"Mystical
Arts of Tibet" exhibit now open at the ITC
"The Mystical Arts of Tibet" opened this week at the Institute
of Texan Cultures with a blessing of the exhibit by Tibetan Buddhist monks.
The exhibit, to which members of the Tri-Campus community are admitted free
with a current university ID card, continues through Sept. 3.
The exhibit affords patrons a rare opportunity to learn more about a culture
few of us will experience firsthand. Although Tibetans were not one of the
original groups that settled Texas, there is today a small, close-knit group
of Tibetans who reside in Austin, where they have formed the Tibetan Association
to maintain and preserve their culture. The group celebrates the Dalai Lama's
birthday in July and Tibet National Day in March. They have formed a folkloric
dance group that has performed at the Texas Folklife Festival and at many
Austin events.
Tibetans in Texas, as with other Tibetan exiles in the United States, are
a varied group primarily from India and Nepal. A few Tibetan Texans were born
in Tibet and fled Chinese oppression in the 1960s. The 1990 Immigration Act
allowed 1,000 Tibetans to immigrate to the United States. The majority settled
in New York and Minnesota.
Photo by Bryan Morehead ©1998 Drepung Loseling Monastery