During Carnegie Mellon's International Festival from November 2 to 4, students and family members had the opportunity to experience many different cultures. The Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery displayed their powerful and interesting "Sacred Music, Sacred Dance" performance to close out the Festival on Saturday night. This show demonstrated fantastic song and dance skills while emphasizing a message of peace. Although peace was not the central message of the International Festival, the Drepung Loseling monks' ideals of protecting people from harm fit with this year's theme of "Body, Mind, and Spirit: Prescriptions for Global Health."

After a short introduction by a monk who served as the Master of Ceremonies, the monks began with a piece called "Invocation of the Forces of Goodness." They played musical instruments, including horns, drums, and cymbals, and sang as a prelude to the rest of the show. The highlight of this portion of the show was the monks' polyphonic singing. Using this rare technique, monks are able to sing multiple tones at once by manipulating their voice box in unusual ways. According to the MC, central Asia is the only area of the world in which this unique art is practiced.

The monks continued with "A Melody to Sever the Ego Syndrome." This piece was not as grandiose as the first; it featured three monks sitting and singing. However, it was quite a haunting melody. The song is meant to put the listener into a meditative mood, free of the ego's distractions.

Next came the first dance performance, the "Dance of the Black Hat Masters." This piece featured the second most elaborate costumes of the evening, as two monks in intricately decorated robes and black hats completed a complex synchronized dance.

The fourth piece, "Intense Encounters of the Third Degree," offered a different type of performance: a debate. A group of monks sat while another monk stood and asked questions. The questioner became more and more animated as the inquiry continued, punctuating each question with a clap of his hands and an exclamation of "cha!" Two other monks eventually stood and joined the questioner. The debate became comical as the monks all began arguing and exclaiming loudly until they peacefully concluded. The fact that they were arguing in their native language, which the audience couldn't understand, made it even more humorous and intriguing. This process is a version of a common practice inside the Drepung Loseling Monastery through which monks can expand their minds and gain spiritual experience.

Finally, the monks concluded with the most visually stunning performance of the night, "The Snow Lion Dance." Two monks, inside a giant snow lion costume, danced around the stage, at times even doing complex maneuvers like rolls and jumps. At the end of this delightful dance, the snow lion's mouth opened to reveal a banner reading "World Peace."

The final dance served as a microcosm of the whole show on two levels. First, although it was mostly focused around music, the show was visually stunning. An ornate display, centered around a photograph of the Dalai Lama, served as a background during the entire performance. The monks' costumes and musical instruments further painted the stage with colors and designs. The drums were particularly noteworthy for their resemblance to giant spiral lollipops.

Second, the show and the narrator's remarks focused on the message of peace constantly. Tibetans, including the monks from Drepung Loseling, have been forced out of their homes by Chinese communists. It's difficult to tell what exactly the Chinese have done, as accounts by the Chinese and by the Tibetan exiles often differ. However, it is clear that the Chinese People's Liberation Army entered and occupied Tibet in 1950. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have died as a result of Chinese rule and over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed. Tibetan exiles have continued to uphold their traditions in India, but they still strive for a free Tibet and world peace. Hopefully, the monks' call for peace, as a closing point for the International Festival, will continue to guide students and visitors as they go about their lives.

	story images

The Tibetan monks began their performance with the hauntingly beautiful, traditional meditive music, featuring polyphonic singing.	With spinning and jumps, the monks performing the Dance of the Black Hat Masters at the fall 2006 International Festival brought the piece alive.
The Dance of the Black Hat Masters featured one of the more interesting costumes of the evening.	Tibetan monks demonstrate the tradition of Tibetan monastic inquiry.
During the snow lion dance piece, the snow lion pranced, rolled, and jumped on and off stage.	The Tibetan monks performed a complicated snow lion dance with costume and music.

 talkback to the pulse