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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
A ballet with Buddha
>> All around town
Le Nip, mastermind of the great Sutlej River flood of 2000 that killed thousands, and the Dharamsala rapist, whom Le Nip knew by the code name Devil Snake, traveled on the same flight from Taipei in business class. But the men who came to kill the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa sat apart and did not acknowledge one another. Once they cleared customs/immigration, they were met by different vehicles. Le Nip rode in Fon Du's black Mercedes, the Snake in Zip Lok's white Lexus.
Both were followed by the FBI.
FBI eyes followed them to the Kahala estate Fon Du shared with other employees of the Bank of Lhasa. That was their cover -- which was blown when Fon Du fell for Bodhicita Guzman and began saying more than he should. Fon Du drove there on the H-1, taking a side trip into Manoa and the East-West Center, where the lama would be meeting Hawaii's religious leaders.
Zip Lok meandered through Waikiki, pointing out the hotel where the lama was staying. Arriving at the estate, gates closed behind them and they got down to choreographing the death of the young man who posed such a threat to the Communist leaders of China.
Speaking of choreography. In Kaneohe, meanwhile, after Kamasami Khan and officer Quinn Ah Sun figured out how best to make the switch with the lama's stand-in so he could address those religious leaders, they -- along with Quinn's wife Lily, her maid/friend Rosalita Resurreccion and Bodhicita, the lama's eternal consort -- turned their attention to the lama's big brother, Joe Kharma.
"How exactly did it happen?" Khan demanded. Meaning, how did Rosalita's 9-year-old daughter Elizabeth go off to play with Joe's Disneyland virtual-reality scenario and become an enlightened Buddha.
"We're doing Disneyland, right, and all of a sudden she says 'I'm bored.' And this is right after the Matterhorn! So she takes off the goggles, points to the screen that shows Jey meditating. 'What's that one?' I tell her it's something we're working on called the accelerated path.
"So she says, 'Is it faster than the Matterhorn?' I tell her way faster.
"She says, 'OK, I want to try Lama Jey's game.'
"I say, oh, I don't know about that, it's not really a game. But she really wants to, so finally I say OK, I tried it, I felt kind of peaceful, but other than that nothing much happened."
"I disagree, Joe," the lama said. "You moved forward, and big steps."
Joe shrugged. "You say so ... "
"So what do we do now?" Lily said.
"I think we have to go now," the newest little Buddha said. "I have ballet this afternoon, remember?"
She would go on, of course, to blend ballet with traditional Tibetan tantric dance and create the renowned Buddha's Ballet company.
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com