Word: lamas
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...their way to the West from monasteries and homes of prosperous Tibetan families. The more than 700 items on display include religious sculptures, ritual objects, musical instruments and monastic utensils, as well as cloth scroll paintings, or thangkas, images of deities and saints. In the words of the Dalai Lama, who inaugurated the exhibition in May, to a Buddhist the sacred images are a "source of inspiration ... and enlightenment." Scroll paintings, for example, portray the Buddhist conception of the world and, to the initiated, reveal codified mysteries. Usually painted on cotton or silk brocade with colors made from mineral...
...Karmapa's escape?eight days by jeep, horse, helicopter, train and car?to Dharamsala and the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile was initially viewed as proof that a united fight for Tibetan independence endures. But then came the crackdown. China closed Tsurphu to visitors and arrested the devout. This February, the U.S. State Department reported that since the Karmapa's departure, "a large number of monks and nuns remain detained or imprisoned." The monastery is now open again. (The official Chinese explanation for shutting it: the peeling frescoes needed repair.) But the thousands of visitors who made...
...unlock the door from the inside. Senior monks, too, have returned to their retreats, spending days, months and years in dark solitude, sustained only by food slipped into their cold rooms. Unlike the Summer Palace in Lhasa, where you can visit the former private rooms of the Dalai Lama, tourists don't get to see the Karmapa's old bedroom. Tsurphu hasn't become a museum: it is still a working monastery. We have arrived during a brief break in afternoon prayers and are able to walk inside the dim, main meditation hall and, with the aid of a flashlight...
...some cases, it's the only spiritual sanctuary available. Waldman says Beliefnet receives more visitors from China than any other country save the U.S. "We're not exactly sure why that is," he says, "but we think it's because of our coverage of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama and Falun Gong...
...Dalai Lama takes help wherever he can get it, relying on Western financial and political support to keep alive the Tibetan cultural identity that the Chinese have sought over four decades to crush. The fact that he's being welcomed through the front door again may bring a wry edge to the Tibetan leader's trademark smile. After all, while his relationship with Hollywood has been consistent over the years, his relationship with Washington has always depended on the China policy of incumbent administration. Back in the 1960s, the CIA even paid him a salary - but that was before President...