Live to Love ambassador Michelle Yeoh with students of Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh. From cntraveller.in
Movie star and practicing Buddhist Michelle Yeoh, best known for her exploits on the big screen in the Academy Award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and James Bond action movie Tomorrow Never Dies, was recently in Ladakh in India’s northern state of Jammu and Kashmir to help with relief efforts in the wake of recent flooding.
Yeoh was in Ladakh as part of her role as the international ambassador for Himalayan humanitarian organization Live to Love, founded in 2007 by His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual head of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism. The organization says it aims to use Buddhist approaches to solve modern-day problems.
Her itinerary in Ladakh, which has a significant Tibetan population, was aimed at raising awareness of the situation in the region and viewing flood relief efforts, although she also had time to visit Live to Love’s animal rescue center and to fit in a little sightseeing. “Of course Ladakh is very striking. But you also need protection from the strong winds and storms. There’s a lot to be done, like planting trees for protection against flashfloods. We need to improve the place but also need to be sensible in doing it,” she said. (Condé Nast Traveller)
Born into a Buddhist family in Ipoh, Malaysia, Yeoh notes that the influence of Buddhism in her life is an ongoing process of realization: “I think you are always a practicing Buddhist. If you’re a Buddhist, you’ll forever be practicing. That’s the philosophy! You are learning every day. Also, my parents are Buddhists, too, so it’s something that’s always been in my life.”
“Buddhist philosophy grounds you as a person. . . . Because, at the end of the day, you must always be true to yourself and who you are. The higher you go, the further it is to fall—that’s life, right? So it’s very important to appreciate and enjoy what you have, and to share it with others.” (Condé Nast Traveller)
Yeoh in Nepal earlier this year. From Live to Love
The actor explained that her four-year association with the Live to Love organization came about through her close friend and fellow activist Vanessa Pong, Live to Love’s president in Hong Kong. “[Vanessa] said to me that His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa was in New York and that I should meet him. I was there for the Clinton Global Initiative. I said I would love to meet him because I’ve heard so much about him. So I went to see him and we bonded and just clicked. We’ve been good friends since then. And the next time we met, he was telling me about this pad yatra he had done in the Himalayas, which I found fascinating. That’s how we really got on, sharing common goals and inspirations. Later, he asked me whether I would be a ‘Live to Love’ ambassador.” (Condé Nast Traveller)
Earlier this year, Yeoh was in Nepal with her fiancé Jean Todt when the country was hit by the first deadly earthquake, on 25 April. Yeoh was in Kathmandu with Todt to attend the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) Asia-Pacific Sport Regional Congress when the quake struck. Todt is president of the world motor sport body, and Yeoh is its road safety ambassador. The couple was evacuated with help from the FIA.
Yeoh returned to Kathmandu with Live to Love two weeks later to assist with relief work being undertaken by the Gyalwang Drukpa, visiting quake-hit villages on the outskirts of Kathmandu to see the rehabilitation work undertaken by the foundation.