Visions of Enlightenment Exhibition Opening May 10th

An Exhibition of Buddhist Art at MOA and lecture series, May 10 – Sep 30. 6393 NW Marine Drive.

Opening Night is May 10 at 7 PM. Everyone welcome.

Visions of Enlightenment will show examples of Buddhist art from the main Buddhist traditions: the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. In Vancouver, the latter traditions are well represented in the established Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Tibetan communities. The Theravada school represents the traditions of the Burmese, Thai and other Southeast Asian communities. A range of media will be represented, including sculptures (made of stone, metal or lacquered wood) paintings, ceramics, manuscripts, and textiles.

Lecture: Visions of Enlightenment, May 13 at 1 PM. Margo Palmer, a Director of the Canadian Society for Asian Arts (CSAA), and curatorial advisor, will present a talk about the exhibition and Buddhist art. (Free with regular admission)

Lecture: Toward Understanding Thai Buddhism, May 18 at 4 PM, MOA. Dr. B.J. Terwiel, a well-known Buddhist scholar will talk about features of Thai Buddhism. He is the author of the recently revised classic Monks and Magic. For more details, see our post.

Lecture: Buddhism and Buddhist Art, May 27 at 2 PM, Frederic Wood Theatre, 6354 Crescent Road. Dr. Robert Thurman, a scholar and author, is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York. He has written extensively on Buddhist philosophy and practice, art and culture, and has translated numerous Buddhist texts. A charismatic and enthusiastic  speaker, Thurman lectures worldwide. The talk is sponsored by CSAA, in cooperation with MOA. Tickets are available online at www.moa.ubc.ca/eventtickets or at the door (cash only).

Lecture: Visions of Enlightenment, June 17 at 1 PM, MOA. Paula Swart, guest curator of the “Visions of Enlightenment” exhibit, will talk about the exhibition. (Free with regular admission)

Conference and Keynote: Icons of Impermanence, Keynote, July 6 at 7 PM, MOA. The keynote, Dr. Cynthea Bogel, is hosted by the Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program and the Canadian Society for Asian Arts. For details, see our call for papers and conference pages.

In cooperation with UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, the Canadian Society for Asian Arts, The Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation, BMO Financial Group, and the Georgia Straight.

Upcoming Lecture: Barend Jan Terwiel, Toward Understanding Thai Buddhism

UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program presents a lecture by Barend Jan Terwiel.

“Toward Understanding Thai Buddhism”

Date: Friday, 18 May 2012
Time: 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Place: Michael Ames Theatre, Museum of Anthropology (MOA), 6393 NW Marine Drive

Lectures are free and open to the public. Seating will be on a first-come first-serve basis. Doors will open 30 minutes prior to the lecture.

Please click here to download a .pdf poster for printing.

Report on Simon Wickham-Smith’s Lecture on Spiritual Ecology in Contemporary Mongolian Literature

 Around 20 people attended the exhaustive lecture by Simon Wickham-Smith on the Spiritual Ecology in Contemporary Mongolia, which was held in Conference Room 210 at the C.K. Choi Building in the UBC Point Grey Campus on the evening of January 26, 2012.

In his lecture, Wickham-Smith spoke about the evocative works of seminal Mongolian poets writing in the 1980s and the 1990s,  from G. Mend-Ooyo to Altan Ovoo to T. Sodnomnamji to O. Erdenetsogt.  Through his analyses of the spiritual and ecological expressions in their poems, he examined how they reflect the intimate and complex relationship of the semi-nomadic Mongols to their ever changing landscape. This complex relationship may be traced historically back through the introduction of democratic elections in 1990, the earlier purges of Mongolian monastic communities in 1937 – 38, and even back to the introduction of Buddhism from Tibet in 1244. Yet recently, this relationship has been profoundly reshaped. Wickham-Smith described how the enduring religious traditions in the country (Buddhist and Shamanic) on one hand, and an emerging capitalist market economy, together inform the dynamic relationship that underlies contemporary cultural identity of Mongolia. It is this identity that contemporary poets express through their work.

Photos from Jan W. Walls’ Lecture on Buddhism and Business Ethics

This gallery contains 9 photos.

The lecture on “Corporate Craving and Buddhist Compassion: Is There a Middle Ground for Buddhism in Business?” by Dr. Jan W. Walls took place in the C. K. Choi Building, on February 2, 2012.

Photos from Simon Wickham-Smith’s Lecture on Contemporary Mongolian Literature

This gallery contains 8 photos.

The lecture on “Spiritual Ecology in Contemporary Mongolian Literature” by Simon Wickham-Smith took place in the C. K. Choi Building, on January 26, 2012.