MOSCOW, Russia: A Tibetan Buddhist cultural festival is being held from 2 – 10 November at the Avatar centre in central Moscow. Eight monks from Drepung Gomang monastery based in south India are taking part in the festival.

The festival began yesterday with speeches, spiritual dances, sand mandalas, Buddhist ritual chantings etc. The opening was attended by Representative Ngawang Rabgyal and Nataliya Bespalova, Director of Moscow-based Drepung Gomang Foundation.

In his introductory speech, Representative Nawang Rabgyal touched on the importance of the promotion and preservation of Tibetan Buddhist cultural heritage, adding that Tibetan Buddhism has much to contribute to our modern world and civilization.

He spoke on the historical and spiritual connection shared between Tibet and the three traditional Buddhist Republics in the Russian Federation, Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva, since the 17th century.

Geshe Lharampa Jinpa, head of Gomang touring group, gave a brief introduction of Drepung Gomang Monastic University and its learning centre. He spoke on the special contact between Drepung Gomang Monastery and Buddhists in the three Russian Republics.

Before 1959 many monks from Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva and Mongolia studied at Drepung Gomang monastery in Lhasa. Some of them became great scholars such as, Avang Dorjiev (Nawang Dorjee), who became the Envoy of the 13th Dalai Lama to the Russian Emperor Tsar Nicholas II. Even at present, hundreds of monks from the three Russian Republics study at Gomang and other Tibetan monasteries in South India.

The opening was also attended by a special guest Alexander Kocharov, a Thangka painting scholar, who taught at Sarnath Central Tibetan University and Maryland University in USA.

The event was well attended by guests, Buddhists and friends of Tibet and Tibetans.