Tibetan Buddhists to Visit Area

Ten Tibetan Buddhist monks, or lamas, from the Ganden Jangtse Monastery will be visiting Los Angeles and Orange counties this month to share their heritage and generate support for their monastery in southern India.

The Joyful Wisdom Tour, hosted locally by the Land of Compassion Buddha in Rowland Heights, will feature the music, dance, debate and ritual of Tibetan Buddhism.

The original Ganden Jangtse Monastery was established in 1409 in Lhasa, at one time housing 7,000 lamas, the second-largest monastery in Tibet. Thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples have been destroyed by the Chinese government since its invasion of that Himalayan kingdom in 1959. Millions of Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, have fled to India, where many monasteries have been rebuilt.

Noted chef and restaurateur Yujean Kang will host a fund-raising event to benefit the 2,000 monks of the monastery over three days.

Monks will create a sand mandala painting at Yujean Kang’s on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Vegetarian lunches will be served for $30 per person, with 50% of the proceeds going to the monastery. On Thursday, Geshe Yeshe Gyaltsenwill offer a Medicine Buddha Empowerment ceremony at 4 p.m. Donation is $25.

A Medicine Buddha Sand Mandala Blessing ceremony will be at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by a Tibetan/Chinese dinner.

Evening events include the lamas performing ritual Tantric dances, music and a traditional Buddhist debate, followed by commentary and concluding with the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment. The cost is $175 per person, with 70% of the proceeds benefiting the monks. (310) 288-0806.

Other area events include an introduction to Buddhist Sutrayana and Tantrayana and a Vajrapani Empowerment Ceremony by Geshe Gyaltsen at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in West Hollywood at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Donation is $25. (310) 659-1733.

The Joyful Wisdom Tour will continue Saturday with an evening of Tibetan music, dance and debate in Avery Auditorium at Pitzer College, 1050 N. Mills Ave., Claremont, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. (626) 457-2732.

The series will move to Orange County Aug. 28 with the creation of a White Tara Sand Mandala at UC Irvine; music and dance performances Aug. 29 and a blessing ceremony Aug. 30. (626) 457-2732

OVERSEAS MINISTRIES

Several hundred young people and adults from the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese will travel to Paris to participate in World Youth Day festivities, Thursday through Sunday. The young pilgrims and thousands of others from around the world are summoned by Pope John Paul II to celebrate their faith. About 400 delegates representing the archdiocese are expected to attend.

* Thirty students, alumni and community members from La Sierra University in Riverside will join politicians, educators, religious leaders and students from Peru and throughout the Americas next Saturday in Lima, Peru, to reenact a historic march symbolizing religious tolerance, social justice and individual freedom. The march commemorates a 1913 event in which eight Seventh-day Adventist believers were lashed together and forcibly marched 21 miles to a small town where they were jailed. According to professor Charles Teel, one of the event’s coordinators, the backlash that followed that march is credited with introducing the religious tolerance clause into Peru’s constitution.

CONVOCATION

Organizers expect more than 4,000 participants from 51 countries to attend the Self-Realization Fellowship’s 1997 World Convocation at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles beginning Sunday. The weeklong program will focus on the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, the spiritual leader who founded the fellowship in 1920. Classes in yoga meditation and spiritual living, as well as tours of the group’s sanctuaries, will be offered throughout the event. (213) 225-2471.

MUSIC

* The Celebrant Singers, a Christian music ministry featuring 10 vocalists and a 12-piece orchestra, will present a community concert of contemporary Christian music, worship and ministry Sunday at 9:15 and 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. at Lake Avenue Congregational Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena. (818) 795-7221.

* The Friends of Music Program of Pasadena Presbyterian Church will present Music at Noon, a series of weekly concerts every Wednesday from 12:10 to 12:40 p.m. This Wednesday’s offering will be Oasis of Long Beach, a chamber ensemble performing in the church sanctuary on Colorado Boulevard at Madison Avenue. (626) 568-2608.

FINALLY

A panel discussion, “What My Faith Tradition Tells Me About My Family,” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the First Presbyterian Church of Encino, 4963 Balboa Blvd. Sponsored by the Interfaith Relations Committee of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, the program will feature the following panelists: Sister Patricia Boroughs of Roman Catholicism; Bronwyn Moen Brighdesdottir of the Wicca faith; Rabbi John Sherwood of Reform Judaism; Amed Aljaja of Islam; and Nirankar Khalsa of the Sikh faith. The Rev. Jeff Utter will moderate. The Rev. Malcolm Laing is the host pastor. (818) 718-6460, Ext. 3002.