I was pleased when Antonio Terrone called me a few weeks ago to ask me if I wanted to join him for an event at Northwestern University, where he is a professor of Tibetan Buddhism. Antonio asked if I wanted to sit down with him for a conversation about Tibet, China, human rights...and our friendship. I heartily agreed. The event is planned for February 6 (check on the event page for full details.
It was in fact over a decade ago when I met Antonio Terrone in a remote part of Eastern Tibet. We were both researching treasure revealers in Tibet. We made an immediate connection. I wrote this about Antonio in "In the Shadow of the Buddha" about a later pilgrimage:
"Antonio and I had met years before while we both were traveling near Serthar, and after a month of grueling travel from Golok to Lhasa—where on two occasions, we had to get out of our transport and hike a wide detour around the police check posts undetected, before returning to the main road to hitch another ride—we became close friends. His pensive personality checked my emotional flares. My gregarious manner brought him out of his sometimes somber moods. We both thrived on trekking to remote hermitages in the deep of winter, as much as we took pleasure in making coffee before dawn. And in the evening, wrapped in our sleeping bags with woolly hats pulled low, we would take out our pens to journal both the sadness of political injustices in Tibet and the joy of our pilgrimages. We each understood the other’s needs, and we relied on each other, which is essential as travel partners on the Tibetan Plateau."
It was in fact over a decade ago when I met Antonio Terrone in a remote part of Eastern Tibet. We were both researching treasure revealers in Tibet. We made an immediate connection. I wrote this about Antonio in "In the Shadow of the Buddha" about a later pilgrimage:
"Antonio and I had met years before while we both were traveling near Serthar, and after a month of grueling travel from Golok to Lhasa—where on two occasions, we had to get out of our transport and hike a wide detour around the police check posts undetected, before returning to the main road to hitch another ride—we became close friends. His pensive personality checked my emotional flares. My gregarious manner brought him out of his sometimes somber moods. We both thrived on trekking to remote hermitages in the deep of winter, as much as we took pleasure in making coffee before dawn. And in the evening, wrapped in our sleeping bags with woolly hats pulled low, we would take out our pens to journal both the sadness of political injustices in Tibet and the joy of our pilgrimages. We each understood the other’s needs, and we relied on each other, which is essential as travel partners on the Tibetan Plateau."