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The Age - Melbourne By Sharon Gray IT is a great irony that when the Chinese Government took over Tibet and destroyed its monasteries, they forced Tibetan Buddhism out into the world. One of the first places shelled was the Gyuto Tantric College, in Lhasa, where discipline demanded that for nine years its 900 monks sleep only a few hours every night, on their right sides, curled in threes on a narrow wooden form not long enough to stretch out, with their distinctive yellow crested hats as pillows; waking hours were spent in the courtyard, where they dug themselves into the sand and pebbled floor to keep out the cold while meditating. Two hundred monks died when the courtyard was hit. Eventually, Gyuto Tantric College was rebuilt in the remote, earthquake-plagued Assam region in north-east India, where violent tribal conflicts have raged for decades. A group of Japanese corporate sponsors built a gorgeous new temple for them in Dharamsala on the other side of the country, but only the assembly hall - their project did not include accommodation. There is room only for three caretakers and the 14-year-old Karmapa, who recently fled Tibet and is staying there. Five hundred monks are still toughing it out in Assam. Fortunately, the Gyuto monks have an "act", their famous one voice chord chanting, so they decided to take it on tour. This week marks the end of the Gyuto monks' seventh tour of Australia and their longest yet, lasting 10 months: "Nearly 300,000 people have attended our classes and meditations and we've spoken to nearly 200,000 school children," said the organiser, Maureen Fallon. "In Victoria, the municipalities of Port Phillip, Stonnington, Nillumbik and Mornington all want us to make the tour an annual event. "We have no advertising budget, yet every appearance is well attended - it's all word of mouth. Everywhere we go we have been offered free accommodation, free venues and people go out of their way to cook us wonderful meals - including bowls of fresh hot chillies at breakfast, lunch and dinner. " 'We love the monks,' everyone tells us. From Warrnambool, Shepparton, Wodonga to Inverloch, Moe and Mornington, they ask us to please come back." Base camp has been a house in Brunswick, Street, Fitzroy, definitely the monks' favorite place in Australia. "They feel at home there, very safe. They can wander around and not get lost. Everyone says hello to them and the Gypsy Bar is their favorite hangout. We won a special prize in the Fringe Festival just for being there. It's true, everyone just loves the monks," she says. The word "tantric" is considerably misunderstood in the West and often associated with sex and power. "We haven't had a problem with that aspect at all," says Sonam Rigzin, their sole translator. What the monks teach is kindness and self-acceptance. One look at them and people can see it's not about sex and power. The tantric premise is that we are all fundamentally pure love, it is about moving the heart. IF we are happy we automatically cause less problems for others and are able to take better care of those in need. Meditation is not a transaction - you don't meditate because you feel you are doing something 'good', you meditate because it makes you happy." The Playboy magazine incident in the Tibetan film The Cup would never have occurred at Gyuto or at any other monastery they know of. "The monks just don't have that sort of selfish view of women, " says Sonam. Jampa Tashi, 67, who fled Tibet after completing eight of the nine hardship years of practice, interrupted Sonam to send a message to Australians: "It is our daily habit to visualise that heaven exists here and now, " he said. "In Australia that is very easy to do. Here, it is your good karma to live In paradise." If you would like to help, contact Gyuto House at PO Box 88, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia The Age website referring page: http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2000/5/3_4.html  ~ | CLOSE WINDOW | ~  |