Buddhist monks bring their music and dance to Stow

The monks, from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Mysore, India, visit the UK each year to raise funds and have performed in festivals including Glastonbury, Womad and the Edinburgh Fringe.

Peter Minty of Music at Stow brought them to the Cotswolds, where they performed at an art gallery, a school and a church.

The monks started their visit at the Alain Rouveure Galleries in Toddenham, where they constructed an intricate sand mandala and r invited everyone to try and master the art.

Mr Minty said: "Trickling sand from the fine point of a small silver funnel with a serrated edge was not easy. Then to show that you should never covet something even if it is beautiful, they ceremoniously destroyed it and in a procession, we all trooped down to the River Stour, where the grains of sand were cast into the river."

A few days later, the monks were at Stow Primary School, on July 8, the Dalai Lama's birthday, where they enjoyed lunch with the children, then taught them the the first steps of the Black Hat Dance.

Head Rebecca Scutt said: "We all danced with the monks and watched them dancing their most exciting dance but we also played the huge horns, conch shells and cymbals. The children learnt a special chant with hand movements, listened to prayers and had a detailed discussion about the monks' way of life and the symbolism of their clothes. I certainly learnt a huge amount and I know the children loved it."

The same evening the monks were at St Edmund's Church, Stow, where they performed the Power of Compassion, a programme of masked dance and sacred chants.

Mr Minty said: "The monks feel it is their duty to explain their culture to the world, so that it is not forgotten, and you feel strangely privileged to see something that would only once have been seen in the remoteness of a Tibetan monastery."

The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was founded by the first Dalai Lama in 1447, but the monks were forced out following the Chinese invasion of 1959.