Precious moments with the Dalai Lama

Last week, while reading The Times of India newspaper, we saw that the Dalai Lama was going to be a speaker at the D. D. Kosambi Festival of Ideas Lectures in Panaji on February 9th. We didn’t know if we could get in without tickets, or where the lecture hall was located in Panaji, but decided to do a day trip to Panaji just in case we could see the Dalai Lama. We would be forever annoyed with ourselves if we had been this close and didn’t try. There are other attractions to see in Panaji if we couldn’t get into the lecture hall, so off we went.


We took a 1-1/2 hour ride on a Goan State bus to Panaji, and then a rickshaw driver deposited us at the front entrance of the Kala Academy about 10:30 AM where the lecture would be taking place at 2:30 PM. A security guard at the kiosk told us tickets were not needed: the lecture was on a first come basis open to the public. GREAT!!! He said a line would be forming about 1:30 or 2 for the afternoon lecture.

Kala Academy grounds



Auditorium enterance



The Kala Academy is located in a nice garden/wooded area along the river so we decided to first walk around the grounds before we set off to find other things to do until 1:30. On our grounds walk we met several women sitting at the auditorium entrance and after talking with them learned that the day before, many people were turned away from a similar lecture by another speaker because so many people had come, and they expected it would be a lot worse today. They laughed when we told them the guard said come at 1:30 or 2. That would be much to late from their experience. After finishing our grounds walk, we changed our plans and joined the 10 or so people sitting in the general area of the auditorium

2011 Festival of Ideas Lecturers

and decided to be safe rather than sorry. We were in the shade, there was a breeze, restrooms were available, and a small canteen was nearby with drinks and samosas available. We decided just to wait.



A ‘formal’ line started forming about 11:30 and we were in the first 10 or so at the front. YEA!!! Because of our position in the line, we were cautiously hopeful that we would get in. The rumor was that we would be allowed to enter the auditorium about 1:30. Actually the security was setup and we started filing through the metal detector and having our bags searched about 12:30.

We got seats right behind the blocked off VVIP section in the center. (about row 10 or so) Another YEA!!! The remaining wait until 2:30 was a lot nicer in these air conditioned seats than it would have been standing in line.

Since it was still about 1.5 hours to the start of the lecture, some people in our general area would leave to go to the restrooms that were outside the auditorium.  We received updates from them when they returned regarding the outside line waiting to get in.  By about 1:30 the report was DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.  Evidently there were many people and too few security guards and students were trying to force their way into the auditorium.  From inside none of this was apparent.  By the time the lecture started there were people standing along the sides and back of the auditorium and sitting in most of the aisles.

At 2:30 the curtains opened and His Holiness, the 14^th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet, was greeted with a standing ovation by the crowd.  He emerged, like a rock star, smiling and with arms raised above his head, but soon put then into the Namaste greeting and bowed to the crowd. The chief secretary of the lecture series introduced the Dalai Lama and presented him with a bouquet and turned to leave the stage.  Immediately the Dalai Lama commanded, “No, no, you come back here!” and the chief secretary received a white prayer scarf from ‘a simple Buddhist monk’ as the Dalai Lama refers to himself.

For the next hour the Dalai Lama talked about “Ethics for the new Millennium”.  His talk was a mix of history, his experiencies, his understandings/insights, and humor.  His style is very engaging with body, arm, hand justures, and facial expressions.  Sometimes he is the sturn teacher, sometimes an interactive conversationalist, sometimes a broad smiling humorist with a twinkle in his eye.  He often is gently swaying from side to side as he speaks. He was clad in traditional monk’s garb, colored maroon and marigold.

What is important? Inner peace, or happiness. What should we do? Help others.

Values/ethics do not need to be based on religious teachings. Inner peace is achievable by anyone whether he is religious or not, or whatever religion he practices. The DL described various religions as different paths to inner happiness, and said that a lot of people practiced religious ceremonies and traditions and thought themsleves pious, but in truth they had not studied, learned, or understood the dogma behind the rituals. He admonished people to never give up studying and searching for meaning. He reminded us that sensual happiness, such as enjoying a beautiful scene, or piece of music, was not the same as inner happiness. He warned against the reverence of money, saying that it was necessary to have money to supply the basic needs of life, but he giggled and said, “If you have a beautiful diamond ring, can you imagine kissing it and loving it and hoping for it to love you back?”. Inner peace comes from relating to, helping, others.

The last century was the Century of War. Let this century be the Century of Dialogue.

All these points were made in the Dalai Lama’s hour long talk. The 2nd hour he fielded questions from the audience with the following rule: “Any question is allowed, but if it is trivial, I can choose not to answer it” (This was said with a large smile and eye twinkle.)

None of the questions asked was silly. Political, religious, and personal questions were all addressed with historical framework information, personal experiences, and/or personal insights. The Dalai Lama is a strong believer in the power of the human brain: use it to learn, observe, achieve inner peace. His answers were thoughtful and wise, and they were lapped up by the audience. After more

than an hour of Q&A, the moderator struggled to interrupt and eventually stopped the deluge of queries.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As we exited through a side door we realized that this would be the door the DL would soon exit. Sure enough, several minutes later people started exiting the building through that exit and then the Dalai Lama came out. He waved and did several two hands together blessings for all of us cheering him off. He entered the car and the long entourage drove off down the street.

As we left the Academy grounds we noticed there were many more police and security fences than when we had arrived 6 hours ago. We felt very lucky to have seen and heard the Dalai Lama.

Indian Elephants

You might think that we would be accustomed to the

fact of wildlfe in our back yard, so to speak, after years of being thrilled by the sight of moose near our house in Anchorage. And yet, when it comes to elephants, I somehow think of them in the wild only in Africa. As the great subcontinent of India broke free from Africa and slammed up against the southern margin of Asia, the elephants of my mind became tamed and domesticated, painted bright colors, adorned with bells and tassels, and fitted with wobbling saddles and parasoled platforms upon which the Rajs and Ranis and their soldiers and minions rode.It came as a huge surprise one day, near Munnar, when we stopped by the roadside along with a half dozen other vehicles and

got out to see a group of five wild elephants grazing in a sunny green opening of the jungle. They ambled slowly through the long grass, swaying their trunks, flapping their ears, and generally ignoring the small crowd of onlookers. The next day we saw two adults and a calf, and later that evening, two adults alongside the road. I felt it was quite an unanticipated treat.

Later that first day of elephant sighting, we stopped beside the road at a spot where tourists can take an elephant ride. Twyla had cautioned us against these to some degree, on the basis of captive elephants being treated poorly by some owners. This elephant was tied beside the road awaiting his next riders. The little girl who was part of our tour group declined her parents’ offer of a ride, but she did want to feed the beast, so her father bough a bunch

of bananas and we watched as that huge, serpentine appendage swung forward, inhaling noisily to scent-locate the fruit, and then grasped it gently with the tip of the trunk and guided it into its mouth. No chewing, just one big swallow and it was gone, down the hatch.

The tip of an elephant trunk is a marvelous thing to behold. Face on, it looks like a mouth with rubbery lips, but the flat surface just inside the end has two nares, or nostrils, resembling the snout of a pig. From the nostrils emanates the breathy sound of inhalation to locate the food; and the prehensile edge of the trunk’s tip grasps it and swings it down

into its mouth, proper. When pulling up grass or stripping leaves from a tree branch, the great trunk curls around the clump, or the branch, and the tip of the trunk does the finer work of breaking off the stems.This huge beast is remarkably dextrous with the tip of its nose!

Standing beside this large animal and examining it freely, as we were, we were struck by the presence of large bristles covering the whole upper trunk and forehead. The eye was virtually shrouded in thick lashes. When we leaned toward the animal to feel its bristles, it stepped back and away with a bit of

alarm. We had crossed some invisible boundary between the human and the elephant, the wild and the domestic. While it was apparently accustomed, or at least resigned, to people clambering up onto the platform perched on its back, it was shy of being touched on the face by even a tiny 4year-old’s hand.

We have seen domesticated elephants in various Indian locales, most numerously in Rajasthan where they are cajoled by keepers into providing rides for tourists. There is a never-ending line of elephants climbing the long hairpinned road up to the Amber Palace in Amer, each one them to plod back down the road after its passengers disembark onto a tall purpose-built wall at the Palace entrance. These elephants are often brightly painted on the face and trunk, very decorative, and some have been trained to perform tricks such as lifting their foot in a “handshake”, or swinging their trunk dramatically.Those who ride them are clearly delighted, if somewhat jostled by the time they reach their destination.

Historically, elephants were used as mounts in warefare, and were caused to fight among themselves or with predators such as tigers, for the amusement of the kings. They give the appearance of docile, slow, mild-tempered beasts most of the time in captivity, and I suppose, like other domesticated species, are generally resigned to their captive life.

They live for decades and provide a lot of labor and income to those who own them. We were astonished one eveing in Jaipur, well past sunset, to see a painted-faced elephant ambling along a busy street in the stream of traffic, ridden by a man who sat on its neck, making the 11-kilometer trek “home” presumably after a similar commute to the Amber Palace in the morning and countless trips up and down the long sloping roadway to the entrance. The duo stopped to allow us to take photos and then continued along amidst the honking and swerving traffic.


 
 



















On our last day in Munnar, Dean and I took a walk out through the lovely tea plantation near our hotel, and in the course of it, we passed through two small villages consisting of housing provided for the plantation’s laborers. In the first, we were told by a young man that elephants had come into the village the prior evening. Local residents in elephant territory in India have a healthy fear of, and respect for, elephants and the damage they can wreak. As we ascended to the second laborers’ village, a small group of women started chattering to us shrilly in Malayam, and we heard the word “Ana” again and again. We had visited a mountain several days before, shaped like an elephant and called AnaMurti, so we knew the meaning of the word. They would not allow us to procede up a pathway toward a small lake, but pointed us toward our hotel. A young man explained that everyone was agitated by the previous night’s elephant visit, and he showed us several banana trees which had been torn up and trampled by the invaders. A few metres later, we came upon a huge pile of fresh elephant dung and the remains of a stalk of bananas. Clearly the elephants had been on a rampage, and we were reminded of why the local residents were wary of the beasts.

The elephant is a image seen everywhere in India. Perhaps the most endearing amongst the myriad of Hindu gods is Ganesh, who form is essentially human except that he has four arms and an elephant’s head.
He is frequently the featured benevolent god of household or shop shrines, but also in mid-sized road sized shrines and temples, and is known to remove obstacles for those who honor him. Twyla presented us each with a small metal-cast Ganesh upon our arrival in India as part of our “India survival travellers’ kit”. So far, any obstacles have been minor, so we think it is working! Beautiful brass elephants from tiny to huge, lovely dark wood carvings of decorated elephants, carved stone temple statuary, fabric designs both traditional and modern, tea cosies, incense burners, jewelery, and more; all can be found in India. But none can beat the fabulous treat of seeing them in the wild, earls flapping and untethered. Objects of fear and adoration, these great beings are revered, worked and abused, and with hope, they will continue to exist in the wild against all odds.

Feb 13: The Great Royal Circus

We went to the Circus! It has been decades since either Alison or I had been to the circus so off we went. Bright posters adorn the streets announcing its presence in Margao so we diecided to give it a whirl. There were no lions, tigers, or bears (O! My)….but there was an elephant, 4 camels, a horse, dogs and birds along with many human performers.

We chose to splurge on 150 rupee “dress circle” seats to be close to the performers. The big top tent looked like ones I had remembered from childhood. There was only one ring for the performers and since there were many more seats than patrons, we were able to change

our seats as the different acts required to get the best views. The large tent was in full sun, so it was very warm inside throughout the performance. Hot and hotter. Our high-priced seats entitled us to an electric fan trained on us, but in addition there were hand fans available for sale. Of course, Alison had her own Chinese fan with her (always) so we only rented one additional. At the end of the circus we handed it to a small girl who seemed delighted.

It was a multi-national circus with performers from

Africa, China, and Russia as well as India. The first up were the numerous trapeze artists flying through the air in criss-crossing patterns from 2 platforms to 2 ‘catchers’. After they were finished their routine, the performers serially fell into the nets below to dismount, then all the safety nets were taken down and the grand parade of all the performers and animals took place.

One of the aerial acts was performed by a man and woman on two long pieces of fabric and was similar to an act we have seen at Cirque de Soleil. One difference was every time the couple was hoisted up into the air by the fabric strands it was done manually by 10 men pulling then easing the ropes, not by mechanical means.
There was a troupe of about eight African men who were expert tumblers, jugglers, and limbo dancers (under flames), but their best act was ultra-fast skipping in different positions and combinations in and out of a rope turned by two of the troupe.

There were balancing, juggling, roller skating, tumbling, trampoline, and gun shooting acts as well as clowns. Two motorbikes drove around fast in a very small sphere made of steel strips and later did some jumps from ramp to ramp into the performance ring. The group pyramids and bicycle formations were good and fun to watch.

 

 

The bird acts were interesting. I didn’t know Maccaws and Cocatiels would hang onto things and support their weight with their beaks. Upside down or rightside up, tumbling down ladders, balancing a teeter-totter, it didn’t make any difference.


Several of the 7 performing dogs seemed to be more interested in goofing off than performing which made for several frustrating moments for the handlers. But four dogs were finally lined up and rolled a barrel which contained a fifth dog.

The elephant had the obligatory beautiful woman cradled on his trunk, or on his head or back in various poses, while he walked around the ring or stood or sat on a small stand. He looked a bit forlorn, and who wouldn’t, with three performances daily? Three of the camels posed in various formations while the fourth wove in and out amongst the others at a respectable trot, soft hoofs padding the bare ground quietly.




All of the props and equipment were very old, worn, rickety, and chipped. Everything was folded manually and hand-carried into and out of the ring, or moved with hand-carts. The whole circus experience was like time traveling back 50 or more years to see something I did’t even knew still existed as I remembered it from my childhood. It was simple and naïve, and very familiar. Within a week, it will fold up and move on, a strange but established life for the human and animal performers alike.