Bhumisparsha: Siddhartha’s Intent India and Deer Park Institute to Host Online New Year’s Eve Concert

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Bhumisparsha: Siddhartha’s Intent India and Deer Park Institute to Host Online New Year’s Eve Concert

By Craig C Lewis
December 30, 2021

Building on the resounding success in 2020 of the global initiative to accumulate recitations of the Mantra of Shakyamuni Buddha,* and the ongoing tree-planting initiative launched in 2021,** the Dharma project Bhumisparsha: Touching the Earth—conceived by the revered Bhutanese lama, teacher, filmmaker, and author Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, organized by Siddhartha’s Intent India, and headed by Tulku Ngawang Tenzin with a global team of dedicated volunteers—has announced a special online concert to be live-streamed globally on New Year’s Eve.

“We would like to welcome you to our Bhumisparsha virtual concert on Friday, 31 December, at 8pm Indian Standard Time, for an evening of talented musicians from all over the world and also a message from a very special guest,” Siddhartha’s Intent India said in announcing the special occasion. “We hope you will join us for this wonderful event so that we can welcome in the New Year by remembering and honoring the Buddha and Touching the Earth together. This virtual concert will be streamed live on the Deer Park Institute YouTube channel. We hope to see you there!”

Image courtesy of Siddhartha’s Intent India

Siddhartha’s Intent India also revealed that attendees and viewers can look forward to a special New Year’s message from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche himself during tomorrow’s musical event.

This free live concert will be live-streamed worldwide via YouTube from the Deer Park Institute in Himachal Pradesh at the following times:

Auckland: 3:30am, Saturday 1 January
Canberra: 1:30am, Saturday 1 January
Seoul, Tokyo: 11:30pm, Friday 31 December
Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei: 10:30pm, Friday 31 December
Bangkok, Jakarta: 9:30pm, Friday 31 December
India Standard Time: 8pm, Friday 31 December
Moscow: 5:30pm, Friday 31 December
Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm: 3:30pm, Friday 31 December
London: 2:30pm, Friday 31 December
Montreal, New York: 9:30am, Friday 31 December
Los Angeles, Vancouver: 6:30am, Friday 31 December

Click here to watch the concert on the Deer Park Institute YouTube Channel

Formed in 1986, Siddhartha’s Intent is an international collective of Buddhist groups supporting Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s Buddhadharma activities by organizing teachings and retreats, distributing and archiving recorded teachings, transcribing, editing, and translating manuscripts and practice texts, with a global community committed to continual study and practice.

The Deer Park Institute, established by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in 2006 under Siddhartha’s Intent, is an educational center for the study of classical Indian wisdom traditions, inspired by the great university of Nalanda, that aims to nurture “a spirit, in thought and activity, of non-sectarianism in Buddhist and other philosophical traditions.”

Siddhartha’s Intent India also provided an update today on the ongoing Bhumisparsha project to plant 84,000 trees,** telling BDG: “We’re happy to report a wonderful response so far to the Bhumisparsha tree-planting initiative, with around 52,000 trees so far planted around the world. Furthermore, our planting target has been revised to 100,000 trees!”

Click here for details on Bhumisparsha (2021): 84,000 Trees

Bhumisparsha: Touching the Earth was launched in 2020 as a worldwide cyber-gathering dedicated to remembering the Buddha and his teachings, welcoming all followers of the Buddha as well as those anyone who shares a curiosity about the teacher and his spiritual legacy. In addition to the Shakyamuni Sutra Accumulation and 84,000 Trees initiative, the project encourages all participants to share the stories and their connections with the Buddhadharma through art, music, poetry, prose, or action in celebration of this ancient wisdom tradition and in recognition of the tremendous potential for global change and renewal in these transformational times.

Born in Bhutan in 1961, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is the son of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche and was a close student of the Nyingma master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–91). He is recognized as the third incarnation of the 19th century Tibetan terton Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, founder of the Khyentse lineage, and the immediate incarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1893–1959).

In addition to Siddhartha’s Intent, Rinpoche’s projects and initiatives include Khyentse Foundation, established in 2001 to promote the Buddha’s teaching and support all traditions of Buddhist study and practice; 84000, a non-profit global initiative to translate the words of the Buddha and make them available to all; Lotus Outreach, which directs a wide range of projects to help refugees; and The Lhomon Society, which promotes sustainable development in Bhutan through education.

Rinpoche is the author of several books, including: What Makes You Not a Buddhist (2006), Not For Happiness (2012), The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (2016), and Poison is Medicine: Clarifying the Vajrayana (2021), and has garnered renown inside and outside of the global Buddhist community for the feature-length films he has written and directed: The Cup (1999), Travellers and Magicians (2004), Vara: A Blessing (2012), Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I wait (2016), and Looking For A Lady With Fangs And A Moustache (2019).

* Bhumisparsha: Global Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra Accumulation Poised to Top 500 Million Recitations (BDG)

** 84,000 Trees to Celebrate the Buddha: Bhumisparsha Tree-Planting Initiative Takes Root (BDG)

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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