Drepung Loseling Temple

We went to the inauguration of the new Drepung loseling Temple in Mundgod today. Fortunately, Tamding's parents had some special guest badges , which allowed us to sit on chairs and in the shade of a large tarp. Given the heat of southern India, that was really nice. In many ways, it was similar to the opening of any new building. There were compliments and offering of thanks to the contsruction company. There were speeches by influential politicians. There were stories about why the building was needed and the history of its construction. But there were some differences.

Obviously, the speech by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was a little atypical for a building opening. He spent a lot of time talking about the need for those in the audience to make the temple worthwhile by seeking enlightenment. In all, it was pretty much what I would have expected from him. It was a very good speech.

What was really unexpected was the speech by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (not to be confused with the musician). Mr. Shankar is one of India's most influential Hindu yogis. I was somewhat, but not completely, surprised that a Hindu yogi would be blessing a new Buddhist temple. You wouldn't expect a rabbi to be blessing a new Catholic church, would you? But the Dalai Lama and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are good friends and both believe strongly in cooperation between the world's religions. I actually didn't know too much about Mr. Shankar him until this trip to India. But he seems like an impressive person, and his speech today was very good. I feel honored to have heard speeches by these two great men on the same day.

Right now, I'm back in Hubli and the real world of India. Mundgod is kind of an oasis of peacefulness in an otherwise crowded and chaotic country. But that shouldn't be surprising as the majority of residents of the refugee settlement are Buddhist monks. Peacefulness is very big among that crowd. So we are leaving on an overnight train to Mysore, near Bangalore. My stay in India is now drawing to a close, and Mysore will be the last tourist stop. After that, we go to Bangalore and then I fly back to Bangkok.