June5

Through My Eyes

Saturday June 5

(We continue to listen to the Dalai Lama as he tells of his trip to Peking.)

" As well as spending time with Mao,I saw quite a lot of Chou En-lai and Lui Shao-ch'i as well. The latter was a man of few words and little laughter. In short, he was very tough. On one occasion I was present at a meeting between Liu and U Nu, the Prime Minister of Burma. Before it began, each person present was briefed on the subject they were to take care of. Mine was religion: if the Burmese leader wanted to talk about religion, I was to answer. This was unlikely and was, in fact, very far from what U Nu had in mind. Instead, he wanted to ask Liu about China's support for Communist insurgents in his country. But when he spoke, adding that the guerillas were creating trouble for his government, Liu simply looked away. He refused to be drawn and U Nu's question went unanswered. I was shocked, but consoled myself with the thought that at least Liu did not lie or attempt deceit. Chou En-lai would undoubtedly have said something clever at this point.

Chou was a very different sort of person and, where Liu was steady and rather grave, he was full of smiles and charm and swift intelligence. In fact he was over-polite, which is invariably a sign of someone not to be trusted. He was also very sharp-eyed. I remember that at one particular banquet I attended, he was escorting some foreign dignitary to the table when suddenly his guest tripped on a small stair. Chou had a dysfunctional arm but, as the man stumbled, his good one was already out waiting to catch him. He did not even stop chatting.

His tongue was very sharp too. After U Nu's visit to Peking, Chou addressed a meeting of over a thousand officials, during which he openly made derogatory remarks about the Burmese Prime Minister. I found this very strange as publicly he had always been exceedingly polite and courteous to the man

Whilst in Peking I was asked to give teachings to some Chinese Buddhists. My translator on this occasion was a Chinese monk who, I was told, had studied in Tibet and received teachings from a Tibetan lama. ( In former times, many Chinese monks had been to study in Tibet, particularly in the field of dialectics.) I was highly impressed by him; he struck me as being a very devoted and sincere practitioner of his faith.

Some of the Communists I met were also extremely nice people, totally selfless in their service to others and, personally, very helpful to me. I learned a great deal from them. One such was a high official at the Office of Minorities, called Liu Ka-Ping, who was appointed to give me lessons on Marxism and the Chinese Revolution. He was, in fact, a Muslim and I used to tease him by asking him whether he ever ate pork. He also had one finger missing. We became very good friends. His wife, who was so much younger than him that she could have been his daughter, became equally good friends with my mother and elder sister. When I came to leave China, he cried like a child.

I remained in Peking until after the October celebrations. That year marked the fifth anniversary of the founding of the People's republic and a number of foreign dignitaries were expected in the capital at that time. Amongst these were Krushchev and Bulganin, both of whom I was introduced to. Neither man made much of an impression on me, certainly nothing compared with Pandit Nehru, who also visited Peking whilst I was there. He was guest of honour at a banquet presided over by Chou En-lai and, as usual, all the other guests filed past him to be introduced. From a distance he seemed very affable and had no trouble finding a few words for everyone as they came to him. However, when it was my turn and I stood shaking him by the hand, he seemed to get stuck. His eyes remained fixed in front of him and he was completely speechless. I felt rather embarrassed at this and broke the ice by saying how pleased I was to meet him and that I had heard a great deal about him, despite the fact of Tibet being such a remote country. At last he spoke, but only in the most perfunctory manner.

I was very disappointed as I had particularly wanted to be able to speak with him and ask him about his country's attitude to Tibet. It was altogether a very odd meeting.

Later on I did get to talk to the Indian Ambassador, at his request,but this was almost as much of a failure as my meeting with Nehru. Although I had with me an official who spoke excellent English, the Chinese insisted that I take along with me one of their interpreters instead. This meant that what the Indian Ambassador said in English had to be laboriously translated into Chinese and then into Tibetan. It was a very uncomfortable session. There were certain things that I had wanted to discuss that no longer could be brought up on account of the Chinese presence. Much of the best part of the afternoon came when a servant started to pour tea for us all and knocked over a large bowl of exotic fruits that must have been procured at great expense. At the sight of all these apricots, peaches, and plums rolling about on the floor, my very grave Chinese interpreter and his assistant (no official ever went alone) got down on their hands and knees and started crawling about on the carpet to pick them up. It was all I could do to help myself from laughing."

( The Dalai Lama was to meet with a similar reaction to Prime Minister Nehru's from other heads of state throughout the world. I promise to add more tomorrow...)

*( please click here to read of the day with me )

* This is from the book Freedom in Exile The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth

Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Through my eyes

( Please see my spinning for you!)

( Tahshi Deleh gentle one! Kehrahng kusu debo yinpeh? I headed up to the Grove in the morning to spray for awhile then headed back to our studio to spin for you, work on the shed roll for your loom and work a bit on the pages. You'll notice the usual changes. After that I headed back up to the Grove to spray a bit more. It began to rain so I continued working but scything instead. Working two as one we've gotten a lot done! I've noticed we have an prayer entry on our prayer flag bulletin board. Two as one we'll continue to check this. When you put a prayer on the board I'll combine it with the one I put up there for our prayer flag already. It will be just as when we fix things on the pages slight gentle determined bright one! I've put up the forums for us to look over together. I wanted to put them up earlier but two as one we've been working on lots of things! I'm going to put the pages up on our infosite; I'll put this up so we can rest.

And so, as always we'll continue two as one on to tomorrow

my one gentle beautiful patient swift dream bright

long dark mane in sunlight

so for now I bid goodnight...Simjah Nahngo!)


	Through My Eyes Saturday June 5 (We continue to listen to the Dalai Lama as he tells of his trip to Peking.) " As well as spending time with Mao,I saw quite a lot of Chou En-lai and Lui Shao-ch'i as well. The latter was a man of few words and little laughter. In short, he was very tough. On one occasion I was present at a meeting between Liu and U Nu, the Prime Minister of Burma. Before it began, each person present was briefed on the subject they were to take care of. Mine was religion: if the Burmese leader wanted to talk about religion, I was to answer. This was unlikely and was, in fact, very far from what U Nu had in mind. Instead, he wanted to ask Liu about China's support for Communist insurgents in his country. But when he spoke, adding that the guerillas were creating trouble for his government, Liu simply looked away. He refused to be drawn and U Nu's question went unanswered. I was shocked, but consoled myself with the thought that at least Liu did not lie or attempt deceit. Chou En-lai would undoubtedly have said something clever at this point. Chou was a very different sort of person and, where Liu was steady and rather grave, he was full of smiles and charm and swift intelligence. In fact he was over-polite, which is invariably a sign of someone not to be trusted. He was also very sharp-eyed. I remember that at one particular banquet I attended, he was escorting some foreign dignitary to the table when suddenly his guest tripped on a small stair. Chou had a dysfunctional arm but, as the man stumbled, his good one was already out waiting to catch him. He did not even stop chatting. His tongue was very sharp too. After U Nu's visit to Peking, Chou addressed a meeting of over a thousand officials, during which he openly made derogatory remarks about the Burmese Prime Minister. I found this very strange as publicly he had always been exceedingly polite and courteous to the man Whilst in Peking I was asked to give teachings to some Chinese Buddhists. My translator on this occasion was a Chinese monk who, I was told, had studied in Tibet and received teachings from a Tibetan lama. ( In former times, many Chinese monks had been to study in Tibet, particularly in the field of dialectics.) I was highly impressed by him; he struck me as being a very devoted and sincere practitioner of his faith. Some of the Communists I met were also extremely nice people, totally selfless in their service to others and, personally, very helpful to me. I learned a great deal from them. One such was a high official at the Office of Minorities, called Liu Ka-Ping, who was appointed to give me lessons on Marxism and the Chinese Revolution. He was, in fact, a Muslim and I used to tease him by asking him whether he ever ate pork. He also had one finger missing. We became very good friends. His wife, who was so much younger than him that she could have been his daughter, became equally good friends with my mother and elder sister. When I came to leave China, he cried like a child. I remained in Peking until after the October celebrations. That year marked the fifth anniversary of the founding of the People's republic and a number of foreign dignitaries were expected in the capital at that time. Amongst these were Krushchev and Bulganin, both of whom I was introduced to. Neither man made much of an impression on me, certainly nothing compared with Pandit Nehru, who also visited Peking whilst I was there. He was guest of honour at a banquet presided over by Chou En-lai and, as usual, all the other guests filed past him to be introduced. From a distance he seemed very affable and had no trouble finding a few words for everyone as they came to him. However, when it was my turn and I stood shaking him by the hand, he seemed to get stuck. His eyes remained fixed in front of him and he was completely speechless. I felt rather embarrassed at this and broke the ice by saying how pleased I was to meet him and that I had heard a great deal about him, despite the fact of Tibet being such a remote country. At last he spoke, but only in the most perfunctory manner. I was very disappointed as I had particularly wanted to be able to speak with him and ask him about his country's attitude to Tibet. It was altogether a very odd meeting. Later on I did get to talk to the Indian Ambassador, at his request,but this was almost as much of a failure as my meeting with Nehru. Although I had with me an official who spoke excellent English, the Chinese insisted that I take along with me one of their interpreters instead. This meant that what the Indian Ambassador said in English had to be laboriously translated into Chinese and then into Tibetan. It was a very uncomfortable session. There were certain things that I had wanted to discuss that no longer could be brought up on account of the Chinese presence. Much of the best part of the afternoon came when a servant started to pour tea for us all and knocked over a large bowl of exotic fruits that must have been procured at great expense. At the sight of all these apricots, peaches, and plums rolling about on the floor, my very grave Chinese interpreter and his assistant (no official ever went alone) got down on their hands and knees and started crawling about on the carpet to pick them up. It was all I could do to help myself from laughing." ( The Dalai Lama was to meet with a similar reaction to Prime Minister Nehru's from other heads of state throughout the world. I promise to add more tomorrow...) ( please click here to read of the day with me ) This is from the book Freedom in Exile The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. Through my eyes ( Please see my spinning for you!) ( Tahshi Deleh gentle one! Kehrahng kusu debo yinpeh? I headed up to the Grove in the morning to spray for awhile then headed back to our studio to spin for you, work on the shed roll for your loom and work a bit on the pages. You'll notice the usual changes. After that I headed back up to the Grove to spray a bit more. It began to rain so I continued working but scything instead. Working two as one we've gotten a lot done! I've noticed we have an prayer entry on our prayer flag bulletin board. Two as one we'll continue to check this. When you put a prayer on the board I'll combine it with the one I put up there for our prayer flag already. It will be just as when we fix things on the pages slight gentle determined bright one! I've put up the forums for us to look over together. I wanted to put them up earlier but two as one we've been working on lots of things! I'm going to put the pages up on our infosite; I'll put this up so we can rest. And so, as always we'll continue two as one on to tomorrow my one gentle beautiful patient swift dream bright long dark mane in sunlight so for now I bid goodnight...Simjah Nahngo!)