His Holiness the 17^th Gyalwang Karmapa visits the Bhutanese Monastery

December 7, 2009, report by Jo Gibson, photos taken by Karma Lekcho
 

Preparing this year’s butter sculptures

Each year the Bhutanese Monastery hosts the team of skilled monks and nuns who prepare the torma –traditional Tibetan butter sculptures – for the Kagyu Monlam. The work is slow, intricate and very demanding.  These torma will form part of the extensive offerings placed below the bodhi tree in front of the Monlam assembly and include eight large torma, specially designed and commissioned each year to reflect a particular theme.  The theme for this year’s special butter sculptures is Menla, the  Medicine Buddha. Each large torma will feature one of the eight Medicine Buddha brothers.

His Holiness first visited the Bhutanese temple and then proceeded to the building where the torma are being prepared, where he inspected the work in progress and talked with the monks and nuns about their work.

 

Rehearsing the choir of monks and nuns

In addition, this year the Bhutanese Monastery is the rehearsal venue for the choir of nuns and monks being trained by Senior Chanting Master Karma Woser Rabten for the cultural programme which will be presented on Friday January 1^st 2010.  The programme includes traditional Tibetan monastic chanting. Tibetan folk dance, and the Gyalwang Karmapa's musical drama The Life of Milarepa.

The Gyalwang Karmapa spoke briefly to the choir and encouraged them to keep on practising.