Monk makes young friends
Tibetan religious leader visits city on global peace trip
He has completed advanced studies in the Bon tradition, the ancient branch of Tibetan religion that he now leads.
Yet as he sat in a community garden in East Liberty Thursday morning, wearing the maroon and blue vestments of a monk, the Menri Trizin cheerfully fielded the simplest of questions from the young children circled in front of him.
What language is he speaking? “Tibetan,” he said through an interpreter.
Where is he from? Originally Tibet, “where the big mountains are.”
And this, from a child who needed an adult’s help in formulating the question for a spiritual teacher who has come halfway around the world to be here: “Why are you traveling around to go tell people things?”
The Menri Trizin replied with a chuckle, and his translator said: “His Holiness says that all are his friends, and that he wants to visit all his friends with the thinking that we all stay compassionate, we all stay in friendship, we all stay
connected, so that we can work and make things good.”
The Menri Trizin is in Pittsburgh for a week, part of his first global tour since he was elected in 2018 to be the 34th to hold the office. He is being hosted by the Olmo Long Tibetan Bon Center and Institute in Greenfield. He has also visited other cities in the United States, South America and Europe.
The Menri Trizin leads an ancient tradition that predated other Tibetan Buddhist traditions and has in many ways interwoven with them. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, has officially recognized the validity of the Bon tradition and leadership.
The Menrin Trizin visited the Borland Garden in East Liberty to talk with participants in Art in the Garden, a summer program for children who learn to tend the garden and develop skills in ceramics and other arts. He began by telling the children a simple story about three snakes visiting a home, with the ultimate moral that if one chooses friendship ahead of wealth and power, then those blessings will also follow.
During the visit, the children gave him a tour through the paths in the garden amid sprawling squash vines, towering sunflowers and fragrant tomato plants.
The children enjoyed the visit, said Dahlia Rao, program manager for Art in the Garden.
“You could feel it in the air, all the kids were very excited,” she said. She was especially moved by how, when one boy asked why the Menri Trizin didn’t speak English, the latter asked the boy if he would teach him so he’d be better prepared for the next visit.
Ticketed events during his visit are raising funds to benefit refugees, nuns and children at the Menri Monastery, India, where the Menri Trizin is now based and which is the main seat of the Bon tradition. He was recognized as the 34th in the lineage of Bon leaders in a prayer ceremony in 2018. His predecessor, who had also visited Pittsburgh during his tenure, died in 2017.
Some events during the visit are already filled. For registration and other information, go to olmoling. org.
Among the events on his itinerary are a public talk Friday at 7 p. m. at First Unitarian Church in Shadyside and teachings on Saturday from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. at Olmo Ling Center, 1101 Greenfield Ave.