Past Events

• First Canadian Tour: Tibetan Buddhist Art Tour 2006
• Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Drepung Gomang Sacred Art Tour 2007
• Tibetan Tea of Serenity
• Dinner at Barangas on the Beach
• Dinner & Pageant Show
• Slide Show - Tibetan Monastery in Exile

Slide Show - Tibetan Monastery in Exile

You are cordially invited to our upcoming event at The Brant Centre. Join us as we share our experience to India this past December in the grand celebration of a new temple opening. Admission is free and donations are greatly appreciated as all proceeds will go towards the Sacred Art Tour for 2008.

Location: The Brant Centre (next to Joseph Brant Hospital)

1182 North Shore Blvd. E., Burlington.

Click here for map.

Time: March 11, 2008 - 6:30 PM

• refreshments provided
• authentic Tibetan handcrafts for sale
• also not-for-sale Thangka paintings, statues and other artifacts for display

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Tibetan Tea of Serenity

Celtic Dream Garden lives up to it's name! It is an amazing place with a maze. labrynith, willow sculptures, carved stones and of course Smaug the Dragon made of willow! There is a hosta garden with its' very own Celtic Dream Gold, that was created by Bryce and Jennifer Weylie, the owners. There is a new exotic lily bed with names like Gandhi in a palette of hues and colours.

Meander down the paths and be enthralled by the selection and diversity of grasses, shrubs, plants and other exotic flowers. As you enter the long driveway you will be greeted by a graceful avenue of tall trees strung with Tibetan Prayer Flags. This is the welcome you will receive for the Tibetan Tea of Serenity, a fund-raiser for the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India. The cost is $25.00 per person including a special surprise! There will be chanting in the front garden, Tibetan music and dance and delicious tea-fare! There is currently an Art Tour in Ontario, and these Monks are talented artists and teachers. Have a mini portait done or browse the Tibetan Market for unique gift items.

Join us on Sunday August 12 from 1.00 to 5.00 p.m and allow Celtic Dream Garden to take you to another world!

1315 Ridge Road

Stoney Creek, ON

Click here for map.

Directions

From Toronto: Take QEW Niagara-Exit Fifty Road South to Ridge Rd.-Right to 1315

From London: Take 403 to the Linc, on to Mud St., Left on Tapleytown, right on Ridge Rd., between 10th Rd. & 11th Rd.

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Drepung Gomang Sacred Art Tour 2007

Canadian Friends of Drepung Gomang is pleased to be able to bring the second annual Sacred Art Tour to Canada in 2007.

The second tour will welcome a new group of monks who will travel throughout Ontario sharing their unique culture and Buddhist teachings.

The tour will give the public another opportunity to witness the creation of a sacred Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala.

The Mandala, a Tibetan sand painting, is an ancient art form of Tibetan Buddhism. The mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning cosmogram or "world in harmony." Mandalas are drawings in three-dimensional forms of sand. In Tibetan, this art is called dul-tson-kyil-khor which means "mandala of colored powders."

In Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala is an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation. Each object in the palace has significance, representing some aspect of wisdom or reminding the meditator of some guiding principle. Various scriptural texts dictate the shapes, forms, and colors of the mandala. There are many different mandalas, each with different lessons to teach and blessings to confer. Most mandalas contain a host of deities, symbolic archetypes of the landscape of the mind.

In general, all mandalas have outer, inner, and secret meaning. On the outer level they represent the world in its divine form; on the inner level, they represent a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into the enlightened mind; and on the secret level, they predict the primordially perfect balance of the subtle energies of the body and the clear light dimension of the mind. The creation of a sand painting is said to affect purification and healing on these three levels.

Along with sharing this magical artwork with the Canadian public and educating them in the traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings and beliefs the monks will perform traditional Tibetan dances including the Tashi Shopa, The Cham, The Skeleton Dance, and the Famous YAK DANCE!

We are very pleased to welcome the venerable Geshe Lobzang Samdup on the tour who will be giving Dharma talks that will help teach the public more about Tibetan Buddhism on a more in depth level.

The monks will also be working hands-on with the public in workshops to teach the creation of butter sculptures. These are used most often during Losar the Tibetan New Year!

Finally the monks will be selling merchandise made at the monastery by the monks themselves as well as items made by the lay-people in the refugee camps surrounding the monastery.

Many of these items will be Buddhist religious items such as prayer beads, prayer flags, Dalai Lama scroll teachings and more.

Due to the overwhelming success of their first Canadian tour, Drepung Gomang Monastery will be sending another group of monks to Canada in the spring/early summer of 2007. This next tour will be coordinated by Laurel Antti, and anyone wishing to host an event or volunteer in any way should contact Laurel for a co-ordinators package or more information.

Due to limited planning time, the coordination of this event is already under way. The 2007 tour will be shorter then the previous tour and will run only throughout Ontario and closely surrounding areas.

We apologize to those who were hoping to have the tour visit their cities again in 2007, However, the 2008 tour is scheduled to tentatively begin in April 2008. Again because of the tours success and the warm reception we are receiving in all of the cities and the growing number of cities anxious to be added to the schedules we are beginning the co-ordination for the 2008 tour now as well.

Larger cities and cities wanting to host several events will be allotted a longer itinerary time in order to try an accommodate all of the events.

We are so thankful to all those who have helped co-ordinate in the past for the different cities across the country, to those who attended the events and helped show their support to the monks and the monastery and to all those who are working on helping us to make the next two tours as successful as the last!

We look forward to bringing many more tours to Canada.

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Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Yeshe Ling (Lamp On the Path), a local Burlington group that hosted the 2006 Sacred Art Tour from Drepung Gomang organized a large event in August 2006. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a highly respected Lama and teacher of the Dalai Lama came to Canada for a Public Talk in Hamilton Ontario on Friday August 4th followed by a two week retreat in Oakville at the prestigious Sheridan College.

First Canadian Tour from Drepung Gomang Monastery Sacred Art of the Land of the Snow: Tibetan Buddhist Art Tour 2006

The first Canadian tour from Drepung Gomang Monastery took place from January to May 2006 beginning in Ontario and traveling from coast to coast. While this tour was not an official tour of Canadian Friends of Drepung Gomang, it was the reason for the organization being created, and is worthy of mention in our past events section.

Canadians coast to coast welcomed the tour group with open arms and many of us were changed by our experience with the monks. The tour consisted of various Sand Mandalas, a cultural pageant, workshops in the art of Sand Painting, Butter Sculpture, and Mask-making as well as the sale of Tibetan and Indian made products. The tour group consisted of the top 7 artists from Drepung Gomang Monastery and their tour leader Khensur Rinpoche Tsultrim Phintshog.

Elite Events Wedding & Event Planning handled the coordination of the tour and worked closely with Friends of Drepung Gomang, a not-for-profit group in the US which was coordinating their 5th tour in 2005. Special thanks go out to all of the many local coordinators and volunteers who gave their time and energy into making the tour a great success!

Tour group members: