Posted by: "Eulynda Toledo-Benalli"
toledobenalli@yahoo.com
Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:46 pm (PDT)
Apr, 13, 2008
PEOPLE Lummi Nation, Dalai Lama share vision of peace Tribe presents Tibetan leader traditional hat, sash, necklace JOHN
STARK SEATTLE — The Dalai Lama donned a Lummi Nation cedar bark hat Sunday as he urged a small audience of Native Americans to safeguard their culture. A Lummi delegation presented him with the hat as well as a sash and necklace during a brief meeting that followed his main address to a gathering of about 50,000 people inside the stadium. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetans and head of that land’s government-in-exile. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The setting for his meeting with the native groups was a bit incongruous: the FSN Lounge inside Qwest Field, beneath larger-than-life portraits of Cortez Kennedy, Jim Zorn and other members of the Seattle Seahawks’ Ring of Honor. But the drums and chants of the Lummi, Tulalip and other tribes transformed a sports fan’s watering hole into a place of ceremony.
“There was a lot of good feeling in the room,” said Darrell Hillaire, a former Lummi chairman who serves on the organizing committee for the five-day Seeds of Compassion event that brought the Dalai Lama to Seattle. The gifts the Dalai Lama wore as he departed had been crafted at Lummi Nation’s Cultural Learning Center under the direction of Doralee Sanchez.
“I’m honored that he went out wearing what we’d made at our cultural center,” Sanchez said. “It kind of brought tears to my eyes to see him with the hat, the sash, the necklace.”
Sanchez said the youngsters who learn Lummi crafts at the center worked for weeks on the gifts for the Dalai Lama and his entourage. She said the Tibetan leader had expressed interest in learning how native Americans preserve their cultures after being displaced from their ancestral lands, as he himself has been displaced since his exile to India in 1959 after the Chinese government in Beijing tightened its grip on Tibet. “We wanted to show him how we do it through our youth,” Sanchez said. “I think he really did get an up-close look at who we are and what we do.” She added that the Dalai Lama’s message of compassion is a natural fit with traditional Lummi ways. “You have very little but you share what you have,” Sanchez said. “That’s how we were raised.” Other people from Whatcom County also went to Seattle for the event. “It’s been one of my lifelong dreams to get a blessing from the Dalai Lama,” said Bellingham resident Shelley Muzzy. “It was fabulous.”
Before the Dalai Lama spoke to the stadium throngs earlier in the day, the Lummis joined a colorful procession of cultures marching into the stadium on the first warm and sunny day of the year to greet the spiritual leader. Among the marchers were Cambodian, Indian, Vietnamese, Iranian and Chinese contingents.
James and Lutie Hillaire of Lummi were among the small delegation of dignitaries who joined the Dalai Lama on the rostrum, along with Gov. Chris Gregoire. James Hillaire, wearing a feathered headdress, also addressed the crowd, thanking the Duwamish tribe for allowing the gathering to take place on their ancestral lands.
“We are always honored when we receive guests from so far away, from different lands,” Hillaire said. He got enthusiastic applause when he added, “We have been taught that we are all brothers, we are all sisters. It doesn’t matter the color of our skin or our culture.” The Dalai Lama opened with words of humility. “Some people come to listen with great expectations,” he said. “That’s a mistake. … I am just one human being.” Consulting occasionally with an interpreter at his side, he sat in a red upholstered armchair to tell his audience that a more peaceful world must begin with them.
“Many of the problems are essentially man-made problems,” he said, adding, with a mischievous grin, “Women may be less troublemakers. Sometimes, in the home, in the family, women are the top troublemakers.” But at the global level, he said, men are causing most of the trouble. Later, as an obviously appreciative Gregoire clasped his hand, he mused that female leaders may help the world become more compassionate. “Women may have a greater, important role,” he said. “Females, I think, should take a more important role in this age.” Observing that the 20th century had been marked by bloodshed, he urged his audience to make the 21st century “the century of dialogue.”
“If you use force in order to solve one problem, it often creates unexpected side effects,” he said. “The concept of war is outdated.” While he agreed that world leaders need to consider nuclear disarmament, he also observed that laying down weapons is not enough. “We need inner disarmament,” he said, calling on his listeners to root out suspicion and fear from their hearts. By taking care of the needs of others, we make it more likely that others will meet our needs, he said. “Selfish should be wise-selfish rather than foolish-selfish,” he said.
After his address, he answered questions that organizers had selected from hundreds submitted in writing. One questioner wanted to know what compassionate people could do to get their leaders to move away from use of force. “The real answer for that question? I don’t know,” he replied. But he also said he saw small signs of hope, small signs of gradual change in the way world leaders address problems.
He suggested that world leaders and their families should get together for a week or two to get to know one another without discussing any weighty matters. Then, he said, when weighty matters must be discussed, they will be more likely to see one another as fellow human beings. “If each individual makes the effort, without losing hope, I think this century will be a better century, a happier century,” he said.
Reach John Stark at 715-2274 orjohn.stark@bellinghamherald.com.