Other Projects

1. Re-study of the Hindu-Buddhist Fire Ceremony

In the 1970’s, Prof. Fritz Staal (University of California, Berkeley), in collaboration with filmmaker, Robert Gardner, commissioned the performance of a Vedic fire ritual. This commission resulted in “Agni”, a multi-disciplinary study of the fire ritual in diaspora.

In 2004, the Vinapa Foundation commissioned Nepali Vajrayana Buddhist master, Dr. Nareshman Bajracharya, to perform the Nepalese version of the fire ritual in the home of Dr. Alex von Rospatt (with Dr. Staal and other Berkeley faculty members in attendance.)

This is to be followed by a colloquium co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of Buddhist Studies and the Institute of Buddhist Studies in February, 2008.

2. Ohlone Uses of Natural Resources: A Self-guided Trail

In partnership with the East Bay Regional Park District, the Vinapa Foundation has engaged Beverly Ortiz to develop a protocol for the Leona Canyon trail, located adjacent to Merritt College in Oakland, CA. This project is intended to:

1. raise public awareness of the practices of Oakland’s earliest human inhabitants
2. attract school-age children to one of the few sections of the East Bay Regional Park District accessible via public transportation.

3. Ethnic Diversity among Early Residents of the East Bay

In partnership with the Niles Essenay Silent Film Museum, the Vinapa Foundation is in the process of locating archival footage of ethnic communities present in Northern California during roughly the same era that films were being produced at the Essenay Film Company in Niles, Ca. The goal is to create a series of public presentations showing old film or photographic imagery in conjunction with lectures or panel discussions in order to increase public awareness of the East Bay’s early diverse populations.