The Dalai Lama will be coming to Boston April 30th-May 3, 2009 and will be giving a series of lectures as well as being the guest of honor at the new Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. I am going to one of his workshops this upcoming Saturday.
The Tibetan-American community in New England has been preparing for the Dalai Lama’s arrival and have been taking part in a labor of love of sorts:
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.
Hopefully, when the Dalai Lama returns to the United States in October (according to media reports), the US government will show him the respect and honor he deserves by granting him an official state visit with the President and the Secretary of State, although the Obama administration seems a bit too worried China might get “angry.”
Stumble It!
4 responses so far ↓
1 tehehehe // Apr 29, 2009 at 9:09 am
The Dahlai Lama has no military. H has no terrorists. And he has not been critical of the US. A truly wonderful man.
It is unlikely the President will even have time for him, much less apologize.
2 tehehehe // Apr 29, 2009 at 9:31 am
Well, the president is at least keeping his campaign promises regarding energy production!
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/28/epa-fulfills-obamas-promise-on-coal/
3 tehehehe // Apr 29, 2009 at 9:46 am
Obama’s supporters on healthcare in Congress are now “transparent” about the real goal.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/28/videos-the-real-goal-of-health-care-reform/
Everyone in America should see this video. Then we would all understand clearly what is at stake in this “reform”.
4 stacy // May 1, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I have been writing the State Dept. trying to urge them to meet with the Dalai Lama- I know the email likely just gets deleted, but it makes me feel better nonetheless.
If Obama doesn’t meet with him, he will be the first president in quite a while not to do so. GW Bush did a great deal for the official recognition of the Dalai Lama and I give him credit for that because China threw a temper tantrum and threatened China-US relations would be hurt, but he went ahead and had a ceremony at the WH where he gave him the highest civilian honor
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