His Holiness The Dalai Lama UK Visit 2015

The spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso will be visiting to UK in June 2015.

His Holiness will be offering Public Talks in “Buddhism in 21st Century” and Q/A sessions which will be followed by the most popular Monk Dance known as “Chaam Natch”.

Public Talk & Monk Dance Show

Venue: ESS Stadium Aldershot FC

Date: 29th June 2015 Time: 12:45 to 14:45

Gate Open: 10:00am Gate Close: 12:15pm

Tickets: Buy Online at Eventbrite or contact

Online tickets has been sold out. But there are limited terrace tickets available. These can be pre-booked by ringing 07879472347(Bob) for collection on the day.

Important Information for one who bought ticket online:

• Please bring your printed ticket with you
• Gates open at 10:00 Hrs and closes at 12:15 Hrs Sharp. Those who bought tickets online are suggested to come at before 09:30 hours on the day this will give enough time to exchange the tickets.
• You are required to arrive at Parson Barracks Car Park, Ordnance Road, Aldershot, GU11 1TW
• You are required to walk by foot to a Tented area in Parson Barracks Car park.
• This is where ticket exchange will ticket place. You will then be guided to the Aldershot Stadium through Turnstile.
• Parson Barracks car park is closed for the day. There are other car parks near by. Please ensure you have paid your parking fee till 1530 Hrs at least.
• There will be high level of security check at the entrance therefore big bags or any weapons or objects are not allowed in the stadium. There will be food and drink stand, please bring changes.
• Children occupying a seat – will need a ticket. This can not be guaranteed.

Disclaimer: For your information, as a long-standing policy His Holiness the Dalai Lama does not accept any fees for his talks. The Buddhist Community Centre UK (BCCUK) is the organiser of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s talk on Monday 29 June 2015. The organising Committee will be charging a minimum entrance fee in order to cover the costs of venue and necessary adminstrations. Any surplus fund raised from the event will be donated to charities.

FAQs

• 1. Are there ID requirements or an age limit to enter the event?
  No, there are no ID requirements or age limits. Childrens are required to have tickets for their own seats.
• 2. What are my transport/parking options getting to the event?
  There are sufficient public parking places in and around Aldershot town. It is around five minutes walking distance from the venue. The nearest train station is Aldershot train station.
• 3. What can/can’t I bring to the event?
  There will be high level of security check at the entrance therefore big bags or any weapons or objects are not allowed in the stadium. There will be food and drink stand, please bring change.
• 4. Do I have to bring my printed ticket to the event?
  Yes, this is your proof of entry and will be required by our staff when you arrive at the event to check in.
• 5. The name on the registration/ticket doesn’t match the attendee. Is that okay?
  You need to inform the organiser at least one week before, if deferent name from the list attending the event. Please don’t worry if it doesn’t match. Please don’t share your ticket with others since it can only be used once.
• 6. What is the refund policy?
  If you are unable to attend the event, you can always request for the refund however this request must be made by midnight of 23rd June 2015.
• 7. Where can I contact the organiser with any questions?
  Send us an email to info@bccuk.org or harka_83@hotmail.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

 For more information about the event:

Ticketing:

Monk Dance “Chaam Natch”:

Cham Explaination

The Vajrayana Buddhist dance was originated in India and flourished for centuries in Tibet, are teaching stories-each mask, costume, movement, and gesture has a specific significance and embodies the values of Tantric Buddhism. Wherever this dance is performed, it minimises, famine, war, natural disaster and bring harmony and peace. It also removes yearly obstacles and plant a seed of altruistic motivation to those whoever get audience of this special buddhist tantric meditation dance.

The origin of the sacred Tibetan Buddhist dance, or cham, goes back to the ninth century, when Guru Padmasambhava introduced Buddhism to Tibet. Through the ages, the practice has been advanced by great masters whose visionary experiences enriched and enhanced the dance forms. The sacred dances were then transmitted as accurately as possible by the masters’ disciples from generation to generation. The dances are now preserved by many Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in the world.

Kagyur Explanation

From the seventh century onward, existing literature were compiled and catalogued from time to time which later extended, upgraded, classified, reorganized and put in different sets of different collections. A separate set of translation works was re-grouped into two major collections popularly known as Kagyur/bKa Gyur and Tengyur/bstan-gyur, translation of Buddha’s teaching and translation of commentarial works respectively. The very first Tibetan catalogue was introduced during the period of the 39th Tibetan King khri-lde srong-btsen, also known as sad-na legs-mjing-gyon (776-815), who issued decrees “requiring all translation works that were extant in Tibetan from their Indian original to be catalogued and subjected to be recurrently reviewed and to set guidelines of terminology in order to standardize all translation works”. A team of Indian and Tibetan scholars was assigned for the purpose.

As a major step in this remarkable attempt at literary standardization, the bi-lingual glossary known as the Mahavyutpatti (sgra-sbyor bam-po gnyis-pa) was successfully accomplished in the Tibetan horse year (814 CE). Another great achievement was the cataloguing of the collections then available in royal libraries of the three famous Tibetan palaces under the supervision of the famous translator Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs with help from his colleagues, Bande chos-kyi snying-po, Lo-tsa-wa Bande debendhara, Bande lhun-po and Bande klu’-dbang-po etc. The earliest catalogue compilation was recorded from the manuscript of the royal collection housed in the palace- pho-brang ‘phang-thang ka-med kyi gtsug-lag-kang in the Tibetan dog year. (818 CE) This cataloguing work became famous by the name of the palace and known as dkar-chag phang-thang-ma. Soon afterwards two further catalogues of collections available in two other royal libraries- pho-brang bsam-yas mchims-phu-ma and pho-brang stong-thang ldan-dkar were compiled and came to be known as dkar-chag mchims-phu-ma and dkar-chag ldan-dkar-ma respectively. dkar-chag ldan-dkar-ma was compiled in the dragon year (824 CE).

Among these three catalogues, ldan-dkar-ma, included in the volume Jo of sna-tsogs in sde-ge bka’-bstan, is generally believed to be the only surviving so far. But recently a manuscript of dkar-chag phang-thang-ma is discovered and published from Tibet. It contains 961 titles listed under 34 subject headings with additional information of numbers of verses (soloka and bampo ) that contains in each text. The ldan-dkar-ma catalogue comprises 735 titles and listed under a category of 27 subject headings. An interesting unique feature of Tibetan catalogue is that, alongside information about the source material of translation and the bibliographical details, it gives in physical descriptions, such as the nos. of words, verses, canto (bampo) and folios-pages in each of textual contents. Thus today we have a record of 73 million words contained in the bka’-‘gyur & bstan-‘gyur collection. According to the latest edition of Dharma Publication, the bKa’-‘gyur contains 1,115 texts, spread over 65,420 Tibetan folios amounting to 450,000 lines or 25 million words. Likewise, the bsTan-‘gyur contains 3,387 texts using 127,000 folios amounting to 850,000 lines and 48 millions words. The sum total of both these collections is 4,502 texts in 73 millions words. By fixing bampo to verses and to words of each of the textual contents, the individual works are interpolation and alteration. This further strengthened the authenticity of Tibetan Buddhist literature. These are the first Tibetan catalogues in three versions that were compiled and published in the beginning of the ninth century by the great sgra-sgyur gyi lo-tsa-wa Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs and his team. Tibet, thus, becomes the earliest to accomplish catalogue as inventory in the history of evolution of catalogue. Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs is thus, honored as the pioneer of the Tibetan system. All the later compilers of the Tibetan Canon based their works extensively on sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs creation.

After the period of suppression during the reign of King glang-dar-ma’s (803-842) which brought the first chapter of the history of Tibetan literature to an abrupt end, the second phase in its development is reactivated. Since the beginning of 11th century onward Tibetan translators together with Indian panditas once again resumed their literary activity to bring about a new chapter to be known as “the era of new translation” and also “revival or later promulgation of Buddhism in Tibet”. In addition to the previous works Tibet has produced a huge literary wealth both in terms of volume and range of coverage by the 13th century and this growth imposed to carry a fresh comprehensive bibliographical record and control existing literature.

In the mid 13th century a student of bcom-ldan rigs-ral (1200?), ‘Jam-gag pak-shi, also known as mchims ‘jam-dpal dbyangs (?-1267), who was the state priest of the Mongol emperor Ching Tsung, had managed to collect some amount of writing material and sent to his master with request for organizing and preparing catalogue of literature that were scattered all over Tibet. bcom-ldan rigs-ral with the help of his pupils dbu-pa blo-gsal byang-chub ye-shes, lo tsa-wa bsod-nams ‘od-zer and rgyang-ro byang-chub ‘bum, surveyed various parts mostly covering central and western Tibet. Authenticating and rectifying, they carefully scrutinize all the manuscripts of old and new translations and arranged them in order, compiling a comprehensive catalogue of a proto-bka’-‘gyur & bstan-‘gyur. The catalogue was prepared into two sets of collections, entitled the dkar-chag bstan-pa rgyas-pa and dka-‘gyur gyi dkar-chag nyi-ma’i ‘od-zer respectively. Classification of Tibetan Buddhist canon or translation works into two main classes as bka’-‘gyur & bstan-‘gyur is basically derived from this catalogue.

‘Jam-gag pak-shi was once again able to gather some good amount of writing materials and sent to Tibet with the requesting to re-inscribe all manuscripts and set in separate volumes. dbu-pa blo-gsal byang-chub ye-shes, who was the disciple of both bcom-ldan rigs-ral and ‘jam-gag pak-shi, was entrusted for this new task. He with colleagues, dutifully accomplished the work and published for the first time a complete and new set of volumes of – bka’-‘gyur & bstan-‘gyur and placed at atemple, ‘jam-lha-khang of the snar thang monastery which later became famous as snar thang edition.