Today is the 90th birthday of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama . To celebrate this I am republishing, without further editing, the 2014 photo essay about my close encounter with His Holiness at the Kalachakra Initiation in Ladakh, northern India. The Paradox of Our Age , a short but powerful essay credited to the present Dalai Lama, is widely available in Ladakh in northern India, a region known as 'Little Tibet'. The text ends with the observation that: 'These are times of fast foods but slow digestion/Tall men but short characters/Steep profits but shallow relationships/It’s a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room'. Tibetan Buddhism is widely viewed as an appealing alternative to materialistic Western society, so, not surprisingly, The Paradox of Our Age is widely circulated on the internet and Twitter - see photo tweet below . I bought The Paradox of Our Age on an exquisitely printed little scroll in the Tibetan refugee market in the re...
Comments
'Jerry probably meant (charitably) that Britten was a Brit...'
To really work for me the War Requiem needs to be a performamce event in a suitable venue. After all it was written to be performed in a cathedral. I often find conventional concert hall performances a bit sterile.
Colin Davis' 2004 Proms performance was very fine - appropriate venue for the forces, a wonderful conductor, and an electric atmosphere. But I have also heard fine performances outside London in venues such as Ely Cathedral using semi-professional forces.