The Nechung Kuten. Photo by Mitchell Zachs // magicalphotos.com

Kuten and Couture
In a Meeting of Form and Function, Advisor to the Dalai Lama Celebrates the Duality of Fashion
 
By Lee Molloy

It was not a clash, or even a collision. It was, like the location, more a fusion of cultures.

On Tuesday, Oct. 13. The Asian inspired courtyard of The Setai Hotel on South Beach proved a fitting location for the unique first event of Funkshion: Fashion Week   Miami Beach. The evening featured the unveiling of  new Tibetan clothing line Norbulingka With Love, and a special audience with the Nechung Kuten — a senior advisor to the Dalai Lama.

Fashionistas, hipsters and hippies alike, along with their mostly befuddled children, lined up around the metaphorical block to receive a personal blessing from the Kuten and be presented with a khata, the traditional white scarf that represents good intentions and happiness from the giver to the receiver. The ever smiling and patient Kuten received guests with good grace, posed for photos and even took the time to sign autographs.

Once the Kuten had greeted everyone personally he briefly thanked the crowd before the runway show, which presented a high fashion take on Asian-themed clothes.

“The whole line is about social responsibility,” Miami-based designer Ilonka Harezi told The Lead. “We are creating fashion that does good.”

According to Harezi, the entire line is made from organic materials, including natural vegetable dyes, and “every stitch is by hand.”

Harezi explained why she designed her eastern line with a feel familiar to the west.

“I did it for the Tibetans,” Harezi said, “to give them an economic base so they could create beautiful fashions that could be sold in stores.”

The clothes themselves, however, all come with an authentic eastern flavor. The cashmere-soft shawls are hand spun, and cleaned and woven in the Himalayas from the wool of 2-year-old yaks. Accessories hail from Norbulingka, which was the traditional summer palace of the Dalai Lama until Tibet’s takeover by China in the 1950s. Some of the clothes in Harezi’s line are sewn by poverty-stricken women from the south of India, who also struggle with being branded “untouchable,” Harezi said.

Harezi explains that the employment helps the women out of poverty. “It gives them a sustainable job,” she said.

Becoming the Nechung Kuten

The current Nechung Kuten, Thupten Ngodup, is a Buddhist monk who was born in the village of Phari, Tibet in 1957.

As a small child, his parents fled Chinese occupation, and he was relocated to India. At 14 years old, Ngodup was admitted to the Nechung Monastery in Dharmasala, and on completion of his studies, was appointed as the Master of Rituals at the monastery.

Living the simple life of a monk, Ngodup devoted his life to Buddhist tantric practice — residing in modest quarters and spending most of his time praying, or in quiet meditation.

In 1984, the Nechung Kuten died, and a search was carried out to find the next monk to hold the title. The Dalai Lama was informed that Ngodup showed many signs that he may be the next Nechung Kuten, so he advised Ngodup to take a spiritual retreat where he would conduct special meditations and rituals to actualize his potential.

In 1987, Ngodup was fully recognized as the Nechung Kuten.

The Meaning of the Title

According to Tibetan tradition, since 1642 an oracle, or spirit, called Dorje Drak-den (Nechung) has been the principal protecting entity of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government, advising every incarnation of the Dalai Lama on the welfare of the Tibetan people.

“The nature of the protector represents the primordial wisdom of enlightenment,” the Kuten told The Lead via a Chinese translator. The word “Kuten” means the medium, or the “physical being of the wisdom to come through,” he said.

Therefore, according to the tradition, the Nechung Kuten is not the reincarnation of a consciousness in the way that the Dalai Lama is said to be, but rather the human mouthpiece of a spirit guide that can enter the human medium at any age.

Furthermore, the medium of the State Oracle of Tibet not only has extraordinary status in the religious sense, but is also a junior minister of the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan government in exile.

In his autobiography, “Freedom in Exile” the Dalai Lama addressed the importance of his relationship with Nechung, explaining that he seeks the oracle’s advice in the same way that he seeks the advice of his cabinet or his own conscience. 

“For hundreds of years now, it has been traditional for the Dalai Lama, and the Government, to consult Nechung during the New Year festivals,” he wrote. “As I look back over the many occasions when I have asked questions of the oracle, on each one of them time has proved that his answer was correct.”

The [Fleeting] Practicality of Excess

Although sporting a modern watch, the Nechung Kuten looks like any other Buddhist monk from Tibet with his shaved head, bright smile and crimson robes.

“The monks clothing is worn in accordance with a spiritual path,” the Kuten said, “mostly to cover rather than reveal.”

However, the Kuten doesn’t have a problem with less pragmatic clothing, such as the fashions slated to be celebrated on the runway.

“Fashion obviously brings happiness to people, however this happiness is only temporary,” he said. “But, it still brings joy, so in that way it is good.”

The Kuten also had some interesting thoughts regarding the excess found in Miami Beach.

“Obviously there is a need for material wealth, but that itself does not give a person true happiness,” he said, adding that people “also need to have spiritual wealth.”

The Kuten used the event at The Setai as a metaphor, explaining that being among a crowd of people having fun can bring feelings of happiness, although the feelings will disperse with the crowd at the end of the evening.
“Outer material growth is temporary,” he says, “but inner development lasts.”

Comments@theleadmiamibeach.com