Various Tibetan Community Events
SubjectPortrait of
Tsering Yangzom
(Tibetan)
SubjectPortrait of
Lakedhen Shingsur
(Tibetan, born 1962)
SubjectPortrait of
Thupten Tenzin
(Tibetan)
SubjectPortrait of
Kalsang Jorden
(Tibetan, died 2006)
SubjectPortrait of
Lynne Williamson
Date1996; 2002; 2008
MediumPhotography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightCopyright Held by Sarah Buie
Object number2015.196.234.1-.15
Description2015.196.234.1: Color photo showing the Kumbum of Gyantse monastery; photo used in the Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project catalogue.
2015.196.234.2: Black and white photo showing the Tibetan Plateau; photo used in the Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project catalogue.
2015.196.234.3: Black and white photo showing Tsering Yangzom (left), Lynne Williamson (center), and Tsultim Lama (right), at the Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, where they presented a program on Tibetan weaving in 2002.
2015.196.234.4: Black and white photo showing Lakedhen Shingsur playing flute, seated next to monk Palden Gyatso, seated in the center, at an event during Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project.
2015.196.234.5: Color photo showing Tibetan musicians including Lakedhen Shingsur and Thupten Tenzin performing at the Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project festival in 1996. Members of the Cholsum Dance Group from New York City are also performing.
2015.196.234.6: Black and white photo showing members of the Tibetan community at a talk given by monk Palden Gyatso, seated in the center, at an event during Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project.
2015.196.234.7: Black and white photo showing members of the Tibetan community at a talk given by monk Palden Gyatso, seated in the center, at an event during Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project.
2015.196.234.8: Black and white photo showing artist Ngawang Choedar carving wood.
2015.196.234.9: Black and white photo showing Kunchok, the wife of community member Jyurme, holding their child.
2015.196.234.10: Black and white photo showing artist Ngawang Choedar carving wood.
2015.196.234.11: Black and white photo showing Kalsang Jorden’s acrylic painting, “The Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism; Lotus Flower, Vase, Dharma Wheel or chakra, Golden Fish, Endless Knot, Banner of Victory, Canopy, Conch Shell.
2015.196.234.12: Black and white photo showing members of the Tibetan community at Tibetfest, 2008. Artist Damdul is at the far left.
2015.196.234.13: Black and white photo showing musician Lakedhen Shingsur performing at Tibetfest, 2008
2015.196.234.14: Color photo showing members of the Tibetan community at Tibetfest, 2008. Artist Damdul is at the far left.
2015.196.234.15: Color photo showing musician Penpa Tsering performing at Tibetfest 2008.
NotesSubject Note: "Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England" was an exhibit project developed by the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP) at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford in 1996. The exhibit opening and a festival of Tibetan arts and music served as the major public events of an eighteen-month research and programming project conducted by CCHAP in partnership with the Tibetans. The project celebrated the Tibetan community's preservation and practice of their traditions in America.2015.196.234.2: Black and white photo showing the Tibetan Plateau; photo used in the Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project catalogue.
2015.196.234.3: Black and white photo showing Tsering Yangzom (left), Lynne Williamson (center), and Tsultim Lama (right), at the Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, where they presented a program on Tibetan weaving in 2002.
2015.196.234.4: Black and white photo showing Lakedhen Shingsur playing flute, seated next to monk Palden Gyatso, seated in the center, at an event during Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project.
2015.196.234.5: Color photo showing Tibetan musicians including Lakedhen Shingsur and Thupten Tenzin performing at the Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project festival in 1996. Members of the Cholsum Dance Group from New York City are also performing.
2015.196.234.6: Black and white photo showing members of the Tibetan community at a talk given by monk Palden Gyatso, seated in the center, at an event during Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project.
2015.196.234.7: Black and white photo showing members of the Tibetan community at a talk given by monk Palden Gyatso, seated in the center, at an event during Auspicious Signs: Tibetan Arts in New England project.
2015.196.234.8: Black and white photo showing artist Ngawang Choedar carving wood.
2015.196.234.9: Black and white photo showing Kunchok, the wife of community member Jyurme, holding their child.
2015.196.234.10: Black and white photo showing artist Ngawang Choedar carving wood.
2015.196.234.11: Black and white photo showing Kalsang Jorden’s acrylic painting, “The Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism; Lotus Flower, Vase, Dharma Wheel or chakra, Golden Fish, Endless Knot, Banner of Victory, Canopy, Conch Shell.
2015.196.234.12: Black and white photo showing members of the Tibetan community at Tibetfest, 2008. Artist Damdul is at the far left.
2015.196.234.13: Black and white photo showing musician Lakedhen Shingsur performing at Tibetfest, 2008
2015.196.234.14: Color photo showing members of the Tibetan community at Tibetfest, 2008. Artist Damdul is at the far left.
2015.196.234.15: Color photo showing musician Penpa Tsering performing at Tibetfest 2008.
Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project brought twenty-one Tibetans to live in Connecticut, the state has become home to one of the fastest growing Tibetan communities in the United States. Several Connecticut Tibetans are traditional artists of great skill who are deeply committed to expressing and passing on Tibetan culture. Members of the Tibetan community are also dedicated to educating others about the difficult history and circumstances of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
The collaborative project team consisted of three Tibetan project assistants, exhibit designer Sarah Buie, the Tibetan Cultural Center of Connecticut, artist Sonam Lama who was at the time Vice President of the Massachusetts Tibetan Association, and curator/folklorist Lynne Williamson, then director of CCHAP. The interdisciplinary nature of the team served to broaden the project's outreach to regional Tibetan communities as well as to incorporate a rich variety of expertise and perspectives.
The project team produced an exhibit displaying Tibetan religious art as well as everyday traditional arts, a day-long festival featuring artists, performers, demonstrations, and discussions, and an illustrated catalogue. Artists Jampa Tsondue, Ngawang Choedar, and Tsering Yangzom were featured in a video documenting their artistic process.
Funders included the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Community Folklife Program administered by the Fund for Folk Culture and underwritten by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts Folk and Traditional Arts Program, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Connecticut Humanities Council and the Institute for Community Research.
To mark the exhibit opening, the Tibetan community held a festival attended by over three hundred people, including Tibetans from all over the region. Four music and dance groups performed outside, while in the exhibit gallery three Tibetan artists demonstrated weaving, woodcarving, and thangka painting. The event also featured a bazaar, a common Tibetan cultural activity. Many Tibetans are keen traders, maintaining links to Dharamsala, India, and Nepal through import of goods to the U.S. and sale through small shops here. Six Tibetan vendors from all over the region set up tables during the festival with a great variety of Tibetan books and crafts. Lakedhen and five other community members had risen at dawn to prepare food, which they sold during the day. Several speakers described the background of the project, the story of the Connecticut community, the current political situation in Tibet, and the history and character of Tibetan culture. Cholsum dance group from New York City and musicians Lakedhen and Thupten performed and accompanied the dancers. Singer DaDon and her group played for over an hour.
Subject Note for 2015.196.234.4 and 2015.196.234.6-.7: Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan monk who had been imprisoned and tortured by Chinese occupiers in Tibet, spoke about his life at an open-house event during the exhibit. Lakedhen Shinsur played a Tibetan song on his flute. In the background is Kalsang Jorden's painting of a peacock, which in Tibetan Buddhist tradition represents the important spiritual process of turning negative emotions into positive personal development. The peacock is said to eat poisons to make its feathers more beautiful.
Subject Note for 2015.196.234.12-.15: Subject Note: TibetFest, a volunteer-run annual weekend-long event that celebrated the cultural heritage of Tibet and Tibetans, has been held since 2005. Begun by Michelle Weik of Litchfield who organized the festival along with Tibetans living in Connecticut and New York, TibetFest has been a community-driven, unique, and very popular event. Funds raised are donated to Tibetan causes. The 2018 festival was organized by Students For a Free Tibet, based in New York City, and in 2022 the festival began to be managed by the Tibetan Association of Connecticut. The Festival has presented many renowned Tibetan musicians onstage. Guest speakers give audiences up-to-date information on the situation in Tibet. Audience members and performing artists gather for dance circles. The arts area includes monks creating sand mandalas and butter sculptures, artists showing woodcarving, weaving, and thangka panting – several of them Tibetan artists living in Connecticut, and photography exhibits. New York and New England Tibetan artisans and vendors sell Tibetan art works, books, and jewelry, and food vendors provide Tibetan foods.
Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project brought 21 Tibetans to live in Connecticut in 1992, the state has become home to one of the fastest growing Tibetan communities in the U.S. Several Connecticut Tibetans are traditional artists of great skill who are deeply committed to expressing and passing on Tibetan culture. The story of the Tibetan community in Connecticut shows resilience and commitment to making a home in a new world. These first arrivals were sponsored to live in Old Saybrook, and they quickly found housing, jobs, and a welcome there. Many of them still had spouses, parents, and children back in India and Nepal so they applied for family reunification visas which often took years. The community has thrived and grown rapidly, choosing to remain in this part of the state. Recently the availability of jobs especially in the Asian gaming sections of Connecticut’s two casinos has encouraged many new Tibetan arrivals to settle in Norwich, bringing the community’s population up to about 500. Tibetans gather regularly for community social and ceremonial celebrations in Norwich and Old Saybrook, and they work tirelessly to educate others about the difficult situation faced by Tibetans in Tibet as they fight to protect their centuries-old culture that is threatened by a dominant political and social Chinese presence.
Many of the community’s excellent traditional artists continue a wide variety of art forms as a way to sustain their language and culture and pass their heritage on to their children. Music and dance, featuring flute player Lakedhen Shingsur and dancers both young and old, are part of every Tibetan gathering especially Losar (New Year) and the Dalai Lama's birthday celebration in July. Dadon, a leading singer and composer of popular music in Tibet, was very active in performing in Connecticut and for several large Tibet benefit concerts in New York City. Yeshi Dorjee, a Buddhist monk, lives in Old Saybrook where he offers spiritual support for the community’s ceremonies and teachings. A multi-talented artist, Yeshi creates sand mandalas, butter sculptures, religious paintings, book illustrations, and is a storyteller. Jampa Tsondue paints thangkas, religious images of deities and Buddhist teachings, and has taught his daughter this process. Carpet weavers Tentso Sichoe and Kunga Choekyi participated in CCHAP’s Apprenticeship Program to share and teach their specialized craft and produce new carpets on a loom donated by weaver Tsultim Lama. Tibetan families use these folk arts every day in their homes, especially in the rooms devoted to their Buddhist spiritual practice. Many of these artists as well as other Tibetans from New York and New England participate in TibetFest, an annual gathering in Litchfield County that that began in 2005.
Additional material on this community and these artists can be found in the CCHAP archive.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Penpa Tsering
2015 July 6
