Date(s): 7th August 2010 - 27th September 2010
Venue: Various UK venues
Celebrating the release of their new album, Skeleton Lords the Tashi Lhunpo Monks are returning to the UK with their fabulous costumes and stage set. Appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe throughout August and at Deloitte IGNITE Festival, Royal Opera House, London on Sunday 5th September 2010 with other dates in Kendal, Reading, Manchester, Brixham. For further details and information about the monks read the full article.
Founded in Shigatse, central Tibet, by the First Dalai Lama in 1447, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was renowned for 500 years for its scholarship in Mahayana philosophy and the Tantric tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 and the cultural revolution from 1966–80 the Monastery lost many of its precious scriptures & statues and of the 6,000 monks in the Monastery, only a handful were able to follow the Dalai Lama into exile.
In 1972, under the patronage of the present Dalai Lama, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was re-established in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Occupying a central position in the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe, the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery is now home to over 300 monks, and has once again regained its reputation as an important centre for learning and for the preservation of the culture and traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
Time of the Skeleton Lords is the fourth album from the monks of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery and their second release as a joint venture between 30 IPS and the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust, following 2008's Dawn Till Dusk. The new album was recorded on location in Bylakuppe, southern India, and features sacred Tibetan prayers and music marking the great cycle of life, death and rebirth – the journey of the consciousness through the Bardo, according to Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
At death, Buddhism, along with many ancient Indian philosophical schools of thought, asserts the idea of a continuity of being once the physical death has occurred. The Bardo is an intermediate period between death and rebirth, during which the effects of causality and karma accumulated in previous lives influence the direction of the future rebirth. The journey of the consciousness through the Bardo may last an instant, or for as long as forty-nine days, after which one must find a place of rebirth.
Skeleton Lords (or Durdak) are Tibetan deities, guardians of the cemetery, who serve to remind humans that death can come at any time. Buddhist practitioners are urged to meditate on the inevitability of death, in order to smooth the passage through the Bardo, cultivating attitudes that will result in either a good rebirth or enlightenment.
Tour Dates for August
7-29 Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Quaker Meeting House (Venue 40) / St John's Church (Venue 127) www.edfringe.com
Tour Dates for September
3 BATS, Brixham Theatre, Devon www.batsweb.org.uk
5 Deloitte IGNITE Festival, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London www.roh.org.uk/deloitteignite
16-17 Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal www.breweryarts.co.uk
19 South Street Arts Centre, Reading www.readingarts.com/southstreet
25 Square Chapel Centre for the Arts, West Yorkshire www.squarechapel.co.uk
26 Didsbury Arts Festival, Manchester www.didsburyartsfestival.org
Skeleton Lords is released on 6th September on the 30ips label and distributed by Proper
Website: Tashi Lhunpo Monastery UK Trust
