A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama

On 16th and 17th September this year, Lord Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, now Master of Magdalene College hosted an unusual event in Cripps Court.  ‘Growing Wisdom, Changing People’: a Dialogue with the Dalai Lama was designed to ‘create a space where young people and leading thinkers and practitioners can explore in conversation with Lord Williams and His Holiness the concept of Universal Responsibility and what it can mean for the world’.

The 80-year-old monk, regarded by many Buddhists as the 14th reincarnation of their traditional spiritual leader had to endure loud protests from an organisation claiming to represent an alternative Buddhist sect.

I was asked to take a few pictures behind the scenes, some general shots of the conference and to take a group shot in the auditorium of all the delegates with Bishop Rowan Williams and the Dalai Lama. The latter I did by standing on a chair I’d placed on the stage to give me the height I needed. After only a few frames, I lost my balance and fell off the chair and right off the stage to land at the feet of His Holiness who helped me up.