Ch ance meeting
A Freeno State professor recalls his long-ago visit with the Dalai Lama.
By Doug Hoagland / The Fresno Bee
05/02/08 16:59:26
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Retiring professor Dickran Kouymjian met the Dalai Lama almost
50 years ago, when both men were in their 20s.

Fresno State professor Dickran Kouymjian met with the exiled Dalai
Lama of Tibet long before the famous spiritual leader rocketed into
the news on the shouts of protestors worldwide.

Thousands of angry people, including many in San Francisco last month,
have railed against China’s crackdown in Tibet.

These events stirred memories for Kouymjian, whose trek across the
Middle East in green Bermuda shorts brought him face to face with the
Dalai Lama nearly 50 years ago. The young Armenian-American carried in
his rucksack a blue-and-white seersucker suit that he would wear
during their brief meeting in 1959 in India. The Dalai Lama, a
Buddhist monk who is both the exiled political and spiritual leader of
Tibet, wore burgundy robes.

Both men were in their 20s. "It was an adventure, and yes, yes, yes, I
wanted it," Kouymjian said of his trip. "I wanted to see things. I
wanted to be in the action."

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet a few months before Kouymjian met him,
had taken up exile in India, where he lives today. He had yet to
become a figure who regularly confers with popes and presidents and a
Nobel Peace Prize winner.

But even in 1959, the Dalai Lama emanated a peace and tranquillity
that today is associated with his public persona, Kouymjian said. "I
thought to myself, ‘This is what they mean when they say
idealist. This man is either a true spiritualist or terribly nalai
Lama’s Web site. Tibetans believe the Dalai Lamas are "enlightened
beings" who choose reincarnation to serve humanity, according to the
Web site. Dalai means "ocean" in Mongolian, and lama in Tibetan often
is translated as "spiritual teacher." The title means a teacher who is
as spiritually deep as an ocean.

After China’s invasion of Tibet in 1949, the current Dalai Lama
assumed political power and negotiated with Chinese leaders, but fled
to India in 1959 when China put down a Tibetan uprising, the Web site
says.

Chinese authorities blame the Dalai Lama for recent protests in
Tibet. He says a "cultural genocide" is occurring in his homeland.

The Dalai Lama’s nonviolent philosophy is at odds with some youthful
followers, Kouymjian said. "He’s trying to control all these young
Tibetans who expect him to be as militant as they are. They’re not
talking about peace and Buddhist messages of love and
brotherhood. They want action."

Protests in San Francisco — and London and Paris, before that, which
were tied to the upcoming Olympics in China — have helped focus world
attention on the plight of the Tibetans, Kouymjian said: "It is
important for Western leaders to know people are concerned about
this."

Kouymjian, who grew up in the Midwest, was working as a freelance
journalist when he met the Dalai Lama. After graduating from college,
he had gone to Europe in 1958 to report on the World’s Fair in
Belgium. Next stop: Lebanon, where he worked on a master’s degree. He
later earned a doctorate. While living in Lebanon, he and his friend
Andre Dirlik, now a retired professor from Canada’s Royal Military
College, made an overland trip to India.

The two men hitchhiked and rode buses and trains from Lebanon across
Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India. Officials in the Indian
capital of Delhi didn’t give Kouymjian much hope of meeting with the
Dalai Lama, but he persisted.

Kouymjian said he called the Dalai Lama’s representative and was
granted an appointment after saying he had a friend who knew the Dalai
Lama’s childhood tutor — an Austrian.

The Dalai Lama told Kouymjian that despite China’s occupation of
Tibet, he could not hate the Chinese because he needed to love his
fellow man: "The long and short of it, he was trying to give me a
moral lesson about love."

Kouymjian’s traveling companion remembers the meeting with the Dalai
Lama less significantly, calling it a lark.

"You just try your luck, and it worked," Dirlik said. The Dalai Lama
was courteous but not terribly charismatic, and the conversation
wasn’t profound, Dirlik said from his Montreal home. The meeting
lasted about an hour. Dirlik said he took a photo of Kouymjian and the
Dalai Lama.

Kouymjian, 73, found a copy of that photo as he recently packed up his
office. Thirty-two years after starting the Armenian Studies Program
at California State University, Fresno, Kouymjian is retiring and
returning to Paris, where he has lived part time since the mid-1970s.

He savors his memory of the Dalai Lama.

"I thought it was a great privilege to see him," Kouymjian said, "and
he let us believe he had passed a very pleasant hour with us."

Behind Kouymjian is a sample of the documents, books, and
artwork the Armenian studies department has acquired.

Kouymjian’s traveling companion took a photo of Kouymjian and
the Dalai Lama during the 1959 meeting that took place in
India.

The reporter can be reached at dhoagland@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6354.