Opening ceremonies with the Tibetan Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery will be at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, June 22, in Lily Dale Assembly.

LILY DALE — The healing energy of the Tibetan Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery will prevail during the Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour from June 22 to June 26. Lily Dale Assembly is honored to host The Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery as they open the 2019 season.

The monks will begin to create a special sand mandala in the Fire Hall at Lily Dale during the opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, June 22. The mandala is one of the tools the Monks use to re-consecrate the earth and all its inhabitants. A Buddhist mandala is envisaged as a “sacred space,” and also as an abode of fully realized beings or deities.

Also on Saturday at noon, the City of Light Spiritualist Church is hosting a benefit picnic lunch for the monks. This event is open to the community and visitors to dine with the monks at the Fire Hall Picnic Pavilion for a $10 admission/donation. All proceeds of the lunch are for the continuation of the monks’ sacred work, of world healing and compassion.

The monks will also perform the impressive Sacred Music Sacred Dance Production from 8 to 10 p.m. June 22 in the Lily Dale Auditorium. This will feature the famed multiphonic singers of Drepung Loseling Monastery, temple music and dances in traditional masks and vibrant silk brocade garments. Instruments like the 10-foot-long trumpets, bells, gyaling horns and cymbals along with the Snow Lion that dances and sends smiles will engage both young and old.

The mandala will then be ceremoniously dismantled during the closing ceremony on Tuesday, June 25 at 9:30 a.m. when the monks lead a procession through Lily Dale to the lake where the sand is poured into the flowing body of water dispersing the healing energies to flow and continue to all waters throughout the world.

The Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour has three basic purposes: to make a contribution to world peace and healing, to generate a greater awareness of the endangered Tibetan civilization and to raise support for the Tibetan refugee community in India.

Tickets will be required for the opening, closing events and sacred dance and can be pre-purchased online, by phone at 595-8721 or at the door or from the Lily Dale Assembly.