#96-09-16
For Release: 09-26-96
Contact: Peter Bailley

Knox College will present an Asian Cultural Festival called "Chakravala: Our Mind is Our Path," October 1-5 on the Knox College campus. The week long celebration will include an international performance by the Tibetan lamas of the Sara Je Monastery, several lectures on Buddhism, Asian Art and Philosophy, and an Asian Food festival.

Associate Dean of Students Jonathan GoldbergBelle and several Knox students will lead a discussion on "The Story of the Buddah," at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 1 in the International House, 418 S. West Street. The movie "Buddhism, Footprints of the Buddah," will be shown at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2, also at the International House.

Visiting art instructor Gregory Gilbert presents "Asian Art and Philosophy and 20th Century American Art," at 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 3 in the Round Room, Ford Center for Fine Arts.

Sharon Coleman of Washington University will speak on "Buddhism and the American Experience," at 4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 4 at the International House. Also Friday, the Asian Food Fest will be served 4:30 to 7 p.m at Hard Knox Cafe in Seymour Union. The cost of dinner to the general public is $6.

The clashing of cymbals and pounding of drums will announce the 500-year-old Tibetan rituals in the free multi-media performance "Wildlife, Tamed Mind: Spirit of Tibet" at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, in Harbach Theater, Ford Center for Fine Arts. The Tibetan lamas of the Sera Je Monastery have presented the historical and spiritual performance internationally to raise money for new monastery buildings. Sera Je was the world's second largest monastic order before the 1960s, when its members fled Tibet for India after a crackdown by the Chinese military. Now their monasteral building capacities are exceeded as the numbers of lamas seeking asylum grows. Also on Saturday, at 4 p.m in the Common Room of Old Main, the lamas will lead a Meditation Workshop.

The Asian Cultural Festival is sponsored by the International Club, Chinese Club, Japanese Club, Korean Club, AAINA (Southeast Asian Club), International House, International Affairs Office, Union Board, Student Affairs Office, Lectures and Concerts Committee, Religious Life Committee, Dean of the College and Office of Intercultural Life.

Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.