Her Holiness?

When I finally drag my cold feet outta here, which looks like it will be December 12, I will be on my way (a very long way, via Dharamsala, Delhi and Kathmandu) to see HH Dalai Lama in Mundgod, Karnataka at the famous Drepung Loseling Monastery. In the meantime, I keep up with the Lama Watch.

The photo below was taken (by me) at Annual Teachings last March in Dharamsala. Most of the old lamas (and some of the younger ones) seated on the platform near the Dalai Lama are also reincarnated lamas, or Tulkus. So when the Dalai Lama looks like he's greeting an old friend, he is possibly greeting a very, very old friend (like, through lifetimes).

Here's the latest:

News from Milan, Italy via Leh, Ladakh
MILAN: Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Thursday suggested that his successor could be a woman.

"If a woman reveals herself as more useful the lama could very well be reincarnated in this form," the 14th Dalai Lama told reporters in Milan, where he arrived for a private visit on Wednesday.

full story here.

But the visit was not without its political complications, as usual

...The Buddhist leader also said his 11-day visit to Italy was "not political" and that he did not intend to "cause problems for the state and the (Italian) authorities."

Beijing has complained to the Italian foreign ministry over the visit, which will take the 1989 Nobel peace prize laureate to Rome for four days from December 12, even though he will not meet with any members of the Italian government.

A planned meeting with Pope Benedict XVI was cancelled, in a decision that Italian media reports said facilitated the ordination on Tuesday of a new bishop in Guangdong, southern China, with the Vatican's approval.