Deer Park Buddhist Center Temple
Massive hand-carved door frame arrives from
India
 by Heidi M. Pascual
(Clockwise from top right) Deer Park Abbot Geshe Lhundub
Sopa welcomes guests who came to see the new art work
from India;  Indian workers and artists at work under the
direction of a seventh-generation temple carver; (l-r)  Abbot
Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Ani Lhundub Jampa (Alicia H. Vogel)
and John Martens (Tibetan Art Project Coordinator) view with
excitement the uncrated work of art that will be installed as
the door frame of Deer Park Buddhist Center's Assembly
Hall; the elaborately designed door frame for the Deer Park
Buddhist Center Temple was made by dozens of artists from
Mysore, India. Thirty painters worked on the colorful detailing
for 30 days.
 A beautiful work of art, elaborate in design and rich in
colors and cultural symbols, arrived recently from India,
carefully enclosed in several crates, and opened with so
much excitement, at the still-under-construction Deer Park
Buddhist Center Temple in Oregon. Created by dozens of
artists in Mysore, India, this art work isn't a big painting to
grace the walls of the temple, nor a big piece of furniture in
the main hall. The four long wooden hand-carved pieces
would form the door frame of the Assembly Hall, an
awesome welcoming portal to a sacred spiritual place.
  The Deer Park Buddhist Center Temple is being
constructed as a unique landmark of Tibetan Buddhist
culture in this part of the nation. With growing support,
financially and in kind, from Wisconsin Tibetans and many
others, Deer Park Abbot Geshe Sopa gradually saw the
realization of a dream -- to have a temple constructed in
accordance with Tibetan-building designs replete with
symbolic significance. The temple will support the cultural
and spiritual life of Tibetans who were driven away from
their ancestral land, while blending things American and
creating harmony with nature.
  Its construction began two years ago (2005) and is
expected to be completed next year.

  The Deer Park Buddhist Center is also busy preparing for
a visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the temporal leader
of the Tibetan people, on May 2-5. Visit
www.deerparkcenter.org for more information.