Opening tomorrow, Tibet at a Glance: Special Exhibition of Tibetan Miniatures at the Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Center showcases Tibetan figurines made by monks at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India.
Decked out in traditional clothes, the figurines are an introduction to the profound and diverse culture of Tibet. The exhibition will cover seven themes: kings and ministers; Lhasa street scenery; Tibetan costume; vajra or tantric dance; prayer; Milarepa, a celebrated historical figure in Tibetan Buddhism; and Tibetan theater.
Drepung Loseling Monastery itself has a fascinating history. Established in 1416, the original Drepung Monastery was regarded as the most important monastery of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Located at the foot of Mount Gephel on the outskirts of Lhasa, in its heyday, the monastery housed 7,700 monks and was thought to be the largest in the world.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Culture
After the Tibetan uprising in 1959 and China’s ensuing crackdown on Tibetan governance, religious and social structures, about 250 monks from Drepung Monastery escaped to India, where they founded Drepung Loseling Monastery in the spirit of the original. This “monastery in exile” now houses more than 3,000 monks.
Tibet at a Glance is part of the ongoing Tibetan Culture and Art Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture and now in its fifth year.
The festival program also includes four talks conducted in Mandarin on Tibetan life, death and wedding rites; Tibetan documentaries; spirituality; and Tibetan yoga. The talks will take place tomorrow and on Jan. 18, Feb. 22 and March 14 next year respectively. In addition, there will be interactive sessions to make hand-molded rice flour figurines and paper crafts on Dec. 28 this year and March 21 next year respectively.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Culture
■ Tibet at a Glance: Special Exhibition of Tibetan Miniatures shows until March 31 next year and is open Mondays to Saturdays, 9am to 6pm at the Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Gallery (蒙藏文化館), 3, Lane 8, Qingtian St, Taipei City (臺北市青田街八巷三號).
■ Online registration is required for the talks and hands-on activities at: event.culture.tw/MOC. Several events are already booked.
As mega K-pop group BTS returns to the stage after a hiatus of more than three years, one major market is conspicuously missing from its 12-month world tour: China. The omission of one of the group’s biggest fan bases comes as no surprise. In fact, just the opposite would have been huge news. China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 under an unofficial ban that also restricts movies and the country’s popular TV dramas. For some Chinese, that means flying to Seoul to see their favorite groups perform — as many were expected to do for three shows opening
A recent report from the Environmental Management Administration of the Ministry of Environment highlights a perennial problem: illegal dumping of construction waste. In Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) and Hsinchu’s Longtan District (龍潭) criminals leased 10,000 square meters of farmland, saying they were going to engage in horticulture. They then accepted between 40,000 and 50,000 cubic meters of construction waste from sites in northern Taiwan, charging less than the going rate for disposal, and dumped the waste concrete, tile, metal and glass onto the leased land. Taoyuan District prosecutors charged 33 individuals from seven companies with numerous violations of the law. This
Apr. 13 to Apr. 19 From 17th-century royalty and Presbyterian missionaries to White Terror victims, cultural figures and industrialists, Nanshan Public Cemetery (南山公墓) sprawls across 95 hectares, guarding four centuries of Taiwan’s history. Current estimates show more than 60,000 graves, the earliest dating to 1642. Besides individual tombs, there are also hundreds of family plots, one of which is said to contain around 1,000 remains. As the cemetery occupies valuable land in the heart of Tainan, the government in 2018 began asking families to relocate the graves to make way for development. That
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
RSS