By Sherab Woeser
Leaving Osaka, Japan’s third largest populated city early in the morning, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, beaming with smile shook hands and bid farewell to his hotel staff, making sure that the attendants outside the gates got his special attention.
In his brisk business-walk, the 76-year old Tibetan spiritual leader stepped into his car for an onward journey to the small temple town of Koyasan.
Half an hour into the journey, the wide roads of the city, railed by tall buildings and moving cars started to open up into a gentle wave of hills.
Autumn was in full glory as the Dalai Lama’s modest convoy of three cars and a bus winded through valleys and open glades.
The brilliant canvas of green coniferous tress in an unassuming mix with feverish leaves glistened under the sun. Men and women in straw hats worked on their plantations of cabbages, lettuce, and green vegetables along the road.
Entering a small town halfway through the journey, the convoy made a sudden stop at a simple general store. The town, spread across a lane not longer than a football field was erringly vacant, only for the parked bicycles and flowers outside the wooden cottages showing signs of habitation.
His Holiness stepped out the car and entered the store in a manner suggesting homely familiarity. Walking past stacks of groceries, packed edible, and magazines, the Dalai Lama examined a rack full of bottled drinks with a childlike curiosity.
Looking carefully at the Japanese words on the colourful bottles, the Dalai Lama inquired a thing or two with his translator and then stepped out while fervently greeting the storekeepers.
Out in the empty parking lot, His Holiness breathed in the fresh air and took a long look at the panoramic view. He was far away from the usual crowd of flashing camera, journos stretching out for a byte, people jostling for blessing that greet him wherever he goes.
In that vacant parking lot in the middle of a small Japanese town, the Dalai Lama looked surprisingly at ease and happy. He carefully looked at the members of his small entourage of Japanese and Tibetan officials standing around, asking whether their journey was comfortable.
“You all should stretch your leg muscles,” the Dalai Lama said with concern before breaking into a brief exercise. Always willing to share and teach, His Holiness remarked, “this is good”, while standing on his toes and then leaning back on his heels.
One of the officials came forward with a bag full of bottled drinks. His Holiness decisively picked one and waited for the bag to go around the parking lot.
Before opening his bottle of tea, His Holiness made sure that everyone had something in their hands to drink. Then, taking large sips, His Holiness walked around, smiling and nudging everyone to drink.
Before long, His Holiness was again on the move.
The journey to Koyasan ended an hour or so later. Alighting from his car at the Kongobuji temple, His Holiness was greeted by priests, cameras, and Japanese well-wishers, some of whom were kneeling down, crying at his sight.
The journey to one of Japan’s most sacred places had ended but the road that the Dalai Lama was traveling on, to bring humanity closer in a genuine sense of harmony and respect, stretched beyond the horizon.
And, with his message of inner peace, compassion for all sentient being, and secular ethics based on human values, His Holiness the Dalai Lama takes everyone he meets on the same road to make the world a better place.
