News & Events 2006-2007

Gallery Artist Returns to Speak at Skeptics

Ellen Miret (past/current Blair parent) was the guest speaker at the Society pf Skeptics lecture series on Tuesday, April 24, in Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts; her topic concerned her journey through Tibet with two monks. She explains, “Starting in Kathmandu, we crossed in to Tibet and traveled west to Mt. Kailish, the holiest place on earth for many people, and then east to Lhasa which is in central Tibet, stopping at monasteries in Sakya, Ghantse and Shigatse along the way. “

Miret added, “Tibet was invaded by the Chinese in 1949/50. The Dalai Lama was able to escape in 1959 to India with 120,000 Tibetans and established a government in exile in Dharamsala. During the Cultural Revolution which followed, over 6,000 monasteries were destroyed and over 1.2 million people have died and are dying today as they try to cross the boarder as a result of the occupation. In 1996 a new phase of repression began and continues today. The "Patriotic Re-education Campaign" began soon after the Penchen Lama (another important religious leader) was kidnapped by the Chinese authorities. He remains missing today and the people of Tibet still struggle under the oppression of the Chinese government.”

Miret is an artist who showed her lenticular work at Blair’s Romano Gallery this past winter. She is a student of The Venerable Lama Pema Wangdak, a Tibetan Lama (teacher) who escaped from Tibet in 1959. He is the director of the Vikramasila Foundation, which creates monasteries in India and Nepal for Tibetan children to help carry on a rich culture that is being decimated in their homeland.

Updated 4/26/07

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