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UB, Dalai Lama making history
Full slate of activities scheduled
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The main event of the Dalai Lama’s three-day visit will be his lecture on Tuesday in UB stadium
One of the most anticipated events in UB history is finally at hand, as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama comes to campus next week for a three-day visit.
Stephen C. Dunnett, vice provost for international education and a co-chair of the steering committee planning the Dalai Lama's visit, calls the visit "a landmark event for both the university and the community."
"While UB has hosted former presidents and other dignitaries, it has never before received a spiritual leader of His Holiness' stature," Dunnett says, adding the closest analogy would be a visit by the Pope.
All vehicles entering the North Campus must display a faculty/staff/student hangtag or a red Dalai Lama hangtag.
The Coventry and Webster entrances to the North Campus will be closed.
The following lots will be closed to faculty/staff/students: Lake LaSalle, Arena, Alumni, Stadium, Slee, Baird and Special Event.
Arrive early to guarantee a convenient parking space. Aside from the lots mentioned above, individuals will be able to park near their normal work sites until 9:30 a.m.
At 9:30 a.m., University Police will begin directing all campus traffic to fill parking spaces, moving east to west from the Slee lots.
Car pool or use the Metro bus whenever possible. Faculty, staff and students also will be able to travel to North Campus via the UB Stampede.
Do not schedule any unnecessary events, programs, deliveries, service calls or meetings on Sept. 19. Getting around campus will be extremely difficult on that day.
Tune to 1620-AM before arriving on campus for parking and traffic updates.
Please be patient.
William J. Regan, director of the Office of Special Events and a co-chair of the steering committee with Dunnett and James "Beau" Willis, chief of staff in the Office of the President and interim executive vice president for finance and operations, says the Dalai Lama's visit "has parameters of size, duration, complexity, planning and participation that dwarf" almost every other event held at the university. Regan notes that preparing for the visit, first announced in April 2005, required a "massive sustained effort" on the part of the university's event-services enterprise, and on the part of faculty, staff, students and members of the community who helped plan for the events that will feature the Dalai Lama, as well as develop additional programming and activities, such as the Day of Learning and the Dalai Lama Experience.
Some 30,000 people are expected on campus on Tuesday to attend the Dalai Lama's Distinguished Speakers Series lecture at 3 p.m. in UB Stadium. Regan advises those attending the lecture, as well as faculty, staff and students who may not be attending the lecture but who will be on campus that day for other activities, to arrive early and make sure they have made transportation and parking arrangements in advance. Only passenger vehicles that have UB faculty/staff/student hangtags or red Dalai Lama hangtags will be allowed on the North Campus on Tuesday. Regan says parking hangtags and boarding passes for the North-South campus shuttle can be purchased at the Alumni Arena box office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
In addition to delivering the DSS lecture, entitled "Promoting Peace Across Borders Through Education," the Dalai Lama will receive a SUNY honorary doctorate in humane letters during the program. Conferring the honorary degree will be President John B. Simpson, SUNY Chancellor John R. Ryan and SUNY Trustee Gordon R. Gross.
Among the events to be held in conjuction with the Dalai Lama’s visit are construction and exhibition of a mandala sand painting in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts.
The lecture is just one in a series of events being held at UB in conjunction with the Dalai Lama's visit. Other activities include an interfaith service, a Day of Learning, the Dalai Lama Experience, art and library exhibitions, a concert, a film screening, a multimedia presentation and an international conference focusing on Tibetan and Buddhist law.
The full slate of events:
Saturday, Sept. 16: Mandala sand painting. Tibetan Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery will construct a mandala sand painting in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. The mandala sand painting—during which millions of grains of colored sand are laid into place on a flat platform—traditionally begins with an opening ceremony during which the lamas consecrate the cite and call forth the forces of goodness, which is done through chanting, music and mantra recitation. The opening ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Sept. 16. Public access to the ceremony will be limited, and alternate viewing areas—via live, closed-circuit television—will be available in the CFA. It takes up to 24 hours to complete the mandala, and the public will be able to observe the work as it is being performed. Public viewing hours will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday (monks in residence from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.), 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday (monks in residence from 10 a.m. to noon) and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday (monks in residence from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.).
A concert of "Sacred Music Sacred Dance" will be held in the Center for the Arts Mainstage theater.
Most mandalas are destroyed shortly after their completion. The sand is swept up and placed in an urn; half is distributed to the audience at a closing ceremony and half is deposited in a nearby body of water. The closing ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday; access is limited and alternate viewing locations will be made available. Immediately following the Dalai Lama's public address on Tuesday, the monks will lead a procession from the north end of UB Stadium to Ellicott Creek via St. Rita's Lane. They will pour the sand into the creek, symbolically dispersing the healing energies of the mandala throughout the world.
Sunday, Sept. 17: "Sacred Music Sacred Dance." The famed multiphonic singers of the Drepung Loseling Monastery will perform "Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing" at 3 p.m. in the Mainstage theater, CFA. The performance will feature multiphonic singing—where the monks simultaneously intone three notes of a chord—traditional instruments, elaborate costumes and masked dances. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students and are available at the CFA box office, and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Ticketmaster.com.
Monday, Sept. 18: Interfaith service. Representatives of many faiths will reflect on the meaning and cultivation of peace within ourselves, our community and the world at large during the interfaith service, to be held at 4 p.m. in Alumni Arena, North Campus. The Dalai Lama will deliver remarks and students in the Department of Theatre and Dance will read from texts representing various religious traditions. Tickets still are available to UB faculty, staff and students with UB identification. They may be purchased at the Alumni Arena box office at a cost of $15.
Monday, Sept. 18: Inaugural concert of UB's Center for 21st Century Music. Philip Glass, considered to be one of the most important and influential American composers of the past century, will appear with the Slee Sinfonietta—UB's resident professional chamber orchestra—at 7 p.m. in the Mainstage theater, CFA. Glass will speak and answer questions from the audience following his concert. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $15 for UB alumni and $10 for students. They may be purchased at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.
The inaugural concert of UB’s Center for 21st Century Music, featuring composer Philip Glass, will take place in the CFA Mainstage.
The evening's events also will include a presentation of a new work entitled "Chasmal" by David Felder, Birge-Cary Chair and director of the Center for 21st Century Music in the College of Arts and Sciences, with a video by Elliot Caplan, professor and director of the Center for the Moving Image in the Department of Media Study. The presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, adjacent to the CFA.
At 8:45 p.m., the Martin Scorsese film "Kundun," the story of the early life of the 14th Dalai Lama—with an Academy-Award nominated score by Glass—will be shown in Lippes Concert Hall and in the Student Union Theater.
The evening's events in Lippes Concert Hall and in the Student Union Theater will be free and open to the public.
Tuesday, Sept. 19: Day of Learning. UB will present a full slate of free lectures, panel discussions, performances and exhibits focusing on the visit of the Dalai Lama and his message of peace and nonviolence. Classes on the North Campus have been suspended for the day so faculty, staff and students may attend activities. For a complete schedule of events, go to http:// www.buffalo.edu/dalai_lama/day_of_learning.
Tuesday, Sept. 19: Dalai Lama Experience. This event, to run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5-6:30 p.m. outside UB Stadium, is designed to entertain and educate the thousands who will come to campus to see the Dalai Lama. It will feature regional organizations with information on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as food concessions and a book fair with books, CDs, commemorative posters and other items for sale.
Tuesday, Sept. 19: Distinguished Speakers Series lecture by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. The program will begin at 1 p.m. with numerous musical performances, including several by Philip Glass. Glass also will perform a duet with flutist Nawang Khechog, one of Tibet's foremost world music composers and musicians. A time-lapsed video of the construction of the mandala sand painting in the UB Art Gallery will be shown. President John B. Simpson will offer welcoming remarks at 3 p.m., after which the Dalai Lama will receive the SUNY honorary degree. His Holiness then will deliver his lecture.
Wednesday, Sept. 20: "Law, Buddhism and Social Change: A Conversation with the Dalai Lama." During this conference, organized by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy and the UB Law School, the Dalai Lama will meet with legal practitioners and scholars from around the world to discuss how religion, particularly Buddhism, can influence law and bring about social change. The conference will open at 9 a.m. in the Charles B. Sears Law Library in O'Brian Hall, North Campus, and will run through Sept. 21.
For further information about the Dalai Lama's visit, go to http://www.buffalo.edu/ dalai_lama.