DHARAMSALA JOURNAL
September 5-11, 2000
Pierce Brosnan and Kim Kindersley, with Dennis Cusack

Tuesday, September 5

Pierce and Kim arrived at New Delhi airport from Bombay and met Dennis on the tarmac for the charter flight to Dharamsala. Our pilot, Captain Singh had carried the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere between New Delhi and Dharamsala on the same plane. After a one hour flight, we landed at Goggal Airport. Ms. Alka Sharma, from International Tours and Travel, met us there with two cars to take us to Glenmoor Cottages in Dharamsala. Our hosts at Glenmoor, Ajai and Kalpina, greeted us warmly and quickly put out a delicious late afternoon lunch for us, after which we retired for naps. We returned to the main house for dinner. To my delight, Ajai keeps a bottle of Scotch on hand, ready to pour.

Wednesday, September 6

We started the day with breakfast before taking our car and driver, Tsering, down to the Central Tibetan Administration. Thinley Norbu, our escort for the entire week, met us at the Department of Information and International Relations. We met first with Kalon T.C. Tethong, the Foreign Minister, and his staff, including Mrs. Kesang Taklha, Joint Secretary for International Relations and Mr. Thupten Samphel, Joint Secretary for Information.

Next, we met briefly with Mr. Yusef Naik, who in the absence of the Director, gave us a presentation on the work of the Torture Victims Survivor Centre.

After a tea break, we stopped at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, where we were able to view ancient texts of Tibetan Buddhist writings: The Buddha's teachings, and commentaries on the Buddha's teachings. Some date back to the 14th century and were written in gold ink. We also visited the museum of Buddhist artifacts brought out of Tibet and presented by Tibetans to His Holiness for safe-keeping.

Our next stop was the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute. We met briefly with the staff, who prepare astrological charts, and toured the exhibits of Tibetan medical instruments and medicines. We also bought some Tibetan medicines and tonics from the small shop there.

While at the Institute, we met a young thangka painter, who was working on a thangka to present to His Holiness on the 50th anniversary of his enthronement. He took us to his tiny apartment to show us some of his other work, and Pierce promised to return and buy one of the thangkas.

We retired to lunch at McLeod's, on the square in Mcleod Ganj, where we watched the buses, taxis and trucks create a traffic nightmare in the tiny square.

After lunch, we took a short walk along the streets of McLeod Ganj and then made our way to the Tibetan Refugee Centre. We met the director, Tsering Norbu, who talked about the program for receiving and taking care of the thousands of refugees who arrive each year. Then, followed by Angus McDonald, a freelance reporter for Associated Press, along with his very large camera, we toured the facility. Pierce was particularly taken with a gentleman with gold teeth who smiled with great joy despite having suffered imprisonment, torture and the trek into exile.

We then had a little bit of time free before heading to the Hotel Tibet for a dinner hosted by T.C. Tethong. We had as much good food and beer as we could manage and then, after presentation of khatas (white silk scarves) by T.C., we walked home.

On the way back to Glenmoor, Pierce felt a twinge in his knee, which hobbled him back to the Cottages.

Thursday, September 7

We had rearranged our initial Thursday schedule to be able to attend the last morning of teachings by His Holiness. Thinley met us at the Private Office and asked us to wait for Tenzin Taklha, who would escort us to our seats. We expected to sit in the back of the already large crowd, but Tenzin guided us into the Temple. There, we found ourselves placed on the floor of the stage, next to a sea of maroon-robed monks, only a few feet from His Holiness's raised seat. Pierce and Kim settled in with their video cameras and at the first break in the prayers, His Holiness looked over at us and laughed. At a break a little bit later, His Holiness gestured for one of the monks to come over to him. His Holiness whispered to him and the monk came back and said to Pierce: "If your knee is bothering you, it's ok for you to get up and leave."

We listened to the teachings and prayers in translation over FM radios. There were many Taiwanese in the audience, so His Holiness stopped occasionally for one of the monks to translate prayers and teachings into Chinese. At one point, the whole audience chanted a song that was eerily beautiful. Kim and Dennis also made faces with a young monk, only about 6 years old, sitting on the other side of the stage. He was remarkably still and attentive through most of the 3-hour teachings, and had a beautiful face. We later tried to find out who he was, though I don't think we ever succeeded.

After the teachings, we walked to the new Tibetan Museum for a scheduled visit. We were all so overwhelmed by the experience of the teachings, though, that we couldn't take it in.

Once the crowds dissipated from the teachings, we found our car and drove up to the Tibetan Children's Village. We toured the grounds with the School's Executive Director, Yeshi, a particularly warm and vibrant man. The children were delightfully curious, and all wanted their picture taken with Pierce. Some of the children were fascinated by Kim's video camera with the screen on which they could watch themselves.

We stopped in the school office for lunch with Yeshi, Mr. Tenzing Sangpo, the School Principal, Mr. Lekshey Tenpa, the Village Director, and another of the school principals. All of them spoke articulately and passionately about the children and the progress they've made in trying to provide homes and educations for them. The Village is overcrowded and providing for all the children remains a struggle, but they are unfailingly optimistic. Upon hearing that the scheduled performance at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts could not take place for us, they invited us back on Saturday evening for a performance by the children. We promised to return.

On the way back, we stopped briefly at the small Anglican chapel of St. John's in the Wilderness, where Lord Elgin is buried, and where plaques commemorate the death of more than one local Englishman by bear attack (Ajai had spoken to us about the bears and panthers in the hills).

That evening, after a late afternoon rest, we went up to the main house at the Cottages. We found ourselves invited to an impromptu party hosted by a group of visitors from Mexico. We met Natalia, a young woman working on a book project on Tibet, Ana Victoria, the first Tibetan Buddhist lama in Mexico, Suresh Jindal, an American-educated Indian who works for the Gere Foundation, and Fabrizio, an Italian Buddhist monk. Our Mexican dinner was delicious, and afterwards Kim showed us parts of his films about dolphins, Australian aborigines, the Dineh, and more.

Friday, September 8

On Friday, I gave Pierce and Kim a break and went off for a morning of meetings at the Department of Information and International Relations. We met at 12.30 at the Private Office for our audience with the Dalai Lama. Victor Chan, who had been filming the teachings on Thursday, had asked if he could film the audience and we agreed. We were escorted in and when His Holiness came into the room, we presented khatas and then sat down to talk. Pierce spoke about his interest in children and Kim spoke about his deep connection to dolphins. His Holiness told us about some very troubling comments he has been hearing from China about plans to overwhelm Tibet with Chinese settlers and development. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic. Pierce and Kim presented His Holiness with gifts. His Holiness presented us with khatas and we had our pictures taken together.

After the audience, we went back up to McLeod for lunch. A young Tibetan man, Lobsang, followed us there, hoping to get an interview with Pierce. Lobsang turned out to be a bright and charming companion, if something of an "operator," and attached himself to us for the rest of the trip.

We had a brief respite after lunch, then I dragged Pierce and Kim down to a meeting with Kalon Rinchen Khando, the Education Minister. We were all tired, and for that reason cancelled a scheduled visit to the Transit School for adult refugees. Fortunately, Mrs. Khando's charm reinvigorated us. There we learned about plans to build a new school in Kathmandu, and the need for money to buy the land.

We had a dinner scheduled that evening with Kalon Tempa Tsering, the Home Minister. After some discussion about whether we were too tired to attend, Pierce agreed that we should attend, if only briefly. (This was a lesson in Tibetan stubbornness; Tempa la would not take no for an answer.) We separated and then joined Tempa at the Hotel Tibet for a light dinner, but good conversation. At the conclusion, Tempa presented us with khatas and gifts. The gifts were paintings done by children at the Tibetan Children's Village, framed in brocaded cloth like thangkas. The choices of subject for each of us turned out to be surprisingly apt: for Kim, the fish; for Pierce, the four friends; for Dennis, the horses representing Tibetan nationalism.

On the way from the Hotel to the car, in the square, we ran into Yusef Naik, who greeted us with perhaps greater enthusiasm than he had a right to.

Back at the Cottages, over glasses of Scotch, we anointed Kim "Swami Kimbo."

Saturday, September 9

We took a late morning drive out to the Norbulingka Institute. Our guide, Gyeltsen, gave us a remarkable tour of the tailoring workshops, the thangka workshop, the woodcarving workshop (where we met the last great Tibetan master woodcarver), and the metalworking shop (where we met the last great metalwork master, although he has trained many apprentices who are on their way to becoming masters). At the metal workshop, they assembled a large 10-foot sitting Buddha for us out of the pieces they had made. We also visited the Temple and library, and the private quarters reserved for His Holiness's visits.

That evening, we got ready to go out to the Children's Village for the evening performance. As we were leaving the Cottages, we ran into Ana Victoria and Natalia and company, who were just returning from an audience with "the Oracle" (actually, the Medium of the Nechung Oracle). They had a great visit and recommended that we try to arrange one for ourselves. Our schedule had already been perhaps too full, so arranging an audience with the Oracle seemed too much. But then a strange thing happened. As we sat in the car inching our way past the crowds of Tibetans surrounding the fair booths strung along the already too narrow road, a Tibetan woman poked her head in the window and said: "James Bond! My brother is the Oracle and he wants to meet you!" I asked her to call us at the Cottages and let us know what time on Sunday would work, which she promised to do.

We arrived at the Village a few minutes later. Virtually every child in the Village was waiting to see "James Bond" and Pierce was surrounded as soon as he stepped out of the car. Our friend Angus the reporter was there as well, with a few other reporters taking pictures every step of the way across the school yard. We finally made it into the auditorium, where a handful of chairs had been set in front of the stage for us. With Tibetan children's faces pressed against the windows, we enjoyed a beautiful performance by the children of songs and dances. Pierce very graciously said a few words of thanks to the children, autographs were signed and pictures taken, and off we went.
We had a light dinner at the only Japanese restaurant in Dharamsala, then back to the Cottages.

Sunday, September 10

Sometime earlier in the week, I had told Pierce and Kim about the young 17th Karmapa, who had just escaped from Tibet. Kim asked Thinley if it would be possible to arrange an audience. Lo and behold, Thinley told us on Friday, I think, that we could go out to visit the Karmapa on Sunday morning.

Off we went, with Tsering our driver, as well as Happy, the young Indian man who had been our driver on Friday and Saturday while Tsering was on holiday. Lobsang came along and we picked up Thinley on the way to Gyuto Monastery. At the monastery, we picked up still another young Tibetan man, and after passing through security, we were taken upstairs to the Karmapa's audience room. All of us were allowed to greet His Holiness, but the attendants only allowed Pierce, Kim and I to stay. Lobsang, though, insisted on sitting in the back of the room. We spoke for a short while. The Karmapa is unusually poised and articulate (and tall) for a 15 year old. He said he'd seen a Bond film already. He spoke about the expectations people have for him. He hopes to concentrate on studying Buddhism, but also expressed an interest in becoming involved in the freedom struggle.

The entourage wended our way back to Dharamsala through beautiful countryside, stopping for a coke along the way. I called the Cottages and learned that our audience with the Oracle would be at 3.30. After lunch at McLeod's again, we went down to the monastery. The Nechung is about 40 years old, and has a bright face and beaming smile. We had a very pleasant visit with tea, then he gave us a tour of the temple. We also met his sister, who's a doctor at the Medical Institute. We learned that the Oracle (whose name is Thupten Ngodup, but also goes by Kutenla), was planning to travel to Delhi on Monday by car, in order to catch a plane to France. We offered him a ride in our charter plane, which he accepted. We left, looking forward to seeing him again the next day.
Kim had also had the idea on Saturday of inviting all of the Tibetans and other friends we had made to a dinner at the Cottages on Sunday night. We charged Thinley with extending invitations to them all. Ajai and Kalpina graciously agreed to cook up a dinner for 25 or so. The evening was very festive, and almost everyone we had met during the week came. It was a great end to the week.

Monday, September 11