Joining us for the 6th edition of our special Quarantine Series are Tibetan Buddhist monk Damchoe Gyaltsen at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India, and Fulbright scholar Morika Hensley in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
GESHE DAMCHOE
Damchoe Gyaltsen is a Geshe Lharampa (the equivalent of a Ph.D.) in the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He attended Drepung Loseling Monastic University at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India where he has been residing since 1983. Currently, Geshe Damchoe serves the monastery as a senior teacher of Buddhist philosophy and held the title of disciplinarian in 2016.
Drepung Loseling is considered one of the “Three Great Monasteries” and the home monastery of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. Originally established near Lhasa, Tibet in 1416, it once housed over 10,000 monks. After being forced to leave Tibet in 1959 and come to India as exiles, its monks re-established the college in South India. This monastery is part of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, its largest and most important school of thought. It is headed by the Dalai Lama whose teachings are considered to be purest form of Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1998 Drepung Loseling and its North American seat in Atlanta, Georgia established an academic affiliation with Emory University to promote cultural understanding and scholarly interchange. This historic affiliation between two major institutions of learning was inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 12, 1998. In addition to its academic and spiritual programs, Drepung Loseling is committed to helping preserve the endangered Tibetan culture, which today leads a fragile existence in the exiled refugee communities in India and Nepal. In conjunction with Richard Gere Productions, it coordinates The Mystical Arts of Tibet World Tours and oversees the Drepung Loseling Educational Fund, a sponsorship program for the adoption of monks in training at Drepung Loseling Monastery.
MORIKA HENSLEY
Morika is a third-generation New Mexican who grew up with horses, dogs, cats, soccer balls, and lots of art in the dirt of Santa Fe and Taos. She is a lifelong lover of wild beings, sacred landscapes, and terrible puns, devoted to discovering and embodying a path of place-based ecocultural stewardship. She earned a master’s degree in environmental sciences with a concentration in ecology and conservation from Emory University, focusing on human-wildlife conflict in Ladakh, India where she spent a year as a Fulbright researcher at the Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust. And for three summers she was the Emory Program Assistant for the Tibetan Mind/Body Sciences Summer Abroad.
She has a background in Tibetan Studies, community conservation, and religion and ecology. Morika is the recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Grant, Santa Fe Community Foundation Michael Currier Scholarship, and Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation Senator Pete Dominici Scholarship. She is currently the program coordinator for the Santa Fe Watershed Association, an environmental conservation organization, and is involved in the ecological restoration of Santa Fe County exploring place-based ecocultural stewardship and “radical humility.”
This interview was recorded on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. It’s 01:40:08 long and 88.1 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. And it’s now available on our YouTube channel.
You can also listen to this episode on your Amazon Echo device. Simply say, “Alexa, play Speaking of Jung on Apple Podcasts (or on TuneIn).” Just be sure to pronounce Jung with a hard J.
SHOW NOTES
The Mystical Arts of Tibet North American tour
Emory-Tibet Science Initiative Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Tresa Vorenberg Goldsmiths Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Morika’s mom)
Marcia Keegan Photojournalist
Marcia Keegan Books Amazon Author Page
Tibetans & Native Americans: From the Roof of the World to the Land of Enchantment by Marcia Keegan (Nov. 11, 2016)
Clear Light Publishers Harmon Houghton & Marcia Keegan
Kalachakra Preliminary Teachings by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, Washington D.C., 2011
Glenn Mullin Tibetan scholar
Glenn H. Mullin Amazon Author Page
Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi Emory University professor
A Brief History of Drepung Loseling
Drepung Loseling Monastery in Tibet
Drepung Loseling Monastery in India
Drepung Loseling Institute in Atlanta
Drepung Loseling Educational Society Program details
Drepung Loseling Meditation & Science Center Inaugurated by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama on Dec. 14, 2017
Emory-Tibet Science Initiative Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Mind & Life Institute Charlottesville, Virginia
The Universe in a Single Atom by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
Mt. Kailash in Tibet
Bodhi Tree Bodh Gaya, India
Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust
Santa Fe Watershed Association
Seven Years in Tibet Film starring Brad Pitt; available on Amazon Prime Video
Kundun Film directed by Martin Scorsese; available on DVD
Seret and Sons Ira & Sylvia Seret, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Jindhag Foundation The Seret’s charitable organization founded to support and preserve the cultural diversity of traditional and indigenous peoples around the world that are being threatened with extinction and assimilation into modernity.
2020 Livestream Schedule Puja every Tuesday at 5:30 pm ET
ADDITIONAL LINKS
85th Birthday Celebration for the Dalai Lama Livestream for the Long Life Offering Puja, Jul. 6, 2020 at 10:00 AM EDT
Drepung Loseling Institute of Texas Where Gala Rinpoche is now
House of Cards Season 3 episode featuring the Mystical Arts of Tibet monks
Santa Fe Radio Cafe Podcast with host Mary-Charlotte; includes several episodes with monks on the Mystical Arts of Tibet tour
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Marcia Keegan (1938–2016)