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Victor Chan & the Dalai Lama
Karmic links brought Victor Chan to Dharamsala-according to the Dalai Lama. And those karmic links, in turn, have repeatedly brought the Dalai Lama to Vancouver.
The year was 1971. Needing a break from his studies in Canada and the U.S., Victor Chan bought a VW bus in Utrecht and planned to make his way overland to India. A few months into the trip he found himself spending nearly half a year in Afghanistan, then a haven for dropouts and would-be adventurers.
"I was abducted,"; he recalls, "together with two fellow travelers, Cheryl from New York and Rita from Munich, by three rifle-wielding Afghan men. Somehow we managed to escape and Cheryl and I decided to continue to India together. It turned out that she had a letter of introduction to the Dalai Lama.";
In March of 1972, Chan sat face-to-face with the exiled Tibetan leader for the first of many encounters. "Somehow, unexpectedly,"; said His Holiness, "something brought you here. Your being kidnapped in Afghanistan. There may be karmic links in many past lives.";
Since then Victor Chan has written an extraordinarily detailed, 1100-page guide to pilgrimages in Tibet; he has co-authored the Dalai Lama's Wisdom of Forgiveness; and he has thrice helped to arrange the Dalai Lama's itinerary for visits to Vancouver-in 2004, 2006 and 2009.
The first time Chan saw the Dalai Lama speak in Vancouver, Chan stood nearby as His Holiness spoke without notes in his idiosyncratic English: "Some of you come with certain expectations of the Dalai Lama. The Nobel laureate give some kind of exciting information or something special. Nothing! I have nothing to offer. Just some blah, blah, blah.";
Then he went on to reiterate a favourite theme: "We have to make every effort to promote human affection. Promote a warm heart; look at humanity as a whole. Today's reality: whole world almost like one body. One thing happens some distant place, the repercussions reach your own place. Destruction of your neighbour as enemy is essentially destruction of yourself.";
Born in Hong Kong in 1945, Victor Chan was a particle physicist before he decided to escape from graduate work at the University of Chicago and travel to Asia. In 1984, Chan made his first visit to Tibet, covering 42,000 kilometres on foot, by horse, by yak, by coracle, by truck and by bus. He returned in 1990 to walk the pilgrim trails, becoming the first person to reach Lhasa from Kathmandu by mountain bike. In 1994 he was touted as the only non-Tibetan to have made all three of the sacred Tibetan pilgrimages to Kailish, Tsari and Lapchi.
With Pitman Potter, director of the Institute of Asian Research at UBC, Chan was instrumental in helping to establish a Tibetan studies program at UBC and he co-founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education with His Holiness in 2005. Their Center instigated the Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates in Dialogue, September 26-29, 2009 featuring former Irish President Mary Robinson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as Vancouver-based spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle, educators, philanthropists and entertainers such as the Blue Man Group.
Archbishop Tutu once told Victor Chan: "Isn't it extraordinary, in a culture that worships success, that it isn't the aggressively successful, the abrasive, the macho, who are the ones that we admire. We might envy their bank balances, but we do not admire them. But we revere the Dalai Lama. He has this incredible sense of fun. He laughs easily; he is almost like a schoolboy. The Dalai Lama makes us feel good about being human. About being alive at a time when someone like him is around. He is about the only one, one of the very, very, very, very few, who can fill Central Park with adoring devotees.";
The Dalai Lama's mini-Woodstock event in New York's Central Park was arranged by actor Richard Gere. Only evangelists Billy Graham and the Pope have drawn more people in Central Park. Without any fanfare, Victor Chan has become the organizational equivalent of Gere in Vancouver. Most of the time he lives in relative obscurity on Bowen Island.
In 2004, the Dalai Lama's two public talks were sold out in advance within 30 minutes of the tickets going on sale. These talks were to be presented in a 4,000-seat building at UBC but the location was changed to the 12,000-seat Pacific Coliseum. Again, all 12,000 seats were sold quickly, for each event. TRAS president Dr. Marion Tipple presented her Tibet photographs at the Vancouver Public Library and TRAS was invited to mount a display at the Bank of Hong Kong's Pendulum Gallery.
Chan was once curious if the Dalai Lama ever wondered why he is such a people magnet. In one of their get-togethers, Chan said, "I'd like to ask you a silly question."; His Holiness was sitting cross-legged in lotus, as usual, in his corner armchair inside his residence in Dharamsala, India. "Why are you so popular? What makes you irresistible to so many people?";
He didn't brush Chan's question aside with a joke, as Chan thought he might. He was thoughtful as he replied. "I don't think myself having especially good qualities. Oh, maybe some small things. I have positive mind. Sometimes, of course, I get a little irritated. But in my heart, I never blame. I never think bad things against anyone. I also try to consider others more. I believe others more important than me. Maybe people like me for my good heart.";
He rubbed his cheeks with his fingers and continued, "Under this skin, same nature, same kinds of desires and emotions. I usually try to give happy feeling to the other person. Eventually many people talking something positive about me. Then more people came, just follow reputation-that also possible. But there may be other factors. Maybe some karmic link, something more mysterious.";
-- July, 2009
The year was 1971. Needing a break from his studies in Canada and the U.S., Victor Chan bought a VW bus in Utrecht and planned to make his way overland to India. A few months into the trip he found himself spending nearly half a year in Afghanistan, then a haven for dropouts and would-be adventurers.
"I was abducted,"; he recalls, "together with two fellow travelers, Cheryl from New York and Rita from Munich, by three rifle-wielding Afghan men. Somehow we managed to escape and Cheryl and I decided to continue to India together. It turned out that she had a letter of introduction to the Dalai Lama.";
In March of 1972, Chan sat face-to-face with the exiled Tibetan leader for the first of many encounters. "Somehow, unexpectedly,"; said His Holiness, "something brought you here. Your being kidnapped in Afghanistan. There may be karmic links in many past lives.";
Since then Victor Chan has written an extraordinarily detailed, 1100-page guide to pilgrimages in Tibet; he has co-authored the Dalai Lama's Wisdom of Forgiveness; and he has thrice helped to arrange the Dalai Lama's itinerary for visits to Vancouver-in 2004, 2006 and 2009.
The first time Chan saw the Dalai Lama speak in Vancouver, Chan stood nearby as His Holiness spoke without notes in his idiosyncratic English: "Some of you come with certain expectations of the Dalai Lama. The Nobel laureate give some kind of exciting information or something special. Nothing! I have nothing to offer. Just some blah, blah, blah.";
Then he went on to reiterate a favourite theme: "We have to make every effort to promote human affection. Promote a warm heart; look at humanity as a whole. Today's reality: whole world almost like one body. One thing happens some distant place, the repercussions reach your own place. Destruction of your neighbour as enemy is essentially destruction of yourself.";
Born in Hong Kong in 1945, Victor Chan was a particle physicist before he decided to escape from graduate work at the University of Chicago and travel to Asia. In 1984, Chan made his first visit to Tibet, covering 42,000 kilometres on foot, by horse, by yak, by coracle, by truck and by bus. He returned in 1990 to walk the pilgrim trails, becoming the first person to reach Lhasa from Kathmandu by mountain bike. In 1994 he was touted as the only non-Tibetan to have made all three of the sacred Tibetan pilgrimages to Kailish, Tsari and Lapchi.
With Pitman Potter, director of the Institute of Asian Research at UBC, Chan was instrumental in helping to establish a Tibetan studies program at UBC and he co-founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education with His Holiness in 2005. Their Center instigated the Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates in Dialogue, September 26-29, 2009 featuring former Irish President Mary Robinson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as Vancouver-based spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle, educators, philanthropists and entertainers such as the Blue Man Group.
Archbishop Tutu once told Victor Chan: "Isn't it extraordinary, in a culture that worships success, that it isn't the aggressively successful, the abrasive, the macho, who are the ones that we admire. We might envy their bank balances, but we do not admire them. But we revere the Dalai Lama. He has this incredible sense of fun. He laughs easily; he is almost like a schoolboy. The Dalai Lama makes us feel good about being human. About being alive at a time when someone like him is around. He is about the only one, one of the very, very, very, very few, who can fill Central Park with adoring devotees.";
The Dalai Lama's mini-Woodstock event in New York's Central Park was arranged by actor Richard Gere. Only evangelists Billy Graham and the Pope have drawn more people in Central Park. Without any fanfare, Victor Chan has become the organizational equivalent of Gere in Vancouver. Most of the time he lives in relative obscurity on Bowen Island.
In 2004, the Dalai Lama's two public talks were sold out in advance within 30 minutes of the tickets going on sale. These talks were to be presented in a 4,000-seat building at UBC but the location was changed to the 12,000-seat Pacific Coliseum. Again, all 12,000 seats were sold quickly, for each event. TRAS president Dr. Marion Tipple presented her Tibet photographs at the Vancouver Public Library and TRAS was invited to mount a display at the Bank of Hong Kong's Pendulum Gallery.
Chan was once curious if the Dalai Lama ever wondered why he is such a people magnet. In one of their get-togethers, Chan said, "I'd like to ask you a silly question."; His Holiness was sitting cross-legged in lotus, as usual, in his corner armchair inside his residence in Dharamsala, India. "Why are you so popular? What makes you irresistible to so many people?";
He didn't brush Chan's question aside with a joke, as Chan thought he might. He was thoughtful as he replied. "I don't think myself having especially good qualities. Oh, maybe some small things. I have positive mind. Sometimes, of course, I get a little irritated. But in my heart, I never blame. I never think bad things against anyone. I also try to consider others more. I believe others more important than me. Maybe people like me for my good heart.";
He rubbed his cheeks with his fingers and continued, "Under this skin, same nature, same kinds of desires and emotions. I usually try to give happy feeling to the other person. Eventually many people talking something positive about me. Then more people came, just follow reputation-that also possible. But there may be other factors. Maybe some karmic link, something more mysterious.";
-- July, 2009
Submitted on July 1, 2009 in By David.
