Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007 - (Page 8)

ON CAMPUS dalai lama visit which is partnering with Lehigh to bring the Dalai Lama to the university. The Great Treatise, written by Tsong-kha-pa, will serve as the source texts for the Dalai Lama’s week-long teaching in July. Other upcoming lectures include: an analysis of the China-Tibet conflict by Rajan Menon, professor of international relations; a lecture titled, “Buddhism and The Mind: A Psycholanalyst’s View,” by psychoanalyst and author, Barry Magid; a discussion on art and Tibetan photography by Elaine Ling. Tenzin Robert Thurman, America’s foremost scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, will give the Baccalaureate address in May. Thurman, who was recognized by Time magazine in 1997 as one of 25 most inﬂuential Americans, “lives to make the teachings of the Buddha interesting and meaningful to people from all over the world,” his Web site says. This year of Tibetan exploration culminates in a public teaching by the Dalai Lama titled, “Generating a Good Heart” on July 13. The following day, Lloyd Steffen, University Chaplain and chair of the religious studies department, will host an interfaith discussion with His Holiness in attendance. For up-to-date information related to the Dalai Lama’s visit, please visit www.lehigh.edu/dalailama.—Becky Straw EMBARKING ON YEARLONG VOYAGE TO TIBET During their weeklong visit in October, Tibetan monks walked through Packer Church. The Lehigh community has embarked on an academic voyage to Tibet through a series of events leading up to the Dalai Lama’s visit to Lehigh in July 2008. In October, Tibetan monks from the Dalai Lama’s monastery created a sand mandala in the Kenneth R. Woodcock 1965 Rotunda of Linderman Library. The monks painstakingly created a brilliantly colored work of art from individually placed grains of sand. On Oct. 26, four days after they began, the monks dismantled the intricate design in a ceremony illustrating the impermanence of life. The sand mandala was part of Lehigh’s academic voyage to Tibet. These events, which culminate in the Dalai Lama’s visit to Lehigh in July 2008, range from monthly Tibetan meals to discussions on the portrayal of Buddhism through ﬁlm. (The Winter 2008 issue of the Alumni Bulletin will contain complete photo coverage of the sand mandala creation and dismantling.) First-year students began their Tibetan adventure before they took their first page of notes. By reading Freedom in Exile, an autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as part of their orientation program. A few weeks later, two of Lehigh’s earth and environmental professors shared experiences 8 lehigh alumni bulletin from their research trips to the mountainous country. Over the past decade, Anne Meltzer, the Herbert J. and Ann L. Siegel Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Peter Zeitler, director of South Mountain College, have been surprised by the nomadic culture. “Tibet is a land of many contrasts and it is in a state of transition,” Meltzer told a crowded Sinclair Auditorium on Sept. 18. “It is a unique and special place.” Tibet may be unique and special, but it should not be considered a mythical fairyland, Donald S. Lopez, the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, told a packed Sinclair Auditorium one month later. In November, the Lehigh community was scheduled to hear an explanation of the 15th century spiritual writing, The Great Treatise on the Stages on the Way to Enlightenment, by the editor-in-chief of its English translation, Joshua W.C. Cutler, co-director of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, N.J., PHOTO BY DOUGLAS BENEDICT RANK AND FILE U.S. News & World Report has again recognized Lehigh as one of the nation’s outstanding research universities. The university was ranked 31st in the magazine’s 2008 list of “America’s Best Colleges”—up two spots from last year’s ranking. Lehigh received high scores in several key categories, including alumni giving (13th), faculty resources (19th), student selectivity (26th), and graduation and retention rate (31st). In addition, Lehigh was ranked 27th in the nation for “best value.” Among the best undergraduate engineering programs whose highest degree is a Ph.D., Lehigh’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science ranked 37th in the country.—Bill Doherty http://www.lehigh.edu/dalailama

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Table of Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Arts & Culture Sports Research Cover Story - Forward March Little Man Overcomes Huge Odds Lights, Camera...Antiques Linderman Renewed From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007

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