In my many years as a newspaper reporter, I’ve been to a lot of groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings and other events that journalists tend to dismiss as “dog and pony shows,” but I must say I’ve never seen a dignitary take to a tree planting with quite as much gusto as the 73-year-old Dalai Lama showed in Harvard Yard Thursday morning.
It was just after the Tibetan Buddhist leader had delivered a talk on education inside Memorial Church, on a patch of grass (OK, on a piece of fake green stuff that had been placed over the ground) just in front of the chapel-cum-war memorial. Harvard’s staff arborists (yup, Harvard has a staff of botanists, horticulturists, and arborists over at the Arnold Arboretum) had apparently created a hybrid tree just for the Dalai Lama – a blend of the monarch birch from Asia and the paper birch from North America that is supposed to evoke trees significant in both Tibetan and Native American cultures.
The event began with the requisite speeches. Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust reviewed the Latin-Sanskrit etymology of the word “birch,” and the uses of the tree by various cultures, including, she said, the use of its bark for the recording of the earliest Buddhist texts.
“Just as His Holiness has linked East and West, and inspired so many with his leadership and humility, so shall this tree combine the expression of a large heart and a tradition of simple service,” Faust said, before giving the Buddhist leader a framed rendering of a birch tree in three seasons.
The Dalai Lama offered thanks, saying the tree would likely outlast both Faust and him, and would remind future generations of his visit.
“Sometimes, in the modern time, in a big city, sometimes a lot of modern machines . . . a little bit distance from nature,” he said. “Trees and flowers always bring us close with nature.”
He said the tree is a reminder of the importance of environmental issues, saying that with dramatic climate change “we are finished,” and warning that excess pollution causes harm to unborn babies. He noted that war is an obvious problem, because it creates for people images of blood and death, but that “the destruction of ecology” occurs “invisibly, unnoticeably, gradually . . . without much notice.”
But then the fun began. The tree had already been planted, but there was a ditch dug around it, and a pile of dirt with four shovels so that the Dalai Lama, Faust, and the deans of the divinity and education schools could ceremonially turn over some soil. But the Dalai Lama was having none of that. When Faust turned over a timid shovelful, he said to her, simply, “too little,” and waited for her to do more, at which point he said, “good.” And then, after the deans did their part, he took his shovel and proceeded to circumnavigate the tree, adding dirt to cover its roots and smoothing out the ground.
Finally, he asked of no one in particular, “Have you some water?” An aide brought him a plastic eco-shaped half-liter of Poland Spring, with which he proceeded to lovingly water the sun-dappled green leaves.
“Good,” he said again, before shaking a few hands, walking slowly back to his motorcade, and heading off to lunch.
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Full article and photo: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/03/a_tree_now_grows_in_harvard_yard_planted_especially_for_dalai_lama/
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Dalai Lama inspires reverent silence, cheers at stadium
The Dalai Lama’s address was about the path to peace and happiness. In the morning, he gave a lesson about the teachings of Buddha and The Four Noble Truths. The Patriots cap was a big hit.
After a drizzly and overcast morning, the sun broke through the clouds over Gillette Stadium yesterday moments before the Dalai Lama stepped onto the turf, as if on cue.
People rose from their seats, greeting the 73-year-old spiritual and political leader with a mix of reverent silence and cheers. “You rock, Lama!” someone shouted, the call rising from a corner of the stands.
Waving cheerfully, the Dalai Lama mounted a stage and settled into an armchair facing a troupe of young dancers. With a flourish, he produced something cherry red – a Patriots hat, projected onto the end-zone video scoreboards – and waved it in the air. Thousands cheered as he tugged the cap onto his famously shaved head.
“Good afternoon, dear brothers and sisters,” the Tibetan Buddhist leader said, as adulation gave way to hushed attention. Legs crossed, hands clasped, he spoke of shared dreams and desires. “Emotionally, mentally, physically, we are same . . . Everyone have the same right to achieve happy life.”
The Dalai Lama’s afternoon address was about the path to peace and happiness; in the morning, he gave a lesson about the teachings of Buddha and The Four Noble Truths. To each lesson, the reaction from the crowd was the same: sustained silence. Serenity, even.
“You know what the strange thing is? You’ve been to Gillette Stadium before? It’s quiet in there,” said Kim Hubert, 42, a nurse from Marshfield, as she made her way through the crowded concourse, where people waited in long but patient queues for concessions and restrooms. “It’s surreal. Even the kids in there are quiet.”
The crowd of 15,935 ticket-holders was diverse – Buddhist and non-Buddhist, young and old, clad in hemp and Oxford cloth, sweaters and sandals, flowing robes and fleece. But many cited the same reason for coming: the chance to be close to, and learn from, a singular figure.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be at the same place as the Dalai Lama,” said Steve Walters, 53, a service engineer from Marlborough who identified himself as a “novice” Buddhist, after 12 years of study and practice.
His wife, Dayna, said she came to learn more about something her husband finds meaningful. Plus, “I don’t know when I’d ever have a chance to do it again,” she said. “I can’t imagine he comes to Foxborough very often.”
This was, in fact, the Dalai Lama’s first trip to the stadium but sixth to the Boston area. Robert Kraft, who sat near the front, allowed the use of Gillette rent-free for the event, which raised an estimated $440,000 for construction of a Tibetan heritage center in Boston.
The Dalai Lama, who has led an exiled government in India for 50 years, spoke earlier in the week at Harvard and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which dedicated a new ethics center named for him.
Displaying his trademark mix of gravity and whimsy, the Dalai Lama punctuated his talk on religion with self-deprecating humor. “When I previously come here my body as a human body complete,” he said, chuckling as he noted the creakiness of age. “Last year gall bladder create some problems so finally is removed.”
In the morning, he spoke from an elaborate throne – crafted by members of Boston’s Tibetan community – on a stage that held seated dignitaries on one side and kneeling monks on the other. He alternated between English and Tibetan for the religious lesson, speaking through his regular translator, Thupten Jinpa.
In the afternoon, the Dalai Lama stuck with English for his secular address and an ensuing session in which he answered previously submitted questions.
He was playful and animated across the hours, drawing circles in the air with his hands. When a cold wind whipped through the stadium bowl in the morning, he pulled his saffron and maroon robes tight over his exposed right arm and head and encouraged the crowd to bundle up as well. In the afternoon, he wore sunglasses but mostly declined offers of an umbrella to protect him from the sun.
In far-ranging remarks, he touched on the environmental benefits of small cars, the campaign to win freedom from China – calling supporters not “pro-Tibetan” but “pro-justice” – and the importance of valuing all faiths in the “supermarket of religion.”
“For example I am Buddhist. I studied Buddhism, I practiced Buddhism, and through practice I got some sort of little experience . . . Very low but still better than zero,” he said. “Buddhism is best for my case. That doesn’t mean Buddhism is best religion to everyone, certainly not.”
During the extended intermission, a pair of Rhode Island retirees with field tickets said that comment spoke to them in particular.
“It’s a wonderful thing to say. So many other religions say, ‘I’m the one,’ ” said Ada Mogayzel, a former librarian from Providence, calling the Dalai Lama “an inspiration.”
Up on the concourse, with clouds still cloaking the stadium, Tibet native Ngawang Norbu of Malden called it a “very auspicious day.”
Norbu said he has seen the Dalai Lama speak numerous times – nearly always in sunshine, he said.
“Just the presence of his holiness is a blessing,” said Norbu, 58, wearing a wool cloak his grandmother knit before the family left Tibet 50 years ago. “Even when it’s bad weather, it just clears up.”
By the end of halftime, it had.
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Full article and photo: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/05/03/dalai_lama_inspires_reverent_silence_cheers_at_stadium/
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Tibetan-Americans craft seat of honor for Dalai Lama
In the basement and driveway of a humble Malden house, the carpenters are building a throne.
Across town, in Medford, a lab technician spends his nights sewing embroidered silk for the drapery.
Three Tibetan-American men, two of them former monks, have devoted much of the last month to constructing the 9-foot high chair on which a cross-legged Dalai Lama will sit for a pair of lectures at Gillette Stadium next month.
The resulting throne is the most visible manifestation of the efforts by Boston’s small Tibetan community to prepare for the Dalai Lama’s four-day visit to the region, which begins April 29. But the throne also sheds light on the unusual backstories of local Tibetans, many of whom escaped difficult lives in Tibet or lived in exile in India before arriving in the United States.
The needleworker, Kunga Namgyal, leads the ordinary life of a research scientist at Shire, a biopharmaceutical company. But Namgyal is also the son and grandson of famed Tibetan tailors – his father was a tailor for the Dalai Lama – and now, at night, when he can steal time from playing with his son and dining with his wife, he sits on the floor by a china cabinet filled with Buddha statues and tries to remember what his own dad taught him about sewing.
One gem: While conventional sewing often involves pointing a needle away from the artisan, Tibetan Buddhists sew with the needle pointing toward themselves, to symbolize compassion for others who won’t get poked.
The financial backer of the $5,000 throne, Lobsang Paljor, was a farmer and nomad in Tibet who in 1985 became a monk there; he fled to India in 1987 and in 1991 moved to the United States. After six years selling carpets, he started Tibet Construction Inc. in 2000.
The carpenter, Kunga Lhatse, plied his trade in Lhasa before escaping to India and then moving in 2002 to the United States. He now is a member of Paljor’s 12-man crew.
“For me, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, represents Tibet,” Lhatse said, via a translator. “He is like a teacher or a parent.”
The Dalai Lama, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is the spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhists and leads a government in exile from Dharamshala, India. Also called Tenzin Gyatso, the 73-year-old lama is believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be a reincarnation of previous Dalai Lamas; he is the 14th man to hold the title.
The throne is a conventional element of the stages from which the Dalai Lama teaches about Buddhism to large crowds. When he gives a more conventional lecture or meets with scholars, as he will do at several events in Boston and Cambridge before the Foxborough sessions, he sits in a chair.
“In our religious tradition, you show respect to your teacher, and that’s why he is put on the highest pedestal,” said Lobsang Sangay, coordinator of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Boston and also a research fellow at the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.
Often institutions hosting the Dalai Lama borrow a throne from another community, but the Boston-area Tibetan community, now thought to number about 600, saw itself as mature enough this year to construct a throne. After the Dalai Lama’s visit, the chair is intended to be a central element of a local Tibetan heritage center that the community hopes to construct in the area.
The throne is made of hand-carved teak – there is a single gold throne, in Lhasa – and the one built for Boston has carved into it the eight “auspicious symbols” of Buddhism: images of a parasol, fish, vase, lotus, conch, knot, wheel, and victory banner. The silk drapery features an image of a dorje, a small scepter traditionally associated with Tibetan Buddhist lamas.
“The Dalai Lama has been to Massachusetts several times, but this is the first time the Tibetan Association of Massachusetts is hosting it, and that reflects that we are now more organized and capable,” Sangay said.
The six previous visits have been hosted by local universities and interest groups, he said. “For many of us, it is like a lifelong dream coming true, to be able to host your spiritual and temporal leader.”
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Video: Tibetans in Malden and Medford build a 9-foot throne for the Dalai Lama’s upcoming Boston visit:
http://www.boston.com/video/viral_page/?/services/player/bcpid14094180001&bclid=0&bctid=19710208001
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Full article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/17/tibetans_craft_seat_of_honor_for_dalai_lama/?page=full
http://abluteau.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/tibetan-americans-craft-seat-of-honor-for-dalai-lama/
