Two subjects I doubt you’d see together, except for the fact that as I was walking by the Verizon Center during lunch time today I was listening to the VW Darth Vader ad and watching streams of monks in saffron robes on the sidewalk.
The Dalai Lama is in town for, as a friend said, his version of a concert tour. His Holiness is holding a ten day long Kalachakra for World Peace at the Verizon Center. Judging from the garments of the crowds on the sidewalk, I’d say a lot of people came here from up and down the Mid-Atlantic seaboard for this event. I’ve seen many women in gorgeous formal Tibetan gowns, more monks in red and gold than I can count, and plenty of T-shirts for one or another Tibetan group.One large group from New Jersey is sporting sunny yellow t-shirts.
So, they are just another large group of tourists, but with more colorful and interesting clothing than the run of the mill T-shirt, shorts and flip flops that we usually see on summer tourists in Washington.
Plus, there is a Tibetan marketplace set up in a series of tents along F Street in front of the National Portrait Gallery. I will have to shop those tents before this week is over.
