[707] in Humor
HUMOR (sorta): Butter Sculptures!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Wed Feb 1 17:49:53 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 1995 17:41:32 EST
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 95 14:00:11 PST
From: Connie_Kleinjans@Novell.COM (Connie Kleinjans)
From: janos@netcom.com (Janos Gereben)
>From reena_jana@qm.exploratorium.edu Wed Feb 1 12:37:39 1995
Subject: Time:12:28 PM
OFFICE MEMO BUTTER SCULPTURES BY MONKS! Date:2/1/95
YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT'S (PSEUDO-YAK) BUTTER! A LOW FAT, SACRED ART EVENT!
Read on for details...
B/W Images Available
Contact: LINDA DACKMAN/ Reena Jana (415) 563-7337
For Immediate Release
March 1, 1995
BUTTER MONKS
BUDDHIST MONKS CREATE AMAZING BUTTER SCULPTURES
Live at Exploratorium March 7-23
>From March 7-23 (with the exception of Tuesday, March 14), maroon-robed
Buddhist monks from the Gyuto Tantric Monastery, now in exile in Bomdila,
India, will spend almost three weeks on the main floor of the Exploratorium
creating colorful foot-high sculptures. They will be constructed out of a
rather unusual medium -- yak butter (actually vegetable shorterning, since
no yaks are on hand.) The intricate and complex sculptures, based on forms
and images from the Buddhist pantheon, are painstakingly assembled from tiny
pats of shortening. Back in Tibet, where butter sculpture originated in the
15th century as a form of spiritual devotion, butter was the medium of
choice. The monks study for years to master the art, in which every detail
of color and design is specified in holy texts. For the monks, the very act
of making the sculptures and watching them made, is a blessing. Be blessed
- -- don't miss this unusual, even low-fat, ancient event! The monks will be
at work at the Exploratorium for 4 to 6 hours (with a short break for lunch)
per scheduled day. Please call (415)563-7337 for exact times. Admission is
free with entrance to the Exploratorium.
The colorful, delicate works are bas-reliefs of such figures as the Buddha,
deities and animals in full regalia. What the public will see are the
monks, dressed in their traditional robes, seated on cushions before a
selection of clumps of colored vegetable shortening. Throughout their
labors, the monks meditate on the Buddha and the Dalai Lama, as they
gradually construct such
OVER
Butter Monks, p, 2
forms as a lotus petal, a Buddhist symbol of purity, by rolling and
flattening
bits of colorful shortening; creating a mandala (a deity's abode), requires
thousands of spaghetti-like strands of shortening stuck together lengthwise,
one by one.
The Butter Monks have been on a nationwide tour of fifteen cities,
demonstrating their art, learning about American culture and revealing their
own. At the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the heat in the
gallery where the monks worked had to be turned off to keep their scultpures
in tact. At the Exploratorium, where the monks will be appearing exclusively
while in the Bay Area, the natural air-conditioning of the San Francisco Bay
should keep the sculptures cool.
SACRED MUSIC OF TIBET
GYUTO MONKS-TIBETAN TANTRIC CHOIR
In association with the Butter Monks appearance at the Exploratorium from
March 7-23, The Gyuto Monks-Tibetan Tantric Choir will be peforming an
evening of Sacred Music of Tibet around the Bay Area. Tickets are available
at all BASS outlets, charge by phone and at the theater box offices as
follows:
March 24 Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA
March 25 Zellerbach Auditorium, Berkeley, CA
March 26 Luther Burbank Center, Santa Rosa, CA
May 19 Stanford Memorial Church, Palo Alto, CA
May 20 Marin Center, San Rafael, CA
May 27 Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco
# # #
The Exploratorium is located inside the Palace of Fine Arts in San
Francisco's Marina District. Museum admission is as follows: Members FREE;
Adults (18-64) $8.50; University Students (with ID) $6.50; Senior citizens
(65+) $6.50; People with disabilities $4.50; Youth (6-17) $4.50; Children 3-5
$2.00; Children Under 3 FREE. First Wednesdays of the month FREE. The
Exploratorium's winter hours are TUESDAY-SUNDAY 10AM -5PM (WEDNESDAYS UNTIL
9:30PM), CLOSED MONDAYS, except for most holidays. The Exploratorium is
wheelchair accessible.
CONTACT: LINDA DACKMAN/Reena Jana(415) 563-7337
