Tibetan Spiritual Festival at Tokyo Forum[Sunday, 4th June 2010]

Tibetan Spiritual Festival at Aida Mitsuo Museum near Tokyo Station held from 29 June to 4 July 2010 in Tokyo Japan. Photos / Tibet House Japan.

Tokyo: Six
days Tibetan Spiritual Festival at Aida Mitsuo Museum near Tokyo
Station  concluded today. Tibet House Japan in collaboration with Aida
Mituso Museum organized the festival from 29th June to 4th July. Monks
from Tashi Lhunpo monastery in South India led by Kachen Rinpoche
worked on ‘Nampar nangze‘, Mahavairocana Sand Mandala.
The festival was also a prelude to the celebration of 75th birth
anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to pray for the world
peace. Teaching and meditation workshops were also conducted during the
period. At the beginning and at the end of the day, the monks performed Cham,
Tibetan religious dance. Around 2000 people visited the festival; the
exhibition hall was packed mostly during the teaching and chanting
sessions.

Monks performing Cham (religious dance performance) on the festival.

Many
expressed their happiness over being able see a live creation of Sand
Mandala and to hear Buddhist teaching from Tibetan monks directly. Some
people requested that this Spiritual festival event be made annual
festival so that the Japanese people could get a glimpse of sacred
Tibetan culture once a year. Chinese residents in Japan also visited
the festival and received blessing from the monks.In June 2005
also, Sand mandala creation exhibition was done at the same venue. Many
people visited at that time. But it was observed that the number of
people visiting this time was far more testifying the fact that
interest in Tibetan religious culture has greatly increased in these
five years. Many have came from far away prefectures.–Report filed by Tsewang Gyalpo Arya, Office of Tibet, Japan.