World-renowned Tibetan monks to perform “Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing” at UMass Dartmouth Nov. 2

Mystical Arts of Tibet celebration will also include week-long sand-painting
demonstration and exhibit

The famed multiphonic singers of Tibet’s Drepung Loseling Monastery, whose sellout
performances in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center have received national acclaim,
will perform “Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing” at UMass Dartmouth’s Main
Auditorium on November 2.

The concert will be the highlight of a week-long celebration of the Mystical Arts of
Tibet. The celebration will begin Monday, October 31 at noon at the Claire T. Carney
Library with opening ceremonies for a Mandala Sand Painting exhibit. The sand
painting will take place in the Library Living Room early in the week and the
exhibit will remain through Friday. SEE ATTACHED PHOTOS

The Mystical Arts of Tibet tour is co-produced by Richard Gere Productions and
Drepung Loseling Institute, the North American Seat of Drepung Loseling Monastery,
India. Endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the tour has three basic purposes:
to make a contribution to world peace and healing; to generate a greater awareness
of the endangered Tibetan civilization; and to raise support for the Tibetan refugee
community in India.

The performance features multiphonic singing, wherein the monks simultaneously
intone three notes of a chord. The Drepung Loseling monks are particularly renowned
for this unique singing. They also utilize traditional instruments such as 10-foot
long dung-chen horns, drums, bells, cymbals and gyaling trumpets. Rich brocade
costumes and masked dances, such as the Dance of the Sacred Snow Lion, add to the
exotic splendor.

The monks of Drepung Loseling have a very distinguished modern-day musical history.
On past tours they have performed with Kitaro, Paul Simon, Philip Glass, Eddie
Brickell, Natalie Merchant, Patti Smith, the Beastie Boys, and the Grateful Dead’s
Mickey Hart, to name but a few.

In addition, two of their recordings achieved top-10 listings on the New Age charts:
Tibetan Sacred Temple Music (Shining Star Productions) and Sacred Tibetan Chants
(Music and Arts Program of America, Inc.). Their most recent recording, Compassion
(Milennia Music), pairs them with the Abbey of Gethsemani Schola in an encounter of
Gregorian chant with Tibetan multiphonic singing.

Their music was featured on the Golden Globe-nominated soundtrack of the film Seven
Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt (Columbia Pictures) and they performed with
Philip Glass in Lincoln Center in the live presentation of his award-winning score
to the Martin Scorsese film Kundun (Disney).

In response to the September 11 tragedies, they had the honor of creating special
mandalas and leading prayer ceremonies and meditations in New York and Washington.
Organized in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, these events were
dedicated to the healing and protection of America.

The Loseling monks have twice been featured artists at the Smithsonian Folklife
Festival, representing Tibetan culture, and in July 2003 enjoyed the rare honor of
representing Tibet in the Cultural Olympiad of Greece, a pre-Olympic celebration of
World Sacred Music and Dance. For this event the monks toured Greece and performed
at venues that included the Acropolis and ancient Olympia, the historic site of the
original Olympics.

The event is co-sponsored by the following UMass Dartmouth organizations: Frederick
Douglass Unity House; Student Activities, Involvement and Leadership; Center for
Religious and Spiritual Life; Health Services, Health Education & Promotion; College
of Arts and Sciences; International Student and Scholar Center; Chartwells Food
Services via Campus Services; and Office of Diversity, Equity