
DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709130110

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  146 lines

CELEBRATION OF TIBETAN CULTURE GETS UNDER WAY TODAY

IN THE MAIN gallery of the Arts Center of the Portsmouth Museums, an enormous ink drawing of fabric-draped corpses dominates a wall.

The mural-scaled work, titled ``Gate,'' was drawn by Philip Sugden, an Ohio artist who has toured Tibet and visited with Tibetans in exile at least five times since 1978.

``Gate,'' and all of Sugden's work on view in Portsmouth, incorporates the artist's interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist philosophies, such as the detachment from ego-spurred desires being a key to enlightenment.

In the work, feather-light sheets of Himalayan paper, reminiscent of peeled skin layers, dangle from brackets extended from the wall. Sugden's wiggly sepia ink lines are like hair on skin. As the sheets respond to the slightest air shift, the hanging paper panels are like spirits coming to life.

In an accompanying label for ``Gate,'' Sugden writes about illusions of separateness. And how, ``within that dichotomy of self and other, there are metaphorical gateways through which, when passing, one's perception is transformed and bequeathed with the ability to recognize the intimate relationship and unquestioning interconnection of all things.''

Though he drew ``Gate'' in 1995, the image was planted in his mind during a 1988 trip that included a 10-day visit to Varinasi, India, a most holy site, Sugden recalled. ``We watched them cremating the dead,'' he said, ``and after their bodies were burned, we watched them sweep the ashes into the river.''

Sugden may be reminded of that scene on Saturday, when he watches four monks from the Drepung Loseling monastery in Georgia pour colored sands from an urn into the Elizabeth River in downtown Portsmouth.

That public event should provide a gentle climax to an unusual week of Tibet-related programs in Portsmouth, including a concert, lecture and workshop.

The lineup is centered around Tibet-related exhibits at the Arts Center and coincides with heightened interest in Tibet as China, according to Tibetans and their supporters, continues to tighten its stranglehold on the territory on China's southwestern border.

Through the fall, Asia Society and Tibet House in Manhattan are sponsoring a string of shows, concerts and programs related to Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Also, two feature films about Tibet and the Dalai Lama soon will be released. ``Seven Years in Tibet,'' which opens Oct. 8, is based on a real-life 1940s encounter between an Austrian mountain climber and the Dalai Lama. The Martin Scorsese-directed ``Kundun,'' opening on Christmas Day, is titled after the Dalai Lama's nickname among intimates and recounts his life story.

Meanwhile, since early August, the Portsmouth center has housed drawings by Sugden; photos of Tibet and Tibetans in exile by Sugden's companion, Carole Elchert; and artifacts such as prayer wheels, calendars and prayer flags loaned from various collections.

Today at 2 p.m., the Drepung Loseling monks will consecrate the gallery through chanting, music and recitation of mantras. Then they will get out their compass and rulers and start penciling in the highly intricate, geometric pattern of the mandala they will create.

During gallery hours, until completion, the monks will be drizzling colored sands onto a board. They begin at the center and work outwards. The process is expected to take 20 to 25 hours, said curator Gayle Paul.

Each day, the monks will take a lunch break from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Then it's back to the sand-drawing board.

Mandalas, also called cosmograms, are circular designs comprising symbolic patterns and images, according to material provided by the monastery. The traditional patterns, rooted in the tantric legacy of Buddhist India, are considered to have outer or worldly meanings, inner or personal meanings, and secret meanings depicting a perfect mind-body balance.

Paul expects the monks will be done in time for the 3:30 p.m. closing ceremony on Saturday, when the dazzling pattern will be destroyed as a lesson in life's impermanence. The sand will be distributed to guests, with the remainder being placed in an urn and poured into the Elizabeth River.

The idea is for the healing blessing to spread around the world through its waters.

On Wednesday, one of the monks, the Venerable Ngawang Tashi, will speak at Trinity Episcopal Church, across the street from the Arts Center. The talk is free, but donations are welcomed.

The setting for his talk, titled ``Religious Life and Persecution in Tibet,'' is significant: In July, resolutions were passed by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A., in support of Tibet's right to independence and protesting China's human rights abuses.

Friday night, five monks will present the sacred dance and music of their culture on stage at Willett Hall. During the two-hour performance, the monks will dance wearing elaborate brocade regalia and festive masks, and they will play their distinctive blend of long horn trumpets, cymbals, bells and drums.

They also will engage in multiphonic singing. Monks simultaneously intone three notes, creating a complete chord. The Tibetans claim to be the only culture that can boast such a vocal feat.

As ceremonial dances and songs are presented Friday, a speaker will introduce and briefly explain each one.

Then, at 10 a.m. Saturday, artist Sugden will begin his three-hour workshop, discussing the origin and meaning of mandalas and showing his students how to make their own.

Sugden's interest in Tibet's plight grew with each of his Tibet-centered journey. Since 1988, he and Elchert have met with the Dalai Lama several times. In 1991, the couple released a video and a book, both called ``White Lotus,'' that revealed their vision of the rich and beautiful traditions of an endangered culture.

Sugden remembers once asking the Dalai Lama if he despised the Chinese for killing so many Tibetans, and destroying most of the nation's Buddhist temples.

His answer: ``How can you hate a billion people?''

Such a commitment to nonviolence has inspired the artist couple to a kind of missionary zeal. In that sense, Sugden said he sees himself as a kind of pre-Renaissance artist.

``Until the Renaissance,'' he mused, ``artists were considered shamans or healers. Art was made for the purpose of healing, for changing consciousness. That really interests me.'' ILLUSTRATION: ARTS CENTER OF THE PORTSMOUTH MUSEUMS

This large ink drawing of fabric-draped corpses titled ``Gate'' was

drawn on sheets of Himalayan paper by Philip Sugden, incorporating

the Ohio artist's interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist philosophies.

COURTESY OF PHILIP SUGDEN

Sugden presents a drawing to the Dalai Lama, who visited the

artist's studio in Findlay, Ohio, in 1991.

Graphic

A TIBETAN SAMPLER

What: ``Visions from the Fields of Merit,'' an exhibit of

drawings by Philip Sugden and photographs by Carole Elchert. Also

shown are Tibetan artifacts, such as prayer wheels and calendars.

Where: The Arts Center of the Portsmouth Museums, 420 High St.