 https://.drikungtmc.org

Nitsan Choephel Ling Buddhist Temple 186 West 6 Street Howell, New Jersey 07731 Phone: (732) 367-3940

Ven. Yonten Gyatso Gampopa Center Khenpo Tenzin Nyima 6 Fox Lane Denville, NJ 07834 Phone: (973) 586-2756 https://.gampopa.org

Kagyu Dzamling Kunchab 410 Columbus Avenue New York, NY 10024 Phone: (917)-406-3602 https://.kdk-nyc.org

Palpung Thubten Choling 245 Sheafe Road Wappinger Falls, NY 12590 Phone: (845) 297-5761 https://.kagyu.com

Karma Thegsum Choling 4168 Herschel Street Jacksonville, FL 32210 (352) 335- 1975 GainesvilleKTC@gmail.com https://.ktcgainesville.org

Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery 335 Meads Mountain Road

Woodstock, New York 12498 (845) 679-5906 https://.kagyu.org

Kunzang Palchen Ling 4330 Rte 9G Red Hook, NY 12571 Phone: (845) 835-8303 info@kunzang.org

Nalandabodhi Buddhism Centre – Seattle 3902 Woodland Park Ave. N Seattle, WA 98103 Phone: (206) 529-08258 https://.nalandawest.org

Nalandabodhi Buddhism Centre 64 Fulton Street, Ste.400 New York, NY 10038 https://.nyc.nalandabodhi.org

Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies 210 Tibet Drive Ithaca, NY 14850

Phone: (607) 272-2785 https://.namgyal.org

Naropa University 2130 Arapahoe Avenue Boulder, CO 80302 Phone: (303) 444-0202

Natural Dharma Fellowship 253 Philbrick Hill Road Springfield, NH 03284 info@naturaldharma.org https://.naturaldharma.org

Nechung Foundation Lama Pema Dorjee 537 Depot Hill Road Poughquag, NY 12570 Phone: (347) 771-2529 nechungfoundation.org

New York Insight Meditation Center

28 West 27 Street, Fl. 10 New York, NY 10001

Phone: (212) 213-4802 https://.nyimc.org

Orgyen Cho Dzong Nyingma Tersar Retreat Center 5345 Route 81 Greenville, NY 12083 Phone: (646) 668-0742 https://.tersar.org

Padmasambhava Buddhist Center 618 Buddha Highway Sidney Center, New York 13839 https://.padmasambhava.org

Palden Sakya Center (PSC) 4 West 101 Street, #63 New York, NY 10025 Khenpo Pema Wangdak Phone: (212) 866-4339 https://.vikramasila.org

PSC –Pema Tsal Meditation Center Phone: (718) 797-9569 PSC – Woodstock Phone: (845) 6794024 https://.paldensakya.org

Palyul Retreat Center 359 German Hollow Road McDonough, NY 13801 Phone: (607) 656-4645 https://.retreat.palyul.org

Nyingma Palyul Dharma Center 23-11 98th Street Flushing, New York 11369 https://.palyulnyc.org

Rigpa New York 171 West 29th Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10001 Phone: (212) 971-7003 info@rigpaynyc.org

Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism 108 NW 83rd Street Seattle, WA 98117 Phone: (206) 789 2573 https://.sakya.org monastery@sakya.org

Samye Hermitage New York Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Retreat Center 42 Gilmmerglen Road Cooperstown, NY 13326 Phone: (607) 547 5051 rygcooperstown@gmail.com

Sera Jey Buddhist Culture Center 41-30 57th Street, Woodside, NY 11377, USA

Phone: 718-606-2870, 347-601-1726, 929-344-9852 https://.serajey.org serajeyusa@yahoo.com

Boulder Shambhala Meditation Center 1345 Spruce Street Boulder, CO 80302 Phone: (303) 444-0190 x100 https://.boulder.shambhala.org

Shambhala Mountain Center 151 Shambhala Way Red Feather Lake, CO 80545 Phone: (970) 881 2184

Siddhartha School Partnership P.O. Box 3405 Portland, ME 04104 Phone: (207) 776-9927 https://.siddharthaschool.org Tashi Lhunpo Buddhist Temple Rashi Gempil Ling

First Kalmuk Buddhist Temple 12 Kalmuk Road Howell, New Jersey 07731 Phone: (732) 363-6012

The Tibet Center PO Box 1873 Murray Hill Station New York, NY 10156

Phone: (718) 222-0007 https://.thetibetcenter.org

Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center Labsum Sherab Ling 93 Angen Road Washington, NJ 07882 Phone: (908) 689-6080 Contact: Diana & Joshua Cutler https://.labsum.org

Tsechen Kunchab Ling (TKL) Temple of All-Encompassing Great Compassion Seat of H.H. The Sakya Trizin in U.S. 12 Edmunds Lane Walden, NY 12586 Phone: (301) 906-3378 https://.sakyatemple.org

TKL-Sakya Phunstok Ling Center For Buddhist Study & Meditation 608 Ray Drive Takoma Park, MD 20912 Phone: (301) 200-1289 admin@sakyatemple.org

Thubten Kunga Center 201 SE 15th Terrace Deerfield Beach, FL 33441 Phone: (954) 421-6224 https://.tubtenkunga.org

Yeshe Nyingpo 19 West 16 Street New York, NY 10011 Phone: (212) 691-8523 ynyingpoe@gmail.com https://.tersar.org

Zangdokpalri Foundation PO Box G Claverack, NY 12513 Phone: (212) 741-4443 https://.zangdokpalri.org

BECOME A MEMBER

“…I describe the situation in Tibet as something like this: one ancient nation, with a unique cultural heritage, is now passing through something like a death sentence: a very critical, very serious situation…I want to thank those supporters who, financially or in some other way, are helping Tibet House and ask you to please continue…”

— H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

Tibet House US remains committed to preserving, presenting, and promoting the Tibetan people and the distinctive, beautiful, and uplifting culture they created. We rely on your generosity to keep our mission and programs growing and relevant.

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS & BENEFITS

Student/Senior Membership- $24/Year

B ENEFITS:

1. Unlimited access to THUS online digital media archive

2. 20% off all titles from Wisdom Publications 3. 10% off all year long from Satya Jewelry 4. One 25% coupon from Satya Jewelry 5. 15% off online language classes from LearnTibetan.net 6. 10% off THUS programs* and gift store purchases 7. 10% off Menla programs, R&R packages and gift store purchases

8. 10% discount from select Tibetan businesses marked with asterisk in THUS Directory

Basic Membership - $60/Year

BENEFITS:

All benefits of the Student/Senior membership above, plus 9. Reserved seating for THUS programs* 10. Pre-sale of preferred seating for THUS large events 11. Member-only giveaways

NB: Family/Spouse may be added to basic membership for an additional $12 a year

FOUR EASY WAYS TO JOIN/

Online: Go to https://thus.org/become-a-member/

Snow Lion Membership - $240/Year

BENEFITS:

All benefits of the Basic and Student/Senior Membership above, plus 12. Free webcasts* 13. 15% off THUS programs* and gift store purchases

14. 50% off your first spa treatment at Menla

15. Private Docent Tour of Tibet House US Collections and Gallery Exhibitions (by appointment)

NB: Family/Spouse may be added to basic membership for an additional $12 a year

* Tibet House US sponsored events only: upon request.

ARRANGED CHARITABLE GIFTING

To donate endowments, securities and estate legacy funds please contact our Executive Director, Ganden Thurman at ganden@thus.org or call 212-807-0563.

For donations via cash, check, PayPal or Credit Card, see our site for easy click to donate options or mail in your donation to 22 West 15th Street New York, NY 10011.

Mail: Send a check to: Tibet House US, Attn: Membership, 22 West 15th St., NY 10011 (please make sure to include your current telephone number in the memo area of check)

In Person: Visit Tibet House US (Monday-Friday 12 noon–5pm)

Phone: Call Sonam Choezom, Membership Coordinator @ (212) 807-0563, M–F 10am-6pm

Visit Us O nline | thu s .or g | menla.org

Tib et House US was founde d at the re quest of His Holiness the Da la i Lama , who at the inaug uration in 1987 state d his wish for a long -term cultura l institution to ensure the sur viva l of Tibetan civilization and culture, for the f uture time when a ll six million pe ople of Tib et can once a g a in live fre ely and enjoy it.

Ways y ou can hel p !

B ECO M E A MEMB ER D O NAT E VO LU N T EER