The TIBETAN MONKS OF THE TASHI LHUNPO MONASTERY The Power of Compassion

A Lichfield Festival and Lichfield Garrick Theatre event – to book this event by phone, please call the Garrick’s Box Office on 01543 412121

For nearly five hundred years since Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was founded in Tibet by the First Dalai Lama, the unique Buddhist tradition of prayers, Tantric rituals, music and dance has been offered by monks, inaccessible to all but the most fortunate. Fifty years ago, forced from their homeland by the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the monastery was re-established in India where this great tradition continues in exile.

Eight Tibetan monks are now able to mark the 50th anniversary of the rebuilding of their monastery in India and share this dazzling spiritual culture with audiences in the west in The Power Of Compassion, a programme of masked dance, music and Tantric ritual featuring traditional Tibetan musical instruments, the sound of sacred mantras and elaborate, colourful costumes.

Frequent visitors to the Edinburgh Festival, they have also appeared at Glastonbury, WOMAD, the South Bank Centre and Royal Opera House; they have also been on television and radio on many occasions, including a guest appearance (with the Pet Shop Boys) at a fictional Festival on The Archers!