By Lona O’Connor and Michael Browning
A round-faced, shaven-headed self-described “simple Buddhist monk” will be visiting South Florida the next few days to talk about world peace, patience and forbearance in the face of enemies, things he knows about from long and bitter experience.
Tenzing Gyatso — he has an enormous number of names and honorifics and titles that trail from him like rainbows — is the 14th Dalai Lama, the “Sea of Wisdom,” the physical embodiment of his homeland, Tibet, which was absorbed by China in 1950, and from which he fled in 1959, aged 24.
He will be giving a series of talks, starting Saturday and continuing through Wednesday.
The first, on Saturday morning at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, will follow a musical program by the Nova Singers at 9:30. The school exhausted its supply of 10,000 tickets earlier this week.
Tickets still are available for speeches Sunday at the Office Depot Center and for Monday and Tuesday talks at the University of Miami. The Wednesday lectures at Florida International University and UM are school events and not open to the public.
Devotees of the Dalai Lama have been preparing for weeks. A monk and a crew of assistants worked for weeks on a 50-foot painting to hang behind the throne where he will sit. Others prepared the wooden throne.
Developer Albert Miniaci, a trustee of Nova, commissioned a 4-foot-tall, 600-pound brass carved prayer wheel to be blessed by the spiritual leader. In Deerfield Beach, members of the Tubten Kunga Center painted tiny religious statues called tsa tsas to hand out to people attending the events.
A group called the International Tibet Independence Movement plans a three-day, 55-mile march from Delray Beach to Bal Harbour beginning Monday.
It is very much a media event, but Tibetans nowadays have to use what piteous tools are left to them to dramatize their country’s plight. Their greatest tool is the 69-year-old Dalai Lama himself, who follows a schedule that would tax a man half his age. From Florida, he heads immediately to Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. In November, he travels to South Africa.
God-king, Jewel in the Lotus, the Dalai Lama has been, and is, both hated and adored, at home and abroad. He is supposed to be a Living Buddha, an embodiment of pure truth and enlightenment. Even more miraculous than that, he has managed to stay alive. A lot of other Living Buddhas haven’t.
He has led one of the most remarkable lives of the 20th century. He has spoken with China’s Mao Zedong, with the Catholic Pope John Paul II and the American President George W. Bush. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, much to China’s disgust. He has swanned around Hollywood with stars like Richard Gere and Steven Seagal. He has had movies made about him.
His Nobel award drew attention to the plight of Tibet — invaded 39 years earlier by China, which claimed sovereignty over Tibet as one of its ancient provinces. The Chinese decimated Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and killed thousands of monks and nuns.
The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese. He lives in exile in Dharamsala, India, and has attempted for decades to negotiate with the Chinese to restore Tibet’s independence.
What is he like in person?
Nathan Katz first met the Dalai Lama in 1978, studying with him for six months in Dharamsala. Katz is chairman of religious studies at Florida International University in Miami. He stayed in touch with the Dalai Lama and arranged for his first visit to Miami in 1999.
Katz describes his friend as a man with a zest for life and a self-deprecating sense of humor. He recalled seeing a videotape of the holy man eating his breakfast. In a close-up, the holy man mugged and grinned for the camera, bits of barley cereal sticking to his lips.
“He knew how ridiculous he looked,” said Katz. “He was laughing at himself.”
The Dalai Lama’s life has changed since his fame has spread and fears for his safety have grown. “Once upon a time he might have come to my house for a shabbat dinner,” Katz said. “Not now.”
Because of security concerns, no large bags, cameras, cellphones or video or audio recorders will be allowed at any of his South Florida appearances.
Another confidante, Victor Chan, whose extraordinary detailed guidebook to Tibet is a mini-encyclopedia of the country, has known the Dalai Lama personally for about 30 years. Chan is an Asia scholar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
“He almost always brushes his teeth after a meal,” Chan recalled. “On one occasion, the president and faculty of Tromso University in Norway have given a formal lunch in his honor. After the meal, the Dalai Lama fished a scarlet-red toothbrush and a small tube of Colgate from his monk’s bag and held them high for his hosts to admire, like a fisherman brandishing some prized catch. Still holding the implements aloft, he made his way to the washroom, much to the delight of the 60-odd guests.”
Chan continued: “No matter where the Dalai Lama goes, he is given gifts. On a visit to South Florida, for example, his staff will ship all the gifts back to his home in northern India. And they’re always complaining about how much they have to ship.”
At the Tibetan-leader-in-exile’s office is a Sony TV, the gift from a San Francisco psychiatrist who has written several books about His Holiness. Near that is a treadmill from President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan that is never used.
“He has admitted to me,” Chan said, “that he’s very lazy with exercise. He appreciates the sentiment of gifts, but he has no attachment to anything.”
So what happens to all the stuff people give him?
“I don’t know,” Chan answered. “I’ve always pictured it in a warehouse somewhere.”
