>Surfer Magazine associate editor Jeff Mull is in town and yesterday he stopped at the Honolulu Academy of Arts to interview our resident Bhutanese monks, who have been learning how to surf thanks to Cynthia Derosier, author of The Surfer Spirit. (That's Mull photographing the monks in front of the museum.) Here to safeguard the artwork in our landmark exhibition The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, the monks in their spare time get up to all kinds of larks, and they've been spotted in Waikiki lately, being featured in surf and stand-up paddling videos.

In February, Derosier met Sangay Rinchen, the monk who paints surfboards to raise money for our Bhutanese art conservation program. Soon, Rinzen and his colleagues Phub Tenzin, Sherab Dorji, Lhab Tshering, Kinley Tenzin were cruising on Waikiki waves. Here's Kinley showing some high style considering he comes from a land-locked country (photo by Sergio Goes).

The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan closes May 25. On May 24, the monks will do a special ceremony in the Altar Room at the Academy at 10 a.m., and will give to visitors small bags of sand from the sand mandala Lhab Tshering is working on.
Honolulu Academy of Arts
900 S. Beretania St. between Victoria Street and Ward Avenue
532-8700

Lesa Griffith
Director of Communications at the Honolulu Academy of Arts

—LesaG, 05/16/08