Peaceful gathering promotes harmony
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It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful gathering than the one at the Ewam Garden of 1,000 Buddhas Saturday. As the global sounds of the Drum Brothers filled the air, prayer flags fluttered in the breeze and young and old reclined in the grass and danced in the sunshine, it was clear that the sixth annual Peace Festival had fulfilled its goal.
That goal, Ewam spiritual director and Buddhist monk Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche explained through a translator as he declared the festival open Saturday afternoon, was “that the world becomes a happier, more harmonious place.”
“We couldn’t have been more pleased,” Buddhist monk Konchog Norbu said of the festival.
As a resident monk at the Ewam community, Norbu helps coordinate the Peace Festival each year as a way to open dialogue among various sectors within the Jocko Valley and Flathead Reservation community. As local attorney Dan Decker pointed out in his presentation on 100 years of homesteading and allotment on the Reservation, the Flathead is one of the most diverse and integrated reservations in the country. Through the Peace Festival, Ewam Montana seeks to promote understanding among neighbors, Norbu explained.
“The idea is to use all of our positive energy and get to know one another,” he said.
Throughout the day, more than 1,000 people came to do just that, while enjoying entertainment from local musicians the Drum Brothers, Joan Zen and Salish-Kootenai flutists; home-cooked traditional Tibetan cuisine and food from local organic farms; as well as a variety of crafts and native games. Presentations included Dan Decker’s talk on allotment and homesteading, a panel discussion on “Creating Spiritual Solutions to Social and Cultural Challenges” with Salish educator Julie Cajune; Karma Tensum, Executive Director of the Tibetan Children’s Education Foundation; and Mark Gravrock, pastor of Jocko Valley Lutheran Church.
“Politically and socially, the (Flathead) Reservation has been a divided community … sometimes I think that comes from a lack of understanding of how we got to be where we are,” Cajune said. “I think (the panel discussion) was a really good beginning to start a conversation across social and political boundaries.”
Cajune addressed the history of Native Americans on the Flathead Reservation, discussing relationships between tribal members and other people groups on the Reservation during the past century.
“How could we live together in a different way in the next 100 years?” was the question Cajune hoped to impress on listeners, she said. “Sometimes we think of peace as the absence of war, but there’s certainly a broader definition.”
Norbu said organizers were especially happy with how the panel discussion worked out, giving spiritual and cultural leaders from different backgrounds the opportunity to unite in finding peaceful solutions to divisive issues.
“It just seemed like everyone had something important to say, something to add,” Norbu said.
