The Ming Shan center in Bullet (VD) is hosting its first international Tao arts festival this weekend. Around ten Chinese ritual masters and musicians are present on the Jura balcony, where rare ceremonies are scheduled.
This new festival, which aims to be accessible to everyone, invites you to “live an immersive experience in the arts of the Tao and broaden your spiritual and cultural horizons”, notes Fabrice Jordan, director and co-founder in 2019 of the Taoist center of Bullet . Each of the proposed activities aims to “open a new window on the multiple facets of the arts of Tao”, continues the press kit.
The program includes numerous workshops and demonstrations, including calligraphy, tea ceremonies, incense and astrology. The practices of qi gong and tai chi are also presented, as is Taoist meditation. Conferences, film screenings, introduction to Chinese, video game competitions, virtual reality tai chi experience and activities for children are also on the weekend menu.
Saturday evening, a unique and intercultural show, entitled “From the Tao to the Light”, will be presented at the HEIG-VD aula in Yverdon. It will mix traditional Chinese music, wushu martial arts and Alps horn.
Rare rituals
The Bullet Festival also wants to show visitors several sacred rituals. Among them is the “Kai Guang”, a ceremony that takes place only once in the life of a temple. It consists of making the statues of the temple “active”, connecting them “to their Source of celestial power” through prayers, mantras, offerings, sacred steps and symbolic gestures.
This ritual is organized for the first time in a temple in Europe. “It is so important and so rare that it is often necessary, even in China and for Taoist followers, to wait years before having the chance to attend it,” notes the press kit.
For this first festival, the organizers brought around ten masters and representatives of the arts of Tao from China. They thus wish to illustrate the commitment of the center and the festival “towards the excellence and authenticity of Taoist teachings.”
The Ming Shan Center was opened in 2019 in Bullet. Combining oriental wisdom with the latest technologies, it claims to be the only center of its type in Europe. At its head, Fabrice Jordan, a doctor by profession, is part of the steering committee of the World Taoist Federation, an honor reserved for only six Westerners.
This article was automatically published. Source: ats
