Monkey King: Journey to the West

Diane Wolkstein

This special program for members features storyteller Diane Wolkstein who with movement, story, and the accompaniment of multi-instrumentalist, Jeff Greene, will relate the great Chinese epic Journey to the West, in which the Monkey King and the Tang Priest travel from China to India to obtain the Buddhist scriptures.

Written by Wu Cheng'En in the sixteenth century and based on the historical Buddhist monk Xuanzang, the epic recounts the poignant and humorous adventures of the impetuous, all powerful Monkey King, whose concerns are himself, and the pure-hearted determined Tang Priest, who wants to help others. Together they struggle not only with demons and ogres, but with one another, as they travel from their homeland to India to get the Buddhist scriptures.