Harmony In The Park Tibetan Monks Take Time From Their American Tour To Play With Children
In many ways, it was a typical day of childhood chaos at the giant Red Wagon in Riverfront Park. Children were screaming, bouncing, crying, eating and doing the things children do on a sunny afternoon.
The regular activity screeched to a halt when Chantmaster Geshe Lhakpa let out a long, low note from deep within his chest. Fifteen other Tibetan monks and one nun followed suit.
Magically, the children quieted. They sat down and stared. Even the babies hushed.
“Was that incredible or what?” asked Sarah Conover, a practicing Buddhist and mother of two. “Chants have an amazing effect on children.”
For several minutes, the Sara Je Monks chanted, their voices rising and falling like the rattle of the leaves in the warm breeze blowing off the Spokane River.
They prayed for a long life, freedom from sickness, for peace and harmony.
After they finished, the spell gradually wore off. The children resumed their play. And the monks joined them. They painted cardboard, blew bubbles and shared snacks.
The monks stopped in Spokane Wednesday as part of their nine-month tour of the United States.
Their performance - “Wildlife Tamed Mind, the Spirit of Tibet” - took place at The Met Wednesday night. The monks are touring to raise money for Tibetan refugees and draw attention to the occupation of their country by China.
Founded in 1419, the Sara Je monastery was one of the first in Tibet. It relocated to Karnataka, South India, when its leader, Geshe Nyingje Rabyang, fled over the Himalayas in 1959 following the Chinese Communist takeover of that country.
Before then, the monastery housed as many as 7,000 monks at a time. Several hundred have escaped and reorganized in India. Today, almost 2,500 monks live at the Sara Je.
Each monk has a story of hardship and persecution behind his faith, said Denise Attwood, who housed the group in her home. The monks are on tour to tell those stories, she said.
But the afternoon picnic was a time to play.
“In some ways the monks are very much like children,” Attwood said. “They are playful, spontaneous, very much of the moment.”
Attwood, who owns an import company, organized the picnic with several of her friends, who wanted to expose their young children to a different culture without forcing them to sit through a 90-minute performance.
The questions and answers were simple.
“Why do you shave your head?” asked Nate Robnett-Conover, 7.
“It’s too much work taking care of it,” answered Tse-yang-la, the sole nun on the tour.
“Why do you wear those robes?” another boy asked.
“It’s our uniform,” she said.
“Why do you chant?” “It helps you generate more concentration to prepare for meditation,” she said.
The children were more interested in the monks’ kidlike play. The holy men teased and told jokes like favorite uncles.
The monks were enthralled by the tub of green goop brought to the picnic by Kim Harmson. They played with the goop - a combination of glue, Borax and food coloring - watching it wiggle, throwing it at each other and draping it over their faces.
Then they let the kids play with it.
“To be able to understand the mind of a child, that is important,” said Geshe Nyinje Rabyang. “They are very straight, honest. We like them very much.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo