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Dalai Lama Appoints American To A Top Post
October 5, 2012
An American monk is now leading one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama appointed Nicholas Vreeland as the abbot of a southern Indian monastery to help bridge Buddhist tradition with the Western world. Vreeland talks with host Michel Martin about what it means to be an American holding such an important post.
Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now we want to take a look at a different faith, Tibetan Buddhism. And if you wanted to predict just who the Dalai Lama might select to lead one of the faith's most important monasteries, you probably wouldn't think about a boarding school educated, globe-trotting New York photographer whose grandmother was one of the most celebrated fashionistas of her time, but that's just who the Dalai Lama did select, saying his, quote, "special duty is to bridge Tibetan tradition and the Western world," unquote.
Nicholas Vreeland is the new abbot of the Rato Monastery in India and he joins us from there now. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
NICHOLAS VREELAND: Thank you. It's an honor to be here.
MARTIN: Now, in my introduction I made it sound as if you're some sort of fish out of water, but when I think about it, probably not. You were born in Switzerland, lived in Germany and Morocco and New York. Your father was a diplomat. Your mother was a poet, and fashionistas will certainly know that your late grandmother was the longtime editor of Vogue magazine.
So I wanted to ask if, in a way, all this was preparation for your life now.
VREELAND: Well, I don't know that it was preparation. I suppose that living in a lot of countries prepared me for living in a Tibetan refugee settlement where the monastery that I belong to was reestablished, but I've been here now - I've been a member of this monastery for over 27 years, and so it's sort of home.
Audio and transcript at link: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/05/162369117/dalai-lama-appoints-american-to-a-top-post?ft=1&f=1016
An American monk is now leading one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama appointed Nicholas Vreeland as the abbot of a southern Indian monastery to help bridge Buddhist tradition with the Western world. Vreeland talks with host Michel Martin about what it means to be an American holding such an important post.
Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now we want to take a look at a different faith, Tibetan Buddhism. And if you wanted to predict just who the Dalai Lama might select to lead one of the faith's most important monasteries, you probably wouldn't think about a boarding school educated, globe-trotting New York photographer whose grandmother was one of the most celebrated fashionistas of her time, but that's just who the Dalai Lama did select, saying his, quote, "special duty is to bridge Tibetan tradition and the Western world," unquote.
Nicholas Vreeland is the new abbot of the Rato Monastery in India and he joins us from there now. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
NICHOLAS VREELAND: Thank you. It's an honor to be here.
MARTIN: Now, in my introduction I made it sound as if you're some sort of fish out of water, but when I think about it, probably not. You were born in Switzerland, lived in Germany and Morocco and New York. Your father was a diplomat. Your mother was a poet, and fashionistas will certainly know that your late grandmother was the longtime editor of Vogue magazine.
So I wanted to ask if, in a way, all this was preparation for your life now.
VREELAND: Well, I don't know that it was preparation. I suppose that living in a lot of countries prepared me for living in a Tibetan refugee settlement where the monastery that I belong to was reestablished, but I've been here now - I've been a member of this monastery for over 27 years, and so it's sort of home.
Audio and transcript at link: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/05/162369117/dalai-lama-appoints-american-to-a-top-post?ft=1&f=1016