The 12th Gyalwang Drukpa paid a visit to Baltimore on 9 May in a gesture of empathy and solidarity with the local community following the death of Freddie Gray. The Buddhist leader’s visit followed last week’s protests and civil unrest and the ongoing inquiry into how Gray died and the responsible party. The Gyalwang Drukpa had been in Washington to raise awareness for victims of the catastrophic earthquake in Nepal last month, and his visit to Baltimore seems to have been relatively unscripted.
The 12th Gyalwang Drukpa with pastor Jamal Bryant. From "The Baltimore Sun"
Twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray was arrested on 12 April by the Baltimore Police Department for possessing what the latter alleged to be an illegal switchblade. Gray fell into a coma while inside a police van and died on 19 April from injuries to his spinal cord. As of 21 April, six Baltimore police officers were temporarily suspended without pay. Tensions have been bubbling between the black community and police forces across various American states after a series of high-profile deaths of young black men at the hands of officers.
The Baltimore Sun, which inaccurately described the Gyalwang Drukpa as “the Buddhist leader of South Asia” (he is the head of the Drukpa Order, a branch of the Kagyu School within Vajrayana Buddhism), reported that he joined pastor Jamal Bryant (who ministers at the Empowerment Temple and is a spokesman for the Gray family), philanthropist Harriet Fulbright, and others in a walk through the Penn North and Sandtown-Winchester neighborhoods before stopping at the CVS drugstore that was damaged during the rioting that followed Gray’s death.
Before the walk, he offered a three-minute prayer and said, “I want to express my condolences—my sadness—over what your community has been through, especially the last few weeks. . . . I’m happy to be here to help, in my small way, to reconnect and rebuild, to where this community can be a beautiful place again.”
The Gyalwang Drukpa arrives at the mural of Freddie Gray. From "The Baltimore Sun"
At the conclusion of the walk, the Gyalwang Drukpa arrived at the corner of North Mount and Presbury streets and placed a white shawl at a mural of Gray that had been painted there. Other symbolic gifts (like a pair of black sneakers) had been left at the mural to commemorate Gray. “We all must work together hand in hand, to get something done, to get educated, to get transformed so that we can live in harmony with a greater sense of love, faith and devotion,” he said. “As a spiritual master, it is my privilege to share some of my prayers with you on this crucial occasion.”
Two days earlier, on 7 May, the Gyalwang Drukpa also visited the White House for a round-table discussion hosted and attended by the National Security Council and members of the Council on Global Equality and Live to Love International. Here, he noted that Buddhism is about turning faith into action and that people deserve acceptance, love, respect, and compassion irrespective of their gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The Gyalwang Drukpa also mentioned that his office has campaigned for women’s rights, particularly in the case of South Asian women confronting a hostile environment that does not often support their personal aspirations.
The Gyalwang Drukpa is passionately involved in social and environmental justice. In 2010, he launched an initiative to plant a million trees in Ladakh. He has also organized a number of Pad Yatra treks, “eco-pilgrimages” aimed at uniting the pilgrim’s objective of connecting with his or her deepest enlightened nature with the eco-activist’s goals of collecting litter, visiting local people to discuss environmental protection, and raising awareness about ecological problems like climate change. This year’s 7th Pad Yatra is in northern India and southern Nepal.