[Buddha-l] Students as potential spooks?

[Richard Hayes]

On Jan 22, 2012, at 10:17 AM, "Jo" <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:

> Who was Gene Smith? Some unknown saint from the "west"?

Pretty damn close. He was a guy from rural Utah who was a librarian at the Library of Congress and knew more about Tibetan history, language, literature and culture than anyone living or dead. It's pretty much impossible to read anything written on Tibet without finding a heartfelt acknowledgement by the author to Gene Smith and expressions of effusive gratitude for his knowledge, kindness and generosity. He was an early subscriber to Buddha-l, by the way. His only moral failing was that he never learned to pronounce the word "coyote". He pronounced it so it rhymed with "oat". 

Richard Hayes