Identify Two of the Reputations of the Dalai Lama Revealed in This Newspaper Extract and Discuss Them in Relation to Book 1, Chapter 7.
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Part 1 The Dalai Lama: Identify two of the reputations of the Dalai Lama revealed in this newspaper extract and discuss them in relation to Book 1, Chapter 7.
The Dalai Lama has many representations of himself, however the two major representations are that of the West, where we look more at himself and their culture, as opposed to that of the East where they look at the spirituality behind Buddhism due to the fact that as a whole Buddhism is an accepted religion among many of Eastern countries.
In the Western World, we as a whole have created a pop culture around Buddhism, The Buddha and their teachings. For example in the Newspaper article the author states; “Foreigners, including Americans, Europeans… round out the crowd of thousands, a reminder of how the Dalai Lama… has become a household name” (Kazmin, 2013). This shows that we as outsiders flock out to see the Dalai Lama and his religion due to how much we know of him, we see it as a destination to sightsee as opposed to travelling there on a pilgrimage in order to help take you religion, further in the process. Along with the fact that we see this place of worship and divinity as a travel destination, we have also adapted the use of the Buddha’s image into a material object where we have statues of the Buddha used as furnishings at “home, restaurant and garden” (Waterhouse, 2008) this goes to show that to us in the Western World, we don’t see him in the same light as the East, we see him as a good luck charm to use in our everyday lives.
However in contrary to how we in the West view Buddhism, out in the East, it is seen in a different light, he and his settlement Dharmsala, is where people flock too in order to learn more and is known as a safe place for those in certain areas of the world as the article states that the author upon arriving was “among Tibetan Refuges” and “the devoted” (Kazmin, 2013) showing that the Dalai Lama is a true figurehead for the followers of the religion and that he is...
The Dalai Lama has many representations of himself, however the two major representations are that of the West, where we look more at himself and their culture, as opposed to that of the East where they look at the spirituality behind Buddhism due to the fact that as a whole Buddhism is an accepted religion among many of Eastern countries.
In the Western World, we as a whole have created a pop culture around Buddhism, The Buddha and their teachings. For example in the Newspaper article the author states; “Foreigners, including Americans, Europeans… round out the crowd of thousands, a reminder of how the Dalai Lama… has become a household name” (Kazmin, 2013). This shows that we as outsiders flock out to see the Dalai Lama and his religion due to how much we know of him, we see it as a destination to sightsee as opposed to travelling there on a pilgrimage in order to help take you religion, further in the process. Along with the fact that we see this place of worship and divinity as a travel destination, we have also adapted the use of the Buddha’s image into a material object where we have statues of the Buddha used as furnishings at “home, restaurant and garden” (Waterhouse, 2008) this goes to show that to us in the Western World, we don’t see him in the same light as the East, we see him as a good luck charm to use in our everyday lives.
However in contrary to how we in the West view Buddhism, out in the East, it is seen in a different light, he and his settlement Dharmsala, is where people flock too in order to learn more and is known as a safe place for those in certain areas of the world as the article states that the author upon arriving was “among Tibetan Refuges” and “the devoted” (Kazmin, 2013) showing that the Dalai Lama is a true figurehead for the followers of the religion and that he is...