In Conversation With Pico Iyer Part-1
By kamla bhatt • May 10th, 2008Category: Books and Authors, Diaspora, Featured, India, People
Pico Iyer is a well-known author and essayist, whose new book about the 14th Dalai Lama The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama has received excellent reviews.
“In The Open Road, Pico Iyer transcends his celebrated excellence as a travel writer,” comments Peter Matthiessen, while the Economist writes that Pico has “an access and insight into the Dalai Lama that lifts his writing above the clichés that normally surround him.”
Pico has been in constant touch with the Dalai Lama for about 30 years. Pico first met the Dalai Lama through his father Prof. Raghavan N. Iyer, who taught at Oxford and University of California in Santa Barbara. In fact in 1960 Prof. Iyer sailed from England to India to meet with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, who had left China the previous year and moved to India.
In the midst of his hectic book tour schedule Pico graciously made time to do an hour-long interview where he spoke about his new book, writing process, travels and growing up in England and California and about life in Japan. Pico has been living in Japan for the past several years.
In Part-1 of the conversation Pico talks about his new book, his perceptions of Buddhism and Communism, and how this book is a homage to the memory of his father. Is there a happy ending to the Tibet question? Tune in to find out what Pico has to say.
Photo: Courtesy Knopf Publishing
Technorati Tags: Pico Iyer,Dalai Lama,The Open Road,The Gloabl Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama,Tibet,Dharamsala,Raghavan N. Iyer,Buddhism,Communism,China
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
I found this a very interesting interview with Pico Iyer and it has given me a new way to think about the situation between Tibet and China. It also gave me a little more insight into the Dalai Lama. I shall now be reading Mr. Iyer’s book. Kamla Bhatt has done a fine job asking pertinent questions that draw Mr. Iyer out.
Thank you Anusuya for your lovely comment. I was a bit nervous when I did the interview with Pico since he is so meticulous and methodical in his work.
You will love the book.
Thanks for listening and sharing your thoughts.
kamla
Hi Kamla, this is wonderful. Pico Iyer is one of my favourite writers. His Video Nights in Kathmandu is an all-time classic. But a few questions:
a) India has played host to the Dalai Lama for over 50 years now. Given India’s own political and economic situation in the decades gone by, this must not have been an easy thing to do for India. However, I find that this issue is generally ignored in all writings about the Dalai Lama. What does the Dalai Lama think about India and its people?
b) In addition, there are Tibetan colonies all over the country. The people growing up in India speak the local language and are increasingly becoming more Indian than Tibetan. Over time, the Tibetan Buddhist faith might also disappear replaced by the faith in Mammon. What does the Dalai Lama think of this?
c) The Dalai Lama is a political leader in as much as he’s a spiritual one. Therefore what role has the West played in keeping alive the idea of Tibet (as opposed to, what I think, is the purely romantic notion of a millions of people living in exile dreaming of Tibet sustained only by the spiritual leadership of the Dalai Lama)?
Will be interesting to get Pico’s views on the above.
Thanks
Sanjay
Hello Sanjay:
Really glad to know that you enjoyed listening to the interview, and yes, Pico is a wonderful travel writer.
About your questions…some of the answers can be found in Dalai Lama’s autobiography, Pico’s writings and other places. My sense is that it depends where you are looking for this information. I think quite a bit has been written on this topic. In fact Pico writes about how the Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa dressed as an ordinary soldier etc.
About Tibetans in India and Buddhism…Pico talks quite a bit about it in the interview. He talks about the notion of Tibet etc. As he stresses over and over again the Dalai Lama is very practical and a hyper realist, who says change is constant (Pico puts it far from elegantly than I am doing) and how things constantly change.
About your last question…I think once again Pico has answered that question quite eloquently in his writings and in the interview.
Thanks for asking those questions.
Kamla
Kamla, thanks.
But am not sure I heard about what India has done for the Dalai Lama in both the temporal and spiritual sense. The fact is that the Dalai Lama was given a home in India when it was itself under severe political and economic pressure but but I never hear this part of the story. It is one thing to talk of how the Dalai Lama escaped to India but another to understand what role India played in his escape, and what role did India play, if any, in the development / modification of any of his views, and what does he think of India in general for having hosted him inspite of many troubles of its own? Did India influence the Dalai Lama in any way at all? If so, in what way? If not, why? After all, India is the land of the Buddha and Gandhi and he’s spent 50 years in India!
Secondly, the role of the West in keeping alive the notion of Tibet via the Dalai Lama has not been addressed. While hat will happen to the Tibetans / Tibet/Tibetan Buddhist after this Dalai Lama has been talked of by Pico, the role of the West by way of funding, publicity, political pressure etc is something that needs perhaps deeper understanding.
[…] you missed Part-1 of the conversation with Pico you might want to listen Pico talk about his new book, the Dalai […]