Dalai Lama Style

You can just feel the excitement in the air with the Dalai Lama's visit to Atlanta. Through an initiative with Emory University, His Holiness spent three days in the city. After a one day conference on Saturday and an interfaith summit on Sunday, the Dalai Lama culminated his visit with a free public talk at Centennial Olympic Park today.

Check out Decatur Metro for a summary of the local press coverage.

Photo: Emory Wheel

Unable to attend the talk at Centennial Park, I decided to do the next best thing: honor the Dalai Lama with style. As the popularity of Tibetan Buddhism has grown in the U.S. so has the number of Tibetan import stores, which means Americans basically have unlimited access to Tibetan incense and Buddhist prayer flags. I admit that when I was in high school I jumped on the Buddhism-lite, spirituality fad and came away with a small collection of Dalai Lama books and prayer beads:


Although my interest in Buddhism has waned since then (mostly due to laziness), I still respect the Dalai Lama's openness to other cultures, religions and scientific thought. So in honor of his visit I wore my scarf that I purchased a few months ago at a Tibetan shop in Asheville. It was actually made in Nepal, but I figure it's close enough. I mean, if Tibet is the "roof of the world," then surely Nepal is the attic - or an eave of the world...

Another sign of my materialistic semi-devotion to all things Tibetan, are the mini prayer flags hanging in my loft.

So here's to you, Tenzin Gyatso (His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama)!