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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
Recreating
a reincarnation>> Liliha
After Bodhicita Guzman's call about Fon Du showing up in the crowd awaiting the lama at his boyhood home, Kamasami Khan called the lama's older brother Joe Kharma.
"How's it going?"
"Mom and Dad are showing him and the press where he grew up."
"And your parents?"
"He's their long-lost son. How'd they know the difference."
"Good. Listen, you have to get a message to the lama." Khan explained about the Bank of Lhasa's new investment fund in the lama's name. "If the media or anybody asks him about it, here's what he says." And then turning to the real second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa, "What's he say""
The 18-year-old lama took the phone. "This is the first I've heard of it. But we always appreciate peace and goodwill for Tibet from anyone associated with the Communist government."
"You expect me to remember all that? Sheesh. Wait, lemme write it down." He did. "OK, gotta go."
"You say his name used to be Frankie?" the TV pool reporter was asking.
"Yes, named for Frank Sinatra, my husband's favorite singer," the Hawaiian-born Mayadharma Kharma replied.
"Sinatra did it 'my way,' the American way," said the Tibetan-born Steve Kharma.
His mother proudly added that Frankie toilet trained at an early age, showing a Buddha's compassion for her.
"So how exactly did it happen, Mrs. Kharma," said Cruz MacKenzie, the pool reporter for print media, "when he told you he was reincarnated?"
"Right here, I was sitting at the sewing machine -- I still do sewing for a couple of designers -- and little Frankie was playing at my feet. Here, I saved it." She showed the media and the young lama a collection of bright plastic squares, stars, crosses and circles. "He was pounding them into the little pukas with this little toy hammer and, I'll never forget, he looked up and said, dead serious, 'Mama, Frank isn't my real name.'
"'Really?' I said. 'So what is your name, sweetie?'"
"And I said 'Doofus!'" Joe said, laughing again at that great big brother moment. "I was watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
"So I scolded Joe, then 'OK, Frankie, so what's your real name?' And he says 'Lama Jey Tsong Khapa.' My heart almost stopped, I sewed right through a zipper! 'How you know that?' 'In a dream. I just know.'
"And then he says 'Mama, you couldn't know my real name. Remember, when I left before, I said I wouldn't be reincarnated in the official way?'
"'So, um, you changed your mind, I guess?'
"And he says 'Uh-huh. Our people need me again.' "
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com