His Holiness sees the town

Today -- Friday -- the day after his arrival, His Holiness saw the town. He went to the Metropolitan Museum, which is vast and labyrinthine, and saw, if not all, a good chunk. Guided by a curator, he perused through Southeast Asia, the Buddhist art and the Egyptian wings, the new Greek and Roman section and the modern galleries, which he particularly liked, said an attendant. Then, lunch at Rockefeller Center and down to Ground Zero, where he spent a good half hour at the memorial center and talked to a director, the father of a fire fighter who died in the crash, and whose body was found intact and whose fire uniform forms part of the exhibits. At the director's request, His Holiness said some prayers before he left.

  Then to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, where he slowly made his way through every floor.

 Back at the midtown hotel, upon hearing that he was due back, we, the household volunteers, lined a hallway and waited. Finally -- movement. A couple of grimly imposing bodyguards, following by Buddhists in suits, by lamas, by Ponlop Rinpoche and by His Holiness, smiling. That night, interviews, including some with Tibetan New Yorkers, several families with little boys in brocade chubas, looking intensely cute.

   Tomorrow morning is the first talk -- exciting to contemplate.