Mandalas & Peace

Mandalas & Peace Tour to Turkey

Please contact Mythic Travel for pricing.

Your tour includes

* Accommodations in 4 star (or best available) hotels (including VAT tax)

* All land transportation within Turkey

* Airport transfers

* Breakfast and dinner every day on land portion of tour

* An excellent English-speaking guide

* Museum entrance admissions

Bosphorus Sightseeing Cruise

* Land transportation on air-conditioned Mercedes or Mitsubishi coaches

*All tips to the hotels, porterage and restaurants

* Wonderful surprises along the way

The quoted price does not include

*Round trip airfare

*Turkish entry visa—available at the Istanbul airport

* Tips for driver or guide

* Personal expenses

* Beverages during meals

When we make the pots, we make ourselves.

Mandalas and Peace

The term Mandala (“scared space”) translated from Sanskrit refers to a deliberately designed circle that expresses the essence of completion and also of containing. In Native American tradition, it is a medicine wheel; in Judaism, it is the Star of David. In Christian art, the focal point, such as depicted at Chartres Cathedral in France, the Rose Window and motifs of the Mary Window, is on the Christ. The Divine “seed syllable” in Mary's womb (represented by the rose) is manifested or born as the Christ – “the Word becomes flesh”.

We tend to associate mandalas mainly with Buddhism and Hinduism, but the idea is universal. In Islam, sacred art is dominated by geometric shapes and segments of circles. Most notably, the dome of the mosque is a circular opening that represents the arch of the heavens – a mandala – that directs the worshipper's attention toward Allah at its center, its highest point.

It is the idea of unity of the cosmos – or in more humanitarian terms, the oneness of peoples – that underlies the structure and purpose of this tour. On the surface it is a unique educational travel opportunity, workshops for ceramic artists observing the principles of a culture on the other side of the world. At a deeper level, it is the sharing of our common earth to make beautiful and meaningful objects for our own inspiration – meditations on oneness – and to inspire others. The people who choose this tour will have a strong desire to experience this oneness and make a contribution in art to support ongoing efforts to achieve universal peace.

Tour Experiences

Twenty individuals will visit museums and architectural and archaeological landmarks, and engage with scholars and experts, with the common goal of learning the basic elements of Islamic design and clay-making. We will divide into two groups of 10 to work alongside Turkish artists at two very different sites. Both groups will have four days at the Iznik Center in Isbanbul, famous for its preservation and perpetuation of the finest fired clay tile and pottery in all of Turkey. The city, Iznik, was the ancient city of Nicaea in Byzantine times. The tiles and pottery out of this area are unlike any other pottery produced in the World, East or West. Both groups will also attend small, more primitive workshops, in two famous pottery-making villages in Cappadocia for another four days.

workshops, in two famous pottery-making villages in Cappadocia for another four days. At the end of the 15 days, the groups will come together to make a mural inset with tile pieces they and their Turkish colleagues have made, dedicating their work to the peaceful collaboration – the oneness – of diverse cultures.

The tour experience is designed to be symbolically meaningful as well as educational and beautiful. The hub will place the group in Anatolia, “the land of the Great Mother,” that peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian portion of Turkey. Because of its location at the point where the continents of Asia and Europe meet, Anatolia was from the beginning of civilization a crossroads for numerous peoples migrating or conquering from either continent. It was – and is – the center of much creative human activity.

Hendrickson and Ergener are arranging to leave a special memorial to the peaceful collaboration, where participants' individual saucer-like pots will be on display permanently.

Facilitators

Jane Hendrickson, Ph.D. received her BFA from California State College in Northridge in Clay Arts and Printmaking, and taught public school in Seattle for 25 years. She received an MA in special education as well as in mythological studies and Dr. Hendrickson received her doctorate in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. As a result, she began to evolve a curriculum combining the academic study of mythology with serious work in clay, using the creative process to explore archetypal personalities. In her last two years, Dr. Hendrickson piloted an “enriched” art and drama curriculum introducing Mytho-Ceramics influenced by Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and Mary Caroline Richards. As an assistant coordinator of Global Education Integrated Studies, she organized and led student tours to Russia and England.

Dr. Ergener is a professional tour guide in Istanbul, and has played an important role in renewing the archeological excavation at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic city of 10,000 people. He holds degrees in Economics from Yale (BA), Oxford (MA) and Istanbul University (Ph.D.). He taught at Boaziçi (Bosphorus) University in Istanbul. His current research is on economic activities of ancient temples. Besides professional articles, he has written poetry and travel books, Anatolia, Land of the Mother Goddess and Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Turkey.