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The Dalai Lama vs. China, World Religions 101: Yoruba, and More
September 19, 2014
Summary: The Dalai Lama and the politics of reincarnation, in the studio with a virtuoso shofar player, and the African Yoruba tradition.



ChineseCulture.org | Wikimedia Commons
The End of the Dalai Lama? Not Quite September 19, 2014
On September 7th, many news outlets picked up a breaking story: The Dalai Lama announced he saw no need for a successor, and that he will not reincarnate in a Chinese-controlled Tibet. But it turns out, he’s been saying that for decades as a way to loosen the Chinese government’s grip on Tibetan religion and culture. It's a statement deeply rooted in the Buddhist belief of reincarnation, and it has as much a political message as a spiritual one.

Pictured: The Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, and Chairman Mao meet in Beijing in 1954.

Robert Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University
Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan
Alphonse Levy | Wikipedia
The Shofar: The Sacred Sound of Judaism September 19, 2014
If Judaism has a sound, it’s the trumpet-like blast of the shofar, a sacred instrument made from an animal horn. According to the Hebrew bible, the shofar has framed some of the most important moments in Jewish history: it’s been there to announce revelation of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, to bring down the walls of Jericho and to celebrate the Arc of the Covenant. As we head into the Rosh Hashanah, when the shofar is blown during prayer services, we find out why this instrument has endured for so long.




Shofar virtuoso Jennie Litvack in our studios.

Jennie Litvack, shofar teacher at Adas Israel Congregation's Jewish Mindfulness Center of Washington
Judah Cohen,
associate professor of Musicology and Jewish Studies at Indiana University Bloomington
Dierk Lange | Wikimedia Commons
World Religions 101: Yoruba September 19, 2014
The Yoruba religion a is a tapestry of myths, magic, spirits, and secrets. Stephen Prothero calls it "a tradition about hanging onto tradition," a way for people scattered by the African diaspora to connect to their common origins. In the Yoruba religion, the human problem is disconnection. The solution is to reconnect ourselves to a larger divine power, through fortune telling, sacrifice, and body posession.

Pictured: Yoruba priests pray in a temple in Ife, an ancient Yoruba city in Nigeria.

Stephen Prothero, author of God is One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter