Lung-ta: Prayer Flags for positive energy and transformation in the New Year

Welcome to 2019! In the Himalayas, the New Year comes with lots of celebration and symbolism, including traditions like hanging prayer flags to bring forth good luck and blessings. It is believed that when a prayer flag is blown by the wind, the prayers purify the environment and help bring peace to the world.

Inspired by the collective spirit of Tibetan prayer flags and the anonymity of public spaces, artist Candy Chang, in collaboration with James A. Reeves, asks Rubin Museum visitors to engage with their community by sharing their anxieties or hopes on a card. For nearly a year, these responses have been collected and displayed on the Spiral Wall, creating an ever-evolving dialogue between participants and the public and reflecting the emotional barometer of our visitors. Both of the artists will be on hand to share their work on A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful over the past year.

Contribute your own hopes and anxieties and learn about the symbolism of prayer flags. Ven. Geshe Tashi Dorje will chant Mani mantra and offer blessings so participants can take home a blessed prayer flag to usher in an auspicious new year!

About the Speakers

Geshe Tashi Dorje is the director of the Center for Universal Peace in New York. He was born in a remote village on the border of Tibet and Nepal. In 1989, he joined Sera Mey Monastic University in South India. In 1991, he received the Getsul (Samsrana) ordination blessing from His Eminence Kachen Lobsang Soepa, former abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, and in 1993 he received Bikshu (Gelong) Ordination Blessing from His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama. Ten years later he was awarded the Rigchung degree upon completion of the perfection of wisdom course. In September 2005, he was appointed to be the Chant Master, the third-highest ranking official of Sera Mey Monastery. Among his many additional honors, he received a doctorate in Buddhism, concentrating in the Five Major Texts from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. In the United States, Dorje teaches dharma and the Tibetan language to bothTibetans and Westerners.

He has also performed ritual chantings at Carnegie hall, attended the interfaith breakfast with the Mayor of New York City, and participated in the Buddha’s birthday celebration at the United Nations.

Candy Chang is a social practice artist who creates public spaces for people to transform their individual thoughts into a collective experience. Her project Before I Die has generated 3,000 walls in 70 countries since 2011.

James A. Reeves is a writer, designer, and professor of philosophy and art history at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute.