When organizing the visit of Kuntu Zangpo Lama and his three monk assistants to Atlanta to participate in the Dalai Lama’s visit to Emory University, we at the Ariun Rashaan (Magical Healing Waters) NGO received requests from many US universities and Buddhist centers to bring Kuntu Zangpo Lama and his translator Demchik Shastri to speak.
We therefore organized a three week tour that took them to Ashville, North Carolina; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, Pa.; Ithaca, NY; Buffalo, NY; New York, NY; and Northampton, Mass. We could easily have made their tour much longer, but Kuntu Zangpo Lama had to be back in Mongolia in November in order to form a group to take to India in December for the large Mongolian ten-shug (long life ritual) being planned by the Ninth Jetsun Dampa for the benefit of the Dalai Lama. Moreover, his translator Demchik Shastri had not been able to get more time off from his job at the Arts Council of Mongolia, where he was working on tracking down and recording basic information on the more than 1,000 Buddhist monasteries and temples destroyed by the Communists.
First Shawn and Maggie of Lotus Light Productions hosted us in Ashville, North Carolina. Here Kuntu Zangpo spoke at the Embracing Simplicity Hermitage in nearby Hendersonville, the Philosophy & Religion Class of Mars Hill College, and the BE Buddhist Community of Warren Wilson College, as well as the Namaste Yoga Center in downtown Asheville, NC.
Arrangements in Washington, DC, were made by Eric and Degii Hatchell of the Tibetan Museum Society. Here the lamas served the Mongolian community, visited the Smithsonian Sackler-Freer Museum, and lectured in several Dharma centers. (The society website: (www.tibetan-museum-society.org/java/home.jsp).
Philadelphia was fun. Dale Shimizu had organized three days of meditation at his Philadalphia Zen Center, and the Heckerts had organized events in the Philadelphia Meditation Center. Dale also drove us into NY for events at the Rubin Museum of Art and also the Nicholas Roerich Museum.
In Ithaca the Namgyal Institute (www.namgyal.org) were our hosts, with events in Cornel University, and both lectures and workshops in the Namgyal Institute of Buddhist Studies.
After Ithace we drove on to Buffalo, where we here hosted by the Song Mountain Monastery karate club. The sangha there arranged for several lectures and workshops. The lamas’ presence at the University of Buffalo received strong media coverage, and a good time was had by all.
Of course no visit to Buffalo is complete without a pilgrimage to nearby Niagara Falls, and we availed ourselves of the opportunity.
Our last stop on the tour was Northampton, Mass., where the lamas lectured in both Smith College and the Univ of Mass. Here we were hosted by Prof. Rick Taupier of the Univ of Mass. Rick is also director of the Jamyang Institute in New Salem (www.manjushriinstitute.org/index.html). |
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| Kuntu Zangpo Lama and his translator Demchik Shastri, with Glenn Mullin and hosts Bill and Anne Shyuler |
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| Kuntu Zangpo Lama, Demchik Shastri and Glenn Mullin on Mt. Mitchell, the tallest mountain in the eastern US. |
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