In brief
Lapis Festival is a plan for a secular cultural festival around the Medicine Buddha: art, history and music at its centre.
Each edition will take place in a different country and will be prepared with local partners. No funder or partner will decide the programme.
Entry is free or pay-what-you-can, with registration. A soft view on the life sciences may accompany the programme, with no health claims.
The heart of the festival
The first subject is the Medicine Buddha: his history, his art and his texts, presented with what historians know. The second is participatory biology: the life sciences practised outside the big laboratories, by enthusiasts, community labs and researchers, with method and safety. These two worlds rarely meet. The festival brings them together around what they share: care.
What happens at the festival
The public watches and asks questions; only the speakers handle anything.
- Live preparation: biohackers and independent researchers prepare formulations in front of the public, for example liposomes (tiny bubbles of lecithin that enclose a molecule), and explain each step.
- Laboratory models: if an accredited laboratory takes part, organoids (small tissues grown in a laboratory) or organs-on-chips will show how research tests an idea.
- Commentary on presentations: each presentation is reviewed with the help of an AI tool, then checked by a person. The commentary states, with studies, what is established, what is plausible and what remains to be proven. The public commentary carries no marks and no ranking.
- Working groups: open groups put project leaders in touch with interested laboratories, universities and companies. The groups stay independent of these partners.
- Exhibitions: the history and art of the Medicine Buddha, through works, texts and objects.
- Stage: concerts and world music.
- Social area: stands of the Buddhist traditions, food and other stands.
At the stands
- Basic equipment and ingredients for the demonstrations, where their sale is legal in the country. These are supplies, never health products.
- Books, cultural objects, meals and drinks.
The Buddhist traditions
The festival invites the schools and communities that venerate the Medicine Buddha, all as equals, to present his history, his art and their practices:
- Mahayana, including Pure Land and Chan / Zen.
- Vajrayana and the Tibetan traditions.
- Shingon and Tendai, in Japan.
- The Korean and Vietnamese traditions.
- Newar Buddhism, in the Kathmandu valley.
- Secular and modern Buddhism, and lay movements.
- Any other school or community that wishes to come.
Theravada practitioners are welcome, as are people from every tradition. The festival also welcomes people of other religions, agnostics and atheists. You can come for the art, the history or the science, without sharing any belief.
What each tradition can bring
- Works, texts and objects lent for the exhibitions.
- Talks on the history and art of its tradition.
- Music, chants and cultural performances on stage.
- A stand to present itself and talk with the public.