Eight Tibetan Buddhist monks will be spending three days in HM Prison The Verne on Portland in July.  Invited by the Prison authorities and the prison’s Church of England Chaplain, the monks will be making a sand mandala and holding a variety of workshops and performances for inmates and visitors in the Prison between 22^nd and 25^th July.  In order to make this possible, an application was made to Grants for the Arts, and this award has now been confirmed.

The monks from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in India are in the middle of a three-month tour of the UK and Europe organised by their UK charitable trust.  This will be their second visit to HMP The Verne, and their fourth to a prison institution since 2003.  To cover the costs involved, the Trust applied to Grants for the Arts and were delighted to hear that their bid was successful.

During their three days work in the prison, the monks will demonstrate the exquisite skills of ‘painting’ with millions of grains of coloured sand as they construct a traditional Tibetan sand mandala.  A mandala is an aid to meditation used as part of a tantric ritual, representing the entirety of the cosmos, within which is a palace into which the Buddhas are invited, using skills which are passed down through generations of tantric masters.  Inmates and visitors to the prison will be able to see the construction of the mandala and try it for themselves – as well as taking part in workshops in butter sculpture, prayer flag printing and Tibetan calligraphy.  During the three days, the monks will also give a performance of the masked dances and sacred chant from their monastery. 

CofE Chaplain to HMP The Verne, The Rev’d Bill Cave, said, “The monks visited HMP the Weare (the prison ship) on two occasions and have also been good enough to visit the Verne in 2006.  On each of those occasions not only were their presentations of dances, music and ritual well received but prisoners and staff alike have been impressed by the willingness, despite language difficulties, to share in conversation.  On those occasions the most lasting impression of the monks was the depth and integrity of their approach to life – despite levels of material deprivation which few in this country genuinely appreciate.  The opportunity to invite them for a longer period to the prison, especially for a “mandala project” means that many more than the usual 40-50 previously able to attend performances will now be able to benefit from their time and wisdom.” 

Kelkhang Rinpoche, the monks’ tour leader and General Secretary of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in India, is happy to be able to share the culture of the monastery in this way.  “We practice meditation within our tradition, and the construction of a mandala is in itself a form of mind-training.  It is interesting to meet the prisoners and talk to them.”