22 w 15th st
New York City, New York 10011

Playful Illustrations of Tibetan Children?s Tales
works by Rima Fujita
on display at Tibet House April 20 through June 16
Opening reception on April 20 from 6-8 p.m.

The playful and distinctive color illustrations in Rima Fujita?s children?s books of Tibetan tales will be exhibited at Tibet House US April 20 through June 16. The art is from Wonder Garden: A Tale of an Old Dog and a Baby Rabbit, published in 2004, and Wonder Talk: A Tibetan Folktale, published in 2001. Wonder Garden includes forewords by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Robert A. F. Thurman, President of Tibet House U.S.

?Rima Fujita tells children about the importance of compassion and non-violence which we Buddhists have practiced and treasured for a long time,? the Dalai Lama writes. ?Wonder Garden is a heart-warming tale that is told through a girl?s dream.? Dr. Thurman adds, ?Rima has done a beautiful job of telling this compassionate story to children, whose hearts are still open enough to realize the power of simple acts of kindness.?

Wonder Garden, which is dedicated to the children of Tibet and the world, contains 14 illustrations that tell the story of a girl?s dream of an old stray dog in the Dalai Lama?s garden who befriends and helps heal a stray, wounded baby rabbit.
The 15 illustrations of Wonder Talk describe a Tibetan village braggart who claims he saw 200 monks in Lhasa pulling a giant radish up a hill to the Ganden Monastery. His brother counters that he saw in Lhasa 100 monks carrying a giant pot containing 100 working blacksmiths. When the braggart challenges the outlandish story, his brother quips, ?Maybe this is the pot they had to build in order to cook your radish.?

Ms. Fujita created the illustrations for Wonder Talk when she learned from a Tibetan friend there were no children?s books in the Tibetan refugee camps. ?I had an inspiration,? she says. ?I will make a children?s book designed for them.? After interviewing refugees for two years to collect their folk tales, she then conceived and published Wonder Talk, with Tibetan, English and Japanese captions.

Ms. Fujita, who was born in Tokyo and lived in Ashiya, moved to New York with her parents in the 1970s. She attended Riverdale Country School and the Parsons School of Design, where she studied illustration and painting and earned a bachelor?s degree in fine arts. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, In Fashion, Vogue and Oggi as well as other magazines. She painted a large mural at Mars, the New York night club. In Japan, her work has appeared on the television programs ?At the Garden of Wordsworth? and ?The Adventure of Wordsworth? for four years. Her other books are The Little Black Box and Simple Meditation.

http://www.tibethouse.org
http://www.rimafujita.com

Added by this is emily on January 1, 2006

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