DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1997            TAG: 9709210089
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   41 lines

BUDDHIST CEREMONY DRAWS 500 PEOPLE

About 500 people came Saturday to participate in a ``healing'' ceremony conducted by nine visiting Tibetan Buddhist lamas.

Following the tradition of destroying mandalas shortly after their completion, the monks swept up the work they spent a week creating at the Portsmouth Arts Center.

The symbol they chose to create here was a mandala of compassion. Every day, the lamas worked for hours, laying millions of grains of colored sand into the pattern.

On Saturday half the sand was distributed to the audience and half was carried in a silver urn to Crawford Bay.

The lamas, dressed in their scarlet robes, led a processional down Court Street from the arts center.

The lamas chanted and played their musical instruments as Geshe Tensin knelt to return the sand to the water.

From Crawford Bay, the sand's healing blessing will be carried to the ocean, where it will spread around the world, according to the Tibetan tradition.

The weeklong visit of the lamas from Drepung Loseling Monastery has attracted thousands of visitors to Portsmouth.

``It's really been overwhelming,'' Arts Center Curator Gayle Paul said.

``We had about 200 at the opening last week, and the energy has just built, with more people coming every day to see them work on the mandala.''

About 1,000 people attended a program of sacred music and dance by the lamas at Willett Hall Friday night.

The lamas headed Saturday night to Montreal, where they will conduct a similar program. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Tibetan lamas, who had spent the week making a mandala - a ritual

artwork with sand - at the Portsmouth Arts Center, pour the sand

into Crawford Bay to spread its blessing around the world.

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