Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok, spiritual leader of the Asanga Institute in Montrose, will speak and lead meditation at the Telluride Yoga Center tonight at 7 p.m. He will discuss the present turmoil in Tibet (and Tibetans’ response to it), as well as about how to help us all achieve meaning through a message of peace and compassion.

This is Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok’s fourth visit to the Telluride area. “His lectures are engaging and filled with humor, yet serious and to the point,” says Reverend Arlyn Macdonald, a member of the Asanga Institute; he is, she adds, “is a very compassionate person, dedicated to helping others. His sense of humor is contagious.

“He often jokes about his ‘broken English,’” and is one of 10 English-speaking geshes in the world.

The title of geshe is conferred upon Tibetan Buddhist monks after almost 20 years of rigorous study.

In 2006 Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok was invited to help establish the Asanga Institute, in Montrose. Asanga means “without attachment,” and it is the institute’s mission to provide a spiritual center for all “seekers of peace,” Macdonald explains.

Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok’s visit to Telluride heralds a month-long series of events calling attention to Tibet and its people. To that end, a sand mandala is under construction at the Ute Museum in Montrose. Tibetan-born Buddhist monk and sand mandala painter Lobsang Thinley and Geshe Phuntsok are working together to complete this colorful visual prayer, utilizing sacred geometry and ancient spiritual symbols, to re-consecrate the Earth and her inhabitants, for completion – and destruction – on May 8 (its destruction symbolizing the impermanence of all that exists). Visitors are welcome to watch the monks work from Tuesday-Saturday, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

At Telluride’s Wilkinson Library, Program Director Jenine Durland is showing a film series on Tibet, beginning May 6, with the classic Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion, a moving account of the state of Chinese- occupied Tibet and its history of oppression and resistance.

On Tuesday, May 20, Allyn Hart and Elisabeth Gick will show pictures and tell stories about their trip to Tibet in 2007.

From May 22-26, Telluride Mountainfilm brings the region’s consciousness of Tibet alive with its honorary display of prayer flags and prayer wheels. During Mountain Film, Geshe Phuntsok and Lobsang Thinley will create another sand mandala, this one representing “Wisdom and Peace,” at the Ah Haa School in Telluride. Plan to visit this mandala several times during its construction.

And finally, on June 16, Daughters of Wisdom, an intimate portrait of the nuns of Kala Rongo, a rare and exceptional Buddhist Monastery exclusively for women situated in Nangchen, on the remote and rural Northeastern Plateau, will be screened at Wilkinson Library, where a special display of books about Tibet is set up at the front desk.