THE MAGIC BOWLER HAT (continued)

Speaking to my friend with the scratched Bentley, I continued to tell him about the special bond I have with my English bowler hat. I started off by telling him about Pan Tau, a character created for a children's television series in the 1960s. 33 episodes were made in Czechoslovakia in cooperation with German TV network WDR from 1967 on. The project ended with a feature film in 1988. Pan Tau was played by Otto Šimánek (1925 – 1992 in Prague).
Pan Tau was a friend of children. He was famous for his magic bowler hat. By tapping on his hat, Pan Tau was able to change his appearance into a puppet, to conjure up miscellaneous objects or to do other magic. His most characteristical behaviour was that he would help children who were experiencing some sort of difficulty. Together with his unusual dress and his magic bowler, Pan Tau possessed a further distinguishing feature - he didn’t speak.

In the spring of 2000, I was the only survivor of a plane crash in the Himalayas. I was found by a Tibetan man. After I was released from hospital, he took care of me in his home in Dharamsala. Over the next few weeks, amazing things started happening to me.
Some people in Dharamsala started to believe that I was the reincarnation of a Tibetan freedom fighter who was arrested by the People’s Liberation Army and died in 1962 in a Chinese Hard Labour Camp. His name was Pantau.
In April 2000, I met the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala and shortly after it was decided that I would change my name, which was done during a special ritual at the Dalai Lama temple on my birthday in May 2000. A new name was bestowed on me: Pantau Lhamo. That day I also founded the Pantau Foundation to help children in need.
Pantau means ‘to be helpful’ and Lhamo ‘Deity’. Many Tibetan girls’ second first name is Lhamo. Tibetans do not have last names. From that day on, I was proud to carry this new name, however, I soon dropped the Lhamo, and every Tibetan and Indian would call me Pantau. In Thailand people simplified my name and everybody here calls me Tau or Tao. Tao is actually a Thai name, meaning ‘Yin-Yang’, and also a Chinese name, meaning ‘peach’.

When I was in my late teens, I went to an auction house. I was interesting in acquiring a Tiffany lamp. There were also some old costumes and hats for sale, including an early 20th-century top hat, worn by some famous man who had travelled on the Titanic. Next to it was an English bowler hat, size 57. It was believed the hat had been worn by an English lady as its size was rather small. It fit my head perfectly. I was informed that the lady was rather controversial, as she enjoyed dressing as a man. That day I didn’t return home with a Tiffany lamp, but with an English bowler hat that, curiously, had stuck inside a card depicting The Joker. The last time I wore my hat was in the Netherlands in March. When I wear my hat, I wear it with the card visible on the outside.

Today my friend with the damaged Bentley gave me a call.
“Well, I read your last post and the comments today. So now you are calling me a typical male gay bitch in public?”
I smiled. “Yes, I think I did. But I wrote that sentence with a lot of love and respect for you. You criticized me for not being complete about my possessions, and in return, I called you a bitch. That’s called karma; the law of action and reaction. You say something bad about me, and something bad will fly back to you and hit you straight in your gay face. Karma is one of my favourite topics.”
“I always wondered about Karma. Can you tell me more about it?”
“Sure. Let’s have dinner tonight and discuss the law of action and reaction….”

Pan Tau talking to his small puppet-character that is in fact himself.