Among the silliest things His Holiness the Dalai Lama is inclined to say to fawning cameramen these days is that Boodhism is not, whatever else it might be, a religion. No? Well, what utter nonsense! It is an assertion that is plainly and demonstrably untrue. What is one to make of a religious leader who wants to say that his religion is not a religion?
The present author was reminded of this bizarre distortion while sitting in a shared jeep on the road to Kalimpong recently, squeezed in against an overweight Tibetan monk in maroon robes on his way to the same destination. At every point that the jeep (an eight seater carrying fourteen people and two chickens travelling on precipitous roads with four bald tyres) went past any even slightly Boodhist landmark – a grave, a stupa, a flag, a monastery, a road to a monastery – the overweight monk raised his hands in a gesture of fervent prayer, closed his eyes and muttered solemn incantations in Tibetan. One wonders exactly what game the Dalai Lama is playing, but on such evidence Boodhism sure looks like a religion to this author!
Accordingly, this author was expecting Kalimpong to be a hotbed of the aforementioned religion, and the presence of the monk on the journey promised it to be so, but in fact, on arrival, the town hardly presented a Boodhist face. It so happens that the monasteries there are on hilltops well out of town, and in town itself there is little obvious evidence of the Boodhist presence. The author only had five or six hours to look around, but during that time he encountered two splendid Hindoo mandirs, an elegantly bulbous green Mahometan mosque and a stately but stern Scottish Church. There were no maroon monks about nor anything else that was overtly Boodhist save a few prayer flags here and there and an old sign to the Tibetan Medicine And Astrology Centre.
This was somewhat disappointing because the author had journeyed there under the impression that Kalimpong – about two hours drive through the hills and forests from Darjeeling – was, or is, a major Boodhist centre. It certainly has that reputation. Clearly, though, this applies to the caliber and renown of the near-by monasteries and not to the town itself. A former British hill station with its share of remaining British architecture, it is unfortunately somewhat over-run with Indian commerce. The streets are busy and congested, noisy and cluttered, much like any Indian town. Moreover, the author was there just in time to witness a large street demonstration of local rabble agitating for Kalimpong’s administrative independence from Darjeeling and West Bengal. Standard Indian stuff.
The other reason the author had reason to suppose that the town would offer a distinctly Boodhist ambience, was that it was formerly the home of the traditionalist writer on Boodhist matters, Mr. Marco Pallis. Mr. Pallis is the author of several excellent books, two of which the present author has read and very much valued, namely, Peaks & Lamas, and A Buddhist Spectrum. The former is a celebrated account of the Tibetan world that Mr. Pallis encountered in the mid-twentieth century. Rousing. Inspiring. It was one of the first authentic accounts of the Tibetan tradition written for European readers and remains one of the best.
The latter – which this author found more useful to his particular needs – is a perspicuous and highly lucid account of the great variety and types and sects and schools of Boodhism, from the Tibetan to the Pureland. As the title suggests, Mr. Pallis proposes that Boodhist religion – yes, it’s a religion! - constitutes an entire spectrum of positions, and he sets out to inform his readers of the great wealth and variety of the same. It is a book that the present writer recommends without hesitation. Indeed, it stands as one of the very best books on Boodhism in general, in his opinion. Readers will certainly learn more from reading Mr. Pallis than from any of the volumes of sentimental tripe to which His Holiness the Dalai Lama has seen fit to attach his name in recent years. Pallis is an excellent writer. His work does due honour to the beauty and wealth of the entire Boodhist tradition and to Lamaism in particular.
He lived in Kalimpong in the 1950s. At the time it was an enclave to which Tibetans were escaping from the overbearing moves of the communist Chinese in Lhasa and thereabouts. He there became familiar with members of the Dalai Lama’s family and other Tibetan dignitaries – he was a very well-connected man and possibly the foremost Tibetologist of his time. He was a mountain climber, too, and an accomplished musician, and a linguist, amongst other things. The Traditionalists (so-called) were not generally well-disposed to Boodhism at first, since the pneumatic leader of the Traditionalist ‘school’ Mr. Rene Guenon – a vedantist – once dismissed it as a “Hindoo heresy”. More than anyone else, Marco Pallis worked to challenge this one-sided miscalculation. One wonders what he would make of the decidedly non-traditional New Age direction in which the Fourteenth (and last?) Dalai Lama has taken Tibetan Boodhism of recent times? The present writer spent a pleasant and useful day enjoying the environs in which Mr. Pallis had lived and worked, even if the atmosphere was not nearly as Boodhist or as traditional as he had understood.
Yours,
Harper McAlpine Black
The present author was reminded of this bizarre distortion while sitting in a shared jeep on the road to Kalimpong recently, squeezed in against an overweight Tibetan monk in maroon robes on his way to the same destination. At every point that the jeep (an eight seater carrying fourteen people and two chickens travelling on precipitous roads with four bald tyres) went past any even slightly Boodhist landmark – a grave, a stupa, a flag, a monastery, a road to a monastery – the overweight monk raised his hands in a gesture of fervent prayer, closed his eyes and muttered solemn incantations in Tibetan. One wonders exactly what game the Dalai Lama is playing, but on such evidence Boodhism sure looks like a religion to this author!
Accordingly, this author was expecting Kalimpong to be a hotbed of the aforementioned religion, and the presence of the monk on the journey promised it to be so, but in fact, on arrival, the town hardly presented a Boodhist face. It so happens that the monasteries there are on hilltops well out of town, and in town itself there is little obvious evidence of the Boodhist presence. The author only had five or six hours to look around, but during that time he encountered two splendid Hindoo mandirs, an elegantly bulbous green Mahometan mosque and a stately but stern Scottish Church. There were no maroon monks about nor anything else that was overtly Boodhist save a few prayer flags here and there and an old sign to the Tibetan Medicine And Astrology Centre.
This was somewhat disappointing because the author had journeyed there under the impression that Kalimpong – about two hours drive through the hills and forests from Darjeeling – was, or is, a major Boodhist centre. It certainly has that reputation. Clearly, though, this applies to the caliber and renown of the near-by monasteries and not to the town itself. A former British hill station with its share of remaining British architecture, it is unfortunately somewhat over-run with Indian commerce. The streets are busy and congested, noisy and cluttered, much like any Indian town. Moreover, the author was there just in time to witness a large street demonstration of local rabble agitating for Kalimpong’s administrative independence from Darjeeling and West Bengal. Standard Indian stuff.
The other reason the author had reason to suppose that the town would offer a distinctly Boodhist ambience, was that it was formerly the home of the traditionalist writer on Boodhist matters, Mr. Marco Pallis. Mr. Pallis is the author of several excellent books, two of which the present author has read and very much valued, namely, Peaks & Lamas, and A Buddhist Spectrum. The former is a celebrated account of the Tibetan world that Mr. Pallis encountered in the mid-twentieth century. Rousing. Inspiring. It was one of the first authentic accounts of the Tibetan tradition written for European readers and remains one of the best.
The latter – which this author found more useful to his particular needs – is a perspicuous and highly lucid account of the great variety and types and sects and schools of Boodhism, from the Tibetan to the Pureland. As the title suggests, Mr. Pallis proposes that Boodhist religion – yes, it’s a religion! - constitutes an entire spectrum of positions, and he sets out to inform his readers of the great wealth and variety of the same. It is a book that the present writer recommends without hesitation. Indeed, it stands as one of the very best books on Boodhism in general, in his opinion. Readers will certainly learn more from reading Mr. Pallis than from any of the volumes of sentimental tripe to which His Holiness the Dalai Lama has seen fit to attach his name in recent years. Pallis is an excellent writer. His work does due honour to the beauty and wealth of the entire Boodhist tradition and to Lamaism in particular.
He lived in Kalimpong in the 1950s. At the time it was an enclave to which Tibetans were escaping from the overbearing moves of the communist Chinese in Lhasa and thereabouts. He there became familiar with members of the Dalai Lama’s family and other Tibetan dignitaries – he was a very well-connected man and possibly the foremost Tibetologist of his time. He was a mountain climber, too, and an accomplished musician, and a linguist, amongst other things. The Traditionalists (so-called) were not generally well-disposed to Boodhism at first, since the pneumatic leader of the Traditionalist ‘school’ Mr. Rene Guenon – a vedantist – once dismissed it as a “Hindoo heresy”. More than anyone else, Marco Pallis worked to challenge this one-sided miscalculation. One wonders what he would make of the decidedly non-traditional New Age direction in which the Fourteenth (and last?) Dalai Lama has taken Tibetan Boodhism of recent times? The present writer spent a pleasant and useful day enjoying the environs in which Mr. Pallis had lived and worked, even if the atmosphere was not nearly as Boodhist or as traditional as he had understood.
Yours,
Harper McAlpine Black
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