From the Elephant's Back by Lawrence Durrell Read Free Book Online

was bought in 1974 by Buddhist adherents and was among the first of these new institutions. It was offered as a teaching centre to the Venerable Kalou Rinpotché, [5] a renamed master of higher insight. He named it Kagu-Ling and dedicated it to the central work of his life and creed. Plaige was to be a centre of repose, study, and meditation, and Kalou Rinpotché proposed to run it on exactly the same lines as the larger seminary over which he now presides in Darjeeling.
    The abbot, now over eighty, visits Plaige several times a year and is always on hand during the principal ceremonies. But the day-to-day running is confided to three of his most cherished and trusted lamas, among whom the expansive and jovial Lama Sherab rules, because of the excellent knowledge of French he has acquired after ten years in the country.
    As the establishment has gradually expanded over the years, a whole cluster of little chalets has grown up in the surrounding woods. The château offers its novices the means to practise the tough withdrawal period of initiation which lasts three years, three months, and three days.
    Accommodation at Plaige is limited to about thirty resident lamas and novices, but people often come and lodge in the village to spend a few days of study and meditation at the centre.
    A Tibetan lamasery encourages visitors even if they do not attend services; in Plaige many local people like to have picnics with their children in the grounds. In fact anybody can just arrive at the château and ask for instruction—there are courses dealing with every stage of Buddhist realisation, classes in yoga and meditation, and even simple language courses in Tibetan. But the religious services, also open to all, are the most important part.
    A similar Buddhist centre, called Kagyu Samyé Ling, presided over by the same teachers, exists in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. The two communities keep in close touch, despite the language difference, and British novices often do a stint at the French centre.
    On my first visit, Plaige, like other Buddhist centres, was suffering from lack of space. According to Lama Sherab the plan was to build a temple as a centre of assembly and welcome, a chapter house and a lecture hall.
    â€œPlaige is growing out of its limits,” he said. “The temple is the pet notion of our spiritual master, Kalou Rinpotché, who has been dreaming about it for some time.” And Lama Sherab added: “Whatever he dreams up there in Darjeeling tends to come true, either here or in Scotland.”
    More than a year later Lama Sherab appeared on my doorstep in Provence in the depths of winter. He had come to ask me if I would consider helping to raise funds for the temple. The basic structural work had been done but they had run out of funds to complete the project.
    I agreed and formed a small committee with my brother Gerald and two French writers. [6] Together we plotted a few fund-raising gambits, the most successful being our lotus wall inside the temple itself: each person who gave money was encouraged to plant a lotus leaf or flower which would bear the name of a loved one.
    Last autumn I returned to Plaige to see what progress had been made on the temple. The chosen design was the inspiration of the Abbot: an exact copy of the Temple of Samyé, the first Buddhist temple to be built in Tibet during the eighth century. All the heavy construction work on the building was complete, but the decoration and colour still had to be added. It stood there looking rather forlorn but so eloquent—like the skeleton of some prehistoric animal.
    My visit coincided with a three-day “coming-out” party for twenty new Western lamas, ten women and ten men; their initiation was complete and they were due to emerge the next day. The ceremonies were being attended by lamas from several countries, including the United States and the UK. Kalou Rinpotché was there for the occasion. Though at first he