Summer

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September 2, 2010 | WHISTLER’S WEEKLY NEWSMAGAZINE | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

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12 CONTRADICTING OPINIONS Whislter under “no

obligation” to rezone property to legalize asphalt plant.

54 WORLD VIEW Seventeen-year-old Tibetan Buddhist lama visits

Sea to Sky Retreat Centre.

78 TOUGH IRONMAN Cool, wet weather slowed some

competitors at annual Penticton race.

88 EXPLORING THE ELEMENTS Photographer Paul Bride

opens a new show at his Squamish gallery.

94 SO-CAL SOUND The Dirty Heads, one of the best new bands of

2010, take the main stage at LIVE At Squamish.

Summer of FunnyThe best of the not unfunny. Nothing is more subjective than humour... - By Various readers

and writers

COVER: People have told me I’m funny, some of them even laugh. Frankly all I do is take what other

people have said, written or performed, repeat it and make it my own. Kind of like on that tv show,

Canadian Idol. - Jon Parrots

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THISWeek IN PIQUE

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54 | September 2, 2010 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com

54 DispatchesO

UT

OF

RA

NG

E

LESSONS ON ZEN The

Yangsi (left) with his mentor

Rabjam Rinpoche at the

main house of the Sea to Sky

Retreat Centre.

PHOTO BY KEVIN MCCLANE

Roughly 80 people stood waiting

on the hillside just above Daisy

Lake on Monday, Aug. 23, some

time after noon. They lined either side of

the road leading up to Sea to Sky Retreat

Centre, each holding a kata, a traditional,

long white silk scarf. Some spoke to those

nearest them in line; some stood quietly.

Many wore their best clothes — blue

blazers, dresses — because they were

awaiting the arrival of Ugyen Tenzin Jigme

Lhundrup, or the Yangsi. An incarnate of

one of the highest lamas in the Tibetan

Buddhist tradition, he is 17 years old and

making his fi rst tour of the Western world.

The tour has taken him through Europe

and America and will continue on to

Mexico and Asia, but for the moment he

was just south of Whistler, making a day

trip to Sea to Sky Retreat Centre.

It might have seemed an out-of-the-

way place to visit. Sea to Sky comprises

12 structures — a main lodge, a pavilion,

a variety of retreat accommodations —

and functions entirely off-the-grid, with

a staff of fi ve. While it is a comfortable,

pleasing modern environment, it does

not outwardly appear to be the sort of

place that a traveler would include on a

12-country, 10-month world tour.

On the retreat centre’s rocky road,

drawn in fi eld chalk, were the auspicious

symbols — a conch, a parasol, a lotus,

and the fi ve others of the traditional set

of eight. The centre’s cook, Blaire, had

drawn each the day before. A beautiful

20-something with long blond hair and

clear blue eyes, she has a modest demeanor.

Asked if she was an artist, she said, “I’m a

housekeeper.” She’s one of just a few

live-in staff members at the retreat centre,

which operates under the directorship of

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, a high lama

in the Rime, or non-sectarian, Tibetan

Buddhist tradition.

“How long did it take you to do this?” I

asked Blaire, pointing to the symbols; they

were about eight feet in circumference and

drawn with precision.

“About an hour each symbol.”

“Had you ever done it before?”

“No, but we had a book with the

outlines. I think they’re the kind of

drawing where you can get it wrong and it

still looks good.” I searched her drawings

for imperfections and shook my head. She

said, “I had done fi ve of them on Saturday,

but then it rained and washed them away,

so I had to do them again.”

It was close to 2 p.m. when a small

fl oatplane landed on Daisy Lake. The

guests, having stood on the roadside for a

little under an hour, had sort of begun to

think the Yangsi might never arrive, and

so when he appeared at the bottom of

the road, many of them didn’t notice and

continued to speak to each other. It was

only when the Yangsi’s mentor, Rabjam

Rinpoche, came chugging up the hillside,

mock-winded, that everyone turned.

Rabjam Rinpoche, a tall and handsome

lama just turned 40, the abbot of Shechen

monastery in Nepal, pretended to be out

of breath. He made sort of a comic portrait

of exhaustion, panting something like a

TinTin character, and said to the Yangsi,

“You’re young!” Together, the two began

to make their way up the road, followed by

their small party, which included author

and photographer Matthieu Ricard and

Buddhist scholar Changling Rinpoche.

They were led to the main house,

to a large-windowed, spacious living

room overlooking the lake, furnished

invitingly with broad couches, well-tended

houseplants, cut lilies and bookshelves

lined with books on philosophy, history,

photography, and Buddhism. In the

kitchen, divided from the main room by

screens, several people prepared trays of

quinoa and sautéed vegetables for the

guests. After the trays were served the

retreat centre’s manager, Michiko, and her

husband Ron, took seats and conversed

with their honoured guests.

They talked about the local wildlife;

they talked about nutrition. Rabjam

Rinpoche told a story of a Buddhist

painting being torn off a wall by a bear.

The painting, marked by handprints of the

Yangsi’s predecessor, was also marked by

the bear, who pressed its paws below the

master’s.

“Whose prints were bigger?” Ron asked.

A world view at Daisy LakeAN INCARNATE OF ONE OF THE HIGHEST LAMAS IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM VISITS THE SEA TO SKY RETREAT CENTRE

by Amie Barrodale

59 ALTA STATES Writing down the future of Whistler

60 THE SOURCE Community Listings

67 PIQUE’N’YER INTEREST Letting go of the tech addiction

TH

IS

SE

CT

IO

N

__________________________________________________________SEE NEXT PAGE >

“Supposedly I was recognized as

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, but I

don’t possess any of his qualities.”

–UGYEN TENZIN JIGME LHUNDRUP

www.piquenewsmagazine.com | September 2, 2010 | 55

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BROOMFIELD, Colo. – Vail Resorts

this winter will introduce a new

technology called EpicMix for use at all

of the 89 chairlifts at its four resorts in

Colorado and also Heavenly, at Lake

Tahoe.

The technology allows skiers and

riders to monitor their lift rides, vertical

feet skied and number of ski days with

chips embedded in their season passes

and lift tickets. This information will be

collected with radio-frequency scanners

at each of the 89 lifts at the company’s

fi ve resorts.

The Denver Post explains that

skiers, using smartphones or personal

computers, can track their runs — sharing

their information on Facebook and

Twitter, if they want.

The technology also will alert skiers

if their Facebook friends are skiing and

show their location on the mountain.

“Talking about the day becomes a

big part of the ski vacation and the ski

experience,” Rob Katz, chief executive

offi cer of Vail Resorts, told the Vail Daily.

“We’ve been trying to fi nd ways to let

people engage in that dialogue, but not

interfere with the experience.”

He presents EpicMix as a way to

extend the ski experience beyond the ski

day, but also beyond the ski vacation.

“People will be able to look at the runs

they did weeks later, just like looking at

photographs.

DURANGO’S EXCEPTIONS STAND OUTDURANGO, Colo. – Numbers remain

squishy, but all evidence points toward

an increasingly diverse population in

Durango and its hinterlands. Four-fi fths

of people are white non-Hispanics,

which may not seem all that terribly

diverse. After all, Durango was once part

of Mexico and even now sits relatively

close to both the Ute and Navajo tribal

lands.

Still, the evidence turned up by the

Durango Telegraph suggests a greater

melting pot — or at least a stew. Many

of those who would count as being

minorities in Durango stand out in that

crowd, but they don’t seem to object.

Consider Kathy Huntsinger, a native

of the Dominican Republic, who arrived

The Yangsi’s predecessor, Dilgo

Khyentse Rinpoche, is often affectionately

remembered by those who met him for

his extraordinary size. He was seven feet

tall. His current incarnation, at something

under 5 foot 6, has said, “Supposedly I was

recognized as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,

but I don’t possess any of his qualities. This

is not something I’m saying to impress you

guys; it is just the truth. He was a giant, and

I am very short. He was good looking, and

I — well, you can just forget about it.”

Actually, the Yangsi is quite good-

looking, with the face and demeanor of

an old-world Chinese emperor, broad

shoulders, and an uncommonly open and

curious gaze.

When the group had fi nished their

lunch, the guests of the retreat centre

entered and offered katas to the Yangsi

one by one. They then turned to Rabjam.

To each, he offered his right hand. The

guests wore nametags, and Rabjam looked

at each, saying the name aloud. At one

point, he turned to someone behind him

and said, “Six billion people in the world?”

“Yes, Rinpoche.”

“Six billion different faces.”

After lunch, Rabjam got into the

centre’s side-by-side ATV and drove the

Yangsi up the hill to the house of Dzongsar

Khyentse Rinpoche.

Khyentse, the centre’s director and a

world-renowned fi lmmaker, is a student

of the Yangsi’s predecessor and the head

of Khyentse Foundation, a charity that

recently endowed a chair of Buddhist

studies at Berkeley. Although Khyentse

was away in Europe, he had encouraged

this visit to Sea to Sky Retreat Centre.

The Yangsi and Rabjam toured the small

Japanese-style house, said some brief

aspirations and then they rejoined their

small party for the walk back down the

forest path to the dock.

On the plane, the Yangsi sat in the back.

The hatch was open, and he attempted to

close it from within.

“Watch your fi ngers,” a woman called.

He withdrew his hand and then,

perhaps impishly, put it out again, fi ngers

splayed.

The aircraft’s pilot emerged from the

forest. He latched the hatch from without,

got in, and steered the plane slowly down

the lake, almost out of sight.

“Is he going to take off that way?” I

asked.

Then the engine roared, and the plane

turned into the wind and took fl ight to

the south. We stood and watched it until

it was just a dot crossing the white face of

the Tantalus. !

Buddhist visit< FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Mountain News: Vail Resorts has social media option

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