Earthquake sutras

Laird Brown and Phuntsok Dorjee are two of the organizers of the Air Jaldi summit in Dharamshala next month. Laird is visiting India, but lives in the West; Phuntsok is a Tibetan refugee and Dharamshala is his home. Laird says,

Today at lunch Phuntsok shared something interesting at the end of a conversation about earthquakes. The last major one in Dharamsala killed 40,000 people in 1905.

Situated around Dharamsala are four stupas. These house Buddhist relics and other items and are intended to appease the four calamities of fire, wind, rain, and earthquake. The stupas are located at Upper TCV, Sara, TIPA, and HHDL's private residence.

I learned that every morning and evening the children at TCV recite various sutras, among them a prayer to prevent an earthquake. Apparently there are monks at the major temples that only recite sutras to prevent earthquakes.

What a way for a child to start the day. If there ever were an earthquake here TCV would be the first to be leveled. The construction of many of these buildings is akin to a house of cards.

On my last visit to Dharamsala I was lying in bed when a tremendous earthquake rocked me for a full thirty seconds. The epicenter was in Kashmir and the destruction was appalling. The region still hasn't recovered.

The Tibetan oracles say that Dharamsala is safe from calamity. Maybe the prayers are working.