Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center of Bloomington Indiana
- A piece I shot for Bloom Magazine. It is hosted on their site at
Buddhism in Bloomington
A look inside the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington Indiana. With the Director Arjia Rinpoche, who shares some things about himself, the Cultural Center, and Buddhism as a whole.
Director/Producer/ Editor/Writer/Lighting - Kaleb Rich-Harris
Camera/Drone/Lighting/Audio/DOP - Byron Wolter
Winter in Bloomington, IN #TMBCC
via YouTube Capture
Tibetan Lama in Exile
January 18th, 2018 - Hear the firsthand story of a prominent Buddhist teacher and Tibetan lama who survived a tumultuous era of Tibetan history and get an insider's perspective of life in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.
At the age of two, Arjia Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of a thirteenth-century Buddhist reformer and was enthroned as Abbot of the Kumbum Monastery in Tibet where he was treated as a living Buddha. In 1950, while Rinpoche was still a child, Chinese Communists invaded Rinpoche's monastery family. Rinpoche was forced to attend reeducation indoctrination in a Chinese school, but continued to practice his religion and study Buddhism in secret. Because of his failure to comply, in 1966 he was sent to a forced labor camp where he resided for 14 years.
After the death of Chairman Mao, Rinpoche was freed from the camp and he resumed serving as Abbot of the Kumbum Monastery. During this period, he directed the renovation of the monastery and reestablished religious studies. He also helped to establish programs such as a local Red Cross chapter, Disaster Relief Project, and clinics and schools for local villages.
In 1998, Rinpoche was asked to lead the Chinese National Buddhist Association. This association serves as the bridge between Buddhists and the Chinese government by communicating government regulation to Buddhists and mobilizing them to comply with national laws. Rinpoche entered exile rather than compromise his spiritual beliefs and escaped to Guatemala before being granted asylum in the United States.
In the United States, Rinpoche established the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom and then later was appointed by the Dalai Lama as director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, IN. Rinpoche currently directs both centers, which are dedicated to the preservation of Buddhist teachings and culture within and outside of Tibet and Mongolia.
Our website:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Instagram:
Tibetan, Cultural, Center, Bloomington ,indiana ,
Tibetan Cultural Center in bloomington Indiana
New Buddhist Monastery To Open In Bloomington
Full Story: The Gaden KhachoeShin monastery sits on a 128-acre piece of land that was purchased in 2007.
Mongolia / Tibet Pagoda: HH Dalai visited
HH Dalai Lama opens a new Tibet / Mongolia temple in the State.
Mongolian Buddhists will be joined by Buddhists from the Russian Republic of Kalmykia as they journey to see the Dalai Lama in India.
Arjia Rinpoche at Fons Vitae
Arjia Rinpoche visits Fons Vitae Publishing in Louisville, KY.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, Rinpoche is a title given to a tulku--a reincarnated being of a previous holy person. When he was two years old, Arjia Rinpoche was recognized as the incarnation of the father of Lama Tsong Khapa, the great thirteenth-century Buddhist saint/reformer, and, as such, became the Abbot of Kumbum Monastery located in eastern Tibet.
In 1998, with the help of the Dalai Lama, he sought asylum in the United States, and settled in Mill Valley, California where he established the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom.
In 2005, His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked him to become the director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana. He moved to Bloomington in February 2006 where he has renovated the center and continues to promote Buddhist teachings and Tibetan/Mongolian cultural events.
Fall Tour of TMBCC 2012
Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, located in Bloomington, Indiana, is very beautiful throughout the year, but Fall is especially wonderful. Join us on a brief tour.
Dalai Lama vists NYC
The Dalai Lama speaks to press during a visit to New York City.
Students Collaborate with The Dalai Lama Center
George School students collaborated with The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at Massachusetts Institute of Technology this summer to design and build a water filtration and purification system for the Leh community located in the Himalayas of India. They shared the results of their work with parents and community members in a presentation on August 11, 2016, held at the offices of Enterra Solutions and the Project for STEM Competitiveness, the organizations that sponsored their summer internship program.
Tibet - བོད་
Tibet emerged in the 7th century as a unified empire, but it soon divided into a variety of territories. The bulk of western and central Tibet (Ü-Tsang) was often at least nominally unified under a series of Tibetan governments in Lhasa, Shigatse, or nearby locations; these governments were at various times under Mongol and Chinese over-lordship. The eastern regions of Kham and Amdo often maintained a more decentralized indigenous political structure, being divided among a number of small principalities and tribal groups, while also often falling more directly under Chinese rule; most of this area was eventually incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century.
SURVIVING THE DRAGON: A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years of Chinese Rule - part 2
The Audrey Johnson Show travels to the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington Indiana, where Audrey Johnson interviews Arjia Rinpoche,
director of TMBCC and author of SURVIVING THE DRAGON: A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years of Chinese Rule.
[...Continued from part one...]
Arjia: But anyway, getting back to my life, so I was born in 1950. From 1950 to 1958, almost ten years, eight years, so that's Tibet, and the monastery, you
know, the family members, and keeping their own tradition, and almost like the ancient Tibetan style. So we're... I'm from a nomad family. So they have animals,
they live in tents, you know, they were called Mongol 'ger'. So, Mongol ger, do you know? It's our tents. So we live in that; I was born in that.
Audrey: So you were born in that, right?
Arjia: Yes, so two years old, they find me as a reincarnation, and I went to a monastery.
Audrey: Yes, I read that... Wow!
Arjia: I grew up in monastery, until 1958. So in 1958, everything's totally changed, the life's totally upside down. So, that's called 'The Great Leap Forward'.
So the great leap forward means you have to change everything, you have to go ahead and do something, so that means, for religion, they called 'religious
reform'. So that's all monasteries shut down, and the monks, you know, the head of monks, like the priest, Dalai Lama, High Lamas, all the rest, so they all
went to jail. I was so-called 'highly tempered' before. However, that time, my assistant, my teacher, my own tutor, everyone went to jail, [other] than myself.
I was eight years old.
Audrey: You were in jail?
Arjia: No-no-no. My...They went to jail. So nobody's taking care of me. So then I was sent to a Chinese school. And I became a Chinese student. So then until
the early sixties. So then the sixties had big famine in China. There's no food...
Audrey: Ummm! That's right. I read about that! When the meat, and--I remember--when nobody had meat, and you guys...
Arjia. You're wonderful. You read everything.
Audrey: It was like, I was like, going to ask you about that, how, like, those people were dying, and no food, and you went someplace, and somebody give you
guys some meat... Oh, wow!... because I thought...
Arjia. Yeah-yeah-yeah... Yeah-yeah-yeah... that's very interesting.
Audrey: And then you came back, and your brother... So those are survivor skills; You had to survive.
Arjia: That's a very, very difficult times in my life at that time, you know, everywhere, not just in Tibet, all over China. All over China, no food, nothing to
eat. We just eating, finally, green grass. The soup, the so-called soup, you know, before soup very light, we have a little bit of flour there. Later, we don't
have the flour. Just the soup: Water, boil the water, then put some green grasses, and just drink that. And then people dying, and you know, very... very
difficult.
Audrey: I read that! It's so sad. Well you know what that made me thought about as I was reading that? Because of what's happening in our whole economy, I mean,
different changes. And I pray that those days won't be like that again.
Arjia: No, no. I'm writing this book, one of the purpose is, so recall the history and the story. That's not for hatred, not for the confrontation, that's for
understanding.
Audrey: Understanding, not to forget!
Arjia: Everyone have to remember, everyone can't forget those things. So that's very important. We should prevent everything, so they don't come, don't let's
happen again.... That's the reason I'm writing that.
Audrey: And that's why you're here. So let's talk about bringing the Holiness. The Holiness has appointed you now to be an important part here in Bloomington.
Why Bloomington, Indiana?
Arjia: Bloomington. Actually, that's lots of people asking that kind of questions. So, His Holiness' older brother, he was a professor in IU. When he retired,
he settled down the center here. So that's why Bloomington has his center.
[...and ten more minutes in this video...]
Labrang Tashi Kyil Tour Opening Ceremony at Carnegie Center
Seven Tibetan monks from the Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehradun, India created a World Peace sand mandala in the foyer of the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana from Tuesday July 9 through Saturday July 13, 2013. They also presented an evening cultural program and a Tibetan art workshop for children.
The monks are touring the United States in conjunction with the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana. The goals of this tour are to provide information about Tibetan culture, deliver a message of mutual understanding and tolerance, and to raise awareness and support for their reestablished monastery in India.
Learn more:
Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery, Dehra Dun, India:
Labrang Tashi Kyil 2013 USA Tour:
Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana:
Carnegie Center for Art & History:
Otgonbaatar at Arjia Rinpoche's birthday celebration.
His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Arjia Rinpoche Inidiana TMBCC 2010
Labrang Tashi Kyil Tour Opening Ceremony at Carnegie Center
Seven Tibetan monks from the Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery in Dehradun, India created a World Peace sand mandala in the foyer of the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana from Tuesday July 9 through Saturday July 13, 2013. They also presented an evening cultural program and a Tibetan art workshop for children.
The monks are touring the United States in conjunction with the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana. The goals of this tour are to provide information about Tibetan culture, deliver a message of mutual understanding and tolerance, and to raise awareness and support for their reestablished monastery in India.
Learn more:
Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery, Dehra Dun, India:
Labrang Tashi Kyil 2013 USA Tour:
Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Indiana:
Carnegie Center for Art & History:
VENERABLE ARJIA RINPOCHE # 4 Organized by TANC and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center
VENERABLE ARJIA RINPOCHE Surviving the Dragon is the story of Arjia Rinpoches growing up as the reincarnated abbot in Kumbum, one of Tibets six great monasteries. Unlike many stories from Tibet, his memories are not those of torture and suffering under the Chinese but of suffering and fame. As a child, he was treated like a living Buddha; as a young man he emptied latrines and spent 18 years laboring on collective farms, but after the death of Mao Tse Tung, he rose to prominence within the Chinese Buddhist bureaucracy. He became Vice-chairman of the Buddhist Association of China and was slated to become its Chairman.
At the time of his escape to the USA, his life was one of ease, which would have continued if he had agreed to become tutor to the boy whom the Communist Chinese had unconscionably named the 11th Panchen Lama. It was a political move against the Dalai Lama and his Buddhist faith. His conscience would not allow him to be disloyal to the values of his mentor the 10th Panchen Lama or His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As a result, he fled Tibet rather than betray his Buddhist religion and his Tibetan and Mongolian heritage. For the first seven years after his escape from Tibet, Arjia Rinpoche lived in Mill Valley, CA where he established the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom. Today he divides his time between Mill Valley and Bloomington, Indiana, where he is the Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, which was founded by the Dalai Lamas older brother in 1979.
Surviving the Dragon opens a fascinating window to events from inside Tibetan-Chinese history during the final half of the twentieth century, a conflict that continues today between China and its ethnic minorities. For those interested in modern Asian history, it is a chance to learn the inside story of events that have been largely a mystery to outsiders. For students of Buddhism, it is an opportunity to understand the survival and resurgence of Tibetan Buddhism in its native land. Arjia Rinpoche would like to present the book to the public by giving a talk about his life and events in Tibet that took place during the time period of the book. He is fluent in Tibetan, Mongolian, Mandarin Chinese, and English
The Dalai Lama 6.25.2016 Indianapolis
The Dalai Lama's motorcade leaves the Indiana State Fairgrounds