Hi,
I wanted to bring this presentation to the attention of the New York Aging community. It's a presentation by a college classmate on the experiences and observations of an 84 year old Nepali woman's travels about America with him.
Greg Hinrichsen
Aama's Journey: A Pilgrimage Between Continents & Cultures
by Broughton Coburn
Date: Monday Nov. 9, 2:00-3:30 P.M.
Location: 3rd Floor Conference Room #319, Kolb Annex,
New York State Psychiatric Institute,
40 Haven Avenue (Haven Avenue & 168 St.),
New York, N.Y
Subway: 168th Street, A or 1 Train
Broughton Coburn, Harvard graduate and author of five books (including two national bestsellers) is a premier authority on the culture and environment of the Himalaya. For two of the past three decades he has lived in Nepal, Tibet and India working in development and conservation for agencies such as the World Bank, United Nations and World Wildlife Fund. Now he brings you Aama's Journey, a true story that springs from his heart. Join him on this rollicking, warm, thought-provoking, poignant and powerful odyssey.
Based on Broughton Coburn's first two books, this illustrated program begins in a subsistence farming village in the foothills of the Himalaya, where we are immersed in the cosmology, philosophy, hopes and humor of an elderly village woman—Aama—who has never been exposed to Western civilization.
In 1992, Aama turned 84, a watershed year sanctified by a long-life ritual that relieves the elderly from further worldly duty—the perfect juncture to go on a pilgrimage, on a circuit of holy sites, in order to gain additional merit before death.
That's when Aama came to America.
With Broughton and his companion Didi, Aama's odyssey evolves into a 12,000 mile search for the soul of the United States. She advises farmers, kisses a killer whale, bathes ritually in the ocean, meets with Native Americans, finds kin among the Hutterites, and prays at Old Faithful. Aama's reactions to our country are amusing, surprising and sometimes disconcerting, yet we find that her emotions and sensibilities live and breathe within us all.
