2008 Woodie Awards
Meditation, monks, DVD players and the Dalai Llama
A trip to Tibet engages students and inspires research
Margaret Watters
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Features
Miami University faculty member Deborah Akers first met the monk Lochoe during a Miami summer study abroad trip in 2004.
"This is really a sad story," Akers said. "I met up with a young monk, 21 years old, the age of a Miami student. He had been a political prisoner in Tibet under the Chinese and been tortured for many years. He had been in prison and then escaped to Dharamsala."
Lochoe stands about 6-foot-2, but Akers didn't notice his height, due to the way he presented himself to her. She said he was emaciated and couldn't look people in the eye.
Akers decided to sponsor Lochoe's work toward his Geshe degree in Tibetan Buddhism.
Lochoe left an impact-so much so that his story, and the eventual research and teaching that came from it, extended across the globe. From Nepal to Ohio, Akers is pursuing groundbreaking research and is taking students out of Oxford's classrooms to Asia to teach hands-on lessons and explore what is often a misunderstood culture.
She asked the other monks about the young refugee: "They told me he was going to be alright and I thought, 'This guy went through so much. How in the world can he be alright?'" Akers said.
Through community support and a three-step recovery process, the monks promised to heal the young monk, Lochoe, in about a year. The recovery plan focuses on meditation, community support and spiritual advising from high-level monks. Depending on the severity of the posttraumatic stress disorder, the monks claimed improvement in two years.
"In the West it typically takes seven to 10 years and I was shaking my head and said, 'No, this kid is not going to get better,'" Akers said.
A year later, Akers returned to Nepal and faced a very different person than she had known before.
"I went over to the monastery and the first thing he said was, 'Did you bring my DVD player like you promised so I can watch movies?'" Akers said. "I just looked at him with my jaw wide open. I couldn't believe that this was that same young man."
"This is really a sad story," Akers said. "I met up with a young monk, 21 years old, the age of a Miami student. He had been a political prisoner in Tibet under the Chinese and been tortured for many years. He had been in prison and then escaped to Dharamsala."
Lochoe stands about 6-foot-2, but Akers didn't notice his height, due to the way he presented himself to her. She said he was emaciated and couldn't look people in the eye.
Akers decided to sponsor Lochoe's work toward his Geshe degree in Tibetan Buddhism.
Lochoe left an impact-so much so that his story, and the eventual research and teaching that came from it, extended across the globe. From Nepal to Ohio, Akers is pursuing groundbreaking research and is taking students out of Oxford's classrooms to Asia to teach hands-on lessons and explore what is often a misunderstood culture.
She asked the other monks about the young refugee: "They told me he was going to be alright and I thought, 'This guy went through so much. How in the world can he be alright?'" Akers said.
Through community support and a three-step recovery process, the monks promised to heal the young monk, Lochoe, in about a year. The recovery plan focuses on meditation, community support and spiritual advising from high-level monks. Depending on the severity of the posttraumatic stress disorder, the monks claimed improvement in two years.
"In the West it typically takes seven to 10 years and I was shaking my head and said, 'No, this kid is not going to get better,'" Akers said.
A year later, Akers returned to Nepal and faced a very different person than she had known before.
"I went over to the monastery and the first thing he said was, 'Did you bring my DVD player like you promised so I can watch movies?'" Akers said. "I just looked at him with my jaw wide open. I couldn't believe that this was that same young man."
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