The Book of Joy

children mentioned their family or their friends and teachers at the
school, who had become a second family. More than anything it was the
people they loved who were their greatest source of joy.
At the bottom of one of the posters was a quote: “True happiness
comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”
It was a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little
Prince, a story about another boy who was far away from his home.
As we left the library, the girls’ choir began singing the birthday song
again, this time accompanied by a Tibetan lute.
The Archbishop and the Dalai Lama were led to two chairs at the
center of the enormous tent, which displayed the endless knot and other
Tibetan symbols overhead. Around the tent hung red, green, and yellow
fringes, and strung all along the edges of it were red, green, yellow,
white, and blue prayer flags.
The almost two thousand children, who had been waiting patiently,
were then invited to stand and sing the Tibetan version of “If You’re
Happy and You Know It,” which involved shaking their heads, clapping
their hands, wiggling their hips, and stamping their feet.
Around the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop spread a carpet of cross-
legged children. They ranged from five to eighteen years old, from
kindergarten to grade twelve. Behind them was a group of adults that had
somehow found out about the event—one was patriotically waving a
South African flag.
Then the Dalai Lama took the headset and began to address the
students but then turned to his friend and said, “Since you often describe
my English as very poor, now I’m going to speak Tibetan.” The Dalai
Lama slapped the Archbishop’s arm playfully, and the Archbishop
pretended to rub it as if wounded. The kids were giggling as the two
grown-ups, now reconciled, took each other’s hands.
“So Archbishop Desmond Tutu is one of my closest friends on this
earth,” he began. “The Archbishop also has been supporting the Tibetan
cause unflinchingly. You are a generation whose parents have suffered,
and you also have suffered to be able to come here. And as Tibetans, the
Indian government has helped us since the beginning of our exile. Other