1-28-15
From our friendly Emerald Necklace Conservancy (Boston) docent, Lola Heiler-Stillman, comes this “heads-up” about her upcoming presentation about the Temple Bell at UMass Boston:
Hi Steve – sending you some info on my latest presentation on the bell to be held at UMass Boston Harbor Campus sometime in March. It is a “brown bag presentation” for the Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI). . . . . Will also have an info table with books, etc. including yours and a newly published one “Monumental Beauty” by Ted Lollis.
From the Course listing:
| How a Token of WWII Became a Symbol of World Peace The story of Boston’s 340-year-old Japanese temple bell from the Manpuku-ji Temple is a tale of two cities–ancient Sendai and modern Boston; a journey from war to peace; from tragedy to hope. One of 500 sacred Buddhist bells discovered by occupation forces in 1945 at an imperial naval shipyard foundry near Tokyo, the bell escaped the fate of an estimated 75,000 temple bells melted down for armaments during the war. Brought to U.S. shores by the USS Boston in 1946, it was presented to the city of Boston in celebration of Navy Day. Seven years later, the Temple Believers of Manpuku-ji formally donated it to citizens of Boston in the name of friendship and world peace. As a bonsho bell, Boston’s bell has links to a historic and sacred tradition–the post-war tolling of Japanese bells for world peace that began with Hiroshima’s peace bell on August 6, 1947 and Nagasaki’s on August 9, 1947. It continued in 1954 with the installation of the United Nations peace bell, followed in 1982 by the founding of the World Peace Bell Association (WPBA) that has donated 22 replica UN Peace Bells to major cities all over the world. In an era of global uncertainty and instability, the story of the bell contains a hopeful message of world peace. |
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