Late for the Dali Lama

We were geared up for a mind-altering experience with the Dalai Lama, but officials gave us only partial access to the teachings because we were late for the opening session.

Thousands of devotees converge on McLeod Ganj, part of the township of Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama gives a limited number of free public lectures each year.
Those of us who did manage to file into the Main Temple were disappointed. We got as far as a leafy courtyard opposite a modest gated building, the Dalai Lama's residence.

An elderly bespectacled man with yellow and scarlet robes shuffled by, surrounded by minders. The Dalai Lama smiled at us before moving upstairs where he gave his lecture.

Too bad none of us spoke Tibetan. The radio frequency for English translation did not work.

So we sat there for an hour watching the Dalai Lama speak, sipping milky tea, smiling and laughing without understanding a word he was saying to an otherwise enraptured audience.