Monks make for low-maintenance houseguests.

Grand Junction’s Ray and Peggy Pilcher invited six monks with the Gaden Shartse Monastery to stay in their home during the monks’ stay in Mesa County.

The monks are on a U.S. tour, raising awareness about Buddhism and donations for construction of a hospital to serve their monastery and other villages in southern India.

The monastery originally was built in Tibet, but Chinese occupation decades ago forced the Tibetan monks to flee to India.

The Pilchers, both Buddhists, have opened their home to the Gaden Shartse monks for the past 10 years, showing the monks the compassion synonymous with Buddhism.

Ray Pilcher said he has been interested in Buddhist culture since he was young, and his nearly four dozen trips to China and Tibet through the years only furthered that interest.

On Sunday, during a free presentation at Western Colorado Center for the Arts, the Tibetan monks demonstrated the precision and time that goes into making a mandala, which is believed to help cleanse negativity for those who view it, said monk Jangchub Chophel.

The monks used brightly colored sand made from crushed and dyed Indian quartz to create a symbolic representation of Green Tara’s universe. Green Tara is honored in Buddhist culture for being a female Buddha, showing that women can achieve equality in a male-dominated society.

The mandala construction began Saturday and will finish at 6:30 p.m. today during a Green Tara puja and sweeping up ceremony, in which the monks will distribute some of the blessed sand to those in attendance at the Art Center ceremony at 1803 N. Seventh St.

The remaining sand will be thrown in the Colorado River to float downstream. The cleaning of the mandala signifies nothing in the world is permanent, and understanding change is part of balancing life.

The Buddhist monks will be in Grand Junction until Wednesday. From Grand Junction, they head to Hotchkiss and Moab, Utah, before continuing east across the country, Chophel said.

To learn more about Buddhist culture, to bid on silent auction items Ray Pilcher brought back from Tibet or to see the mandala, visit the Art Center from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today.

Money donated will be used to build a hospital in southern India.

By MELINDA MAWDSLEY
The Daily Sentinel

By tonight the mandala will be swept up, and the sand dissolved into the Colorado River.

The monks will begin a sweeping up prayer ceremony at 6:30 p.m. at the Art Center, 1803 N. Seventh St., followed by a release of the sand into the Colorado River from Eagle Rim Park on Orchard Mesa.

Every few years, monks from Gaden Shartse Monastery in India tour the United States to share their culture and religion, and raise money to support their Tibetan Buddhist monastery.

The Gaden Shartse Monastic College was originally founded in Tibet in the 15th century. After China invaded the country in 1959, thousands of Tibetan cultural and religious centers were destroyed and many Tibetans fled to India, where the Indian government donated land to establish a monastery there.

The monks create sand mandalas twice a year at the monastery to symbolize Buddhism’s different deities. The Green Tara mandala being created at the Art Center is representative of the celestial home of the Buddha of activities, said Jangchup Chophel, an American monk and member of the monastery.

“As we create it we keep in mind the teachings of the benefits and sacred nature of this Buddha,” Chophel said. “Just by looking at it people receive vast amounts of benefit, positive imprints in their consciousness and mind.”

The monks meticulously create the mandala by scooping sand into two hollow cones and rubbing one on top of the other, carefully guiding the amount of sand released from a small hole in the cone.

Once the mandala is completed, it is dissolved quickly, within half an hour.

The dissolution ceremony is important, Chophel said.

“At the ceremony we invite the Green Tara along with her entourage — the celestial beings associated with her — to inhabit the mandala to help purify all the negativities of the area.”

Chophel has practiced Buddhism for many years and became an ordained monk three years ago. He taught high school history in Long Beach, Calif., from 2001 through 2008; he wore the traditional crimson monk robes for the past three years.

Chophel retired from teaching in July to join the monastery and direct the U.S. tour. His high school students continue to keep in touch with him via texting.

Ninety-five percent of the 1,500 monks who live in the monastery are from Tibet, said Tenzin Losang, one of the monks currently in Grand Junction. Some were born in India, but are of Tibetan heritage.

Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen, one of the last lamas remaining who was born and trained in Tibet, runs a Buddhist Center in Long Beach. He sponsors the monks to come to the United States in order to raise money to fund its monastery in India.

Peggy and Ray Pilcher of Grand Junction met the monks 11 years ago, when they were touring here. The Pilchers host the monks in their home whenever they visit Grand Junction. The Pilchers are among a group of local Buddhists who study with Gyeltsen.

The monks of Gaden Shartse Monastery travel to where they are invited and offered a place to stay, and a place to build the mandalas. The mandala being created in Grand Junction is sponsored by the Art Center and Bank of the West.

In Oregon, the monks created a mandala at a coffee shop in the hub of town.

In Glenwood Springs, they used meeting rooms in the Hotel Colorado.

Last week the group was in Aspen, where they created a mandala at a downtown art gallery.

The intention of this tour is to raise funds for the construction of a hospital near the monastery in southern India.

The hospital is for other refugees, lay people and Indians, as well as for the monks of the monastery, Chophel said.

“It’s open to all for free medical care,” he said.

The monks will be in Grand Junction for two more days. They will conduct a Green Tara Empowerment ceremony Tuesday at the Academy of Yoga at 8 p.m.

A dinner is planned with the monks at the Art Center on Wednesday. A limited number of tickets are available.

Tibetan astrology sessions, personal healings, house and business blessings are also being offered through Wednesday.

Grand Junction Free Press

In addition to the teachings, we paid a visit to the adolescent correctional facility. We visited with the kids, did a cultural presentation, gave some advice and had lunch with them. The kids were really engaged and we all had a great time. We also had the pleasure of blessing three wonderful businesses – the Academy of Yoga (Monica and John also hosted our teachings at their center), Twice Upon a Time Bookshop, and Olsson Physical Therapy.

Here are some links to news articles about our visit:

Grand Junction Free Press

Grand Junction Sentinel

Here is a short news story on our visit the an adolescent correctional facility:

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