Lama

EASTERN TIBET, China - Over bowls of yak butter tea lighted by the glowing embers of an evening fire, Konchok Chap urgently asked a question: Where is the Dalai Lama? Smoke and ash swirled up through a tent flap into a night sky overwhelmed with stars. "Do you have any pictures of the Dalai Lama?" asked Chap, a herder of yaks. "Could you get one?" They are the questions that arise in the Chinese provinces along Tibet's eastern border, the area sometimes called Eastern Tibet, the territory that most of China's more than 5 million Tibetans consider home.

On his round-the-world motorcycle tour, Simon Milward has met the Dalai Lama, survived two civil wars and four accidents, and declined one marriage proposal. Yesterday, he fueled up on local fare, feasting on a Maryland crab cake. "I think you all are very lucky here," said Milward, who stopped in Annapolis last night as part of his global trip on a handmade motorcycle. "I love this place - all the boats and the water." Since he began his solo tour in January last year to raise funds for health organizations, the 36-year- old motorcyclist has driven 70,000 miles and visited 29 countries.

A MEMORABLE PLACE A great trek, leeches and all By Heidi Nevin SPECIAL TO THE SUN I have been living in Nepal and India learning Tibetan Buddhism for the last five years. This summer, my little sister, Liv, came to visit me in the Katmandu Valley. She is a beautiful, athletic, ambitious young woman from California; the transition from the stimulating pace of Berkeley to the utter calm of that Nepali village was not easy. She was ready for an adventure. Two days after Liv arrived, the royal family of Nepal was murdered in their palace, and the nation lay silent in a state of stunned despair.

"The Cup" is an extraordinary movie, for myriad reasons. It marks the directorial debut of Khyentse Norbu, a Tibetan Buddhist lama. It is the first film to be shot in Norbu's native Bhutan. It stars an ensemble of mostly amateur actors, many of them taken from the Chokling Monastery, a Tibetan refugee settlement in the Himalayan foothills. But given its spiritual and political pedigree, "The Cup" is even more extraordinary for being a simple tale, well told, about a group of monks who just want to watch the World Cup soccer finals.

One of Himalayan Buddhism's most important lamas has escaped Chinese-controlled Tibet in a weeklong undercover flight across Nepal and into India. The religious leader, the 14-year-old head of the Karmapa Buddhist order, stole away from the Tsurphu Monastery, north of Lhasa, Dec. 28, and arrived unannounced and unexpected Wednesday in Dharamshala, India, where the Dalai Lama welcomed him. "It is a joyful thing for all Tibetan Buddhists," said Robert A....

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia -- Storm clouds roll over the city and suddenly rip open to pour rain over this sprawling, dusty outpost. A crowd of Buddhists crane their necks heavenward and weep.It is more than relief from the blazing central Asian sky that prompts the tears. These people believe they are witnessing a miracle. Mongolians wipe the sweat off winning racehorses for good luck, and these believers rub and lather the rain into their hands and faces."A gift from the gods," someone says.

XIGAZE, Tibet -- Both boys are too young to shave or even to count their age beyond the fingers of two hands. Both live in the Chinese capital surrounded by police who supervise their every move. But only one is His Holiness the 11th Panchen Lama, the second most revered figure in Tibetan Buddhism, who by tradition reigns in this gritty but sacred city in the highlands of south-central Tibet. The officially approved 11th Panchen Lama is 9-year-old Erdeni Chosgyi Gyalpo, a descendant of nomadic Tibetan herders who has spent the past four years in Beijing studying classic Buddhist texts and scriptures.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- That wispy but stubborn ideal "world peace" attempted a comeback here on the cold asphalt outside a college football stadium.About 600 University of Virginia students camped out all night Sunday in the frigid fall air for a chance to snag the hottest ticket in town -- not for a rock concert or championship bowl game but for an academic conference featuring some of the world's most famous peacemakers."

WALTHAM, Mass. -- He talked about the environment, the Internet, Judaism, and Christianity, whatever the thousands who came to Brandeis University to see him Friday and yesterday wanted to talk about. But in the end, the Dalai Lama talked about the things he and his admirers are interested in most: Tibet, nonviolence, the power of peace.Students, refugees, senior scholars -- the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient won them all with his combination of personal humility and cosmic consciousness.

You can take the gangsters away from Martin Scorsese, but not for long.Take "Kundun," the director's new film, which chronicles the early life of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, who was identified at age 2 as the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion. A movie about the living embodiment of peace and understanding doesn't exactly lend itself to the kinds of characters Scorsese is known for -- the guys who populate "Mean Streets" and "GoodFellas" and "Casino."But within minutes of telephoning a reporter to discuss "Kundun," Scorsese is making an analogy only he could make.