Thompson has visit with the Dalai Lama

Hokule‘a captain Nainoa Thompson reunited with the Dalai Lama in Southern California this week to help celebrate the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s 80th birthday and discuss issues such as climate change, education and a "more compassionate world."

Thompson, a "pwo" (master) navigator, spoke Tuesday alongside the Dalai Lama during a 15-person panel discussion about youth leadership hosted by former NBC-TV "Today" program co-anchorwoman Ann Curry at the University of California at Irvine. The event concluded the Dalai Lama’s three-day event in the region, dubbed the "Global Compassion Summit."

Thompson is also overseeing the Hokule‘a’s three-year sail around the world, Malama Honua ("Care for the Earth"). The traditional sailing vessel, designed after ancient Polynesian voyaging canoes, is currently sailing around Australia.

"We are searching for our great navigators of our time and not just those who sail on the canoe," Thompson said by phone after Tuesday’s panel. "The Dalai Lama is one of the world’s great navigators."

"He’s a force," Thompson added.

It’s not the first time the Hawaiian wayfinding navigator has met with the Buddhist spiritual leader. In 2012, during a four-day visit to Hawaii, the Dalai Lama blessed the Hokule‘a at Kualoa on Oahu’s Windward coast to help prepare it for its global journey.

On Tuesday, Thompson presented the Dalai Lama with a lei and compared the Tibetan leader’s message of compassion with the Hawaiian word "aloha." After the panel, Thompson said that he further spoke of Hawaii’s unique place in the world, as well as the critical role of teachers. He added that he spoke at length about his own wayfinding teacher, Micronesian pwo navigator Mau Piailug.

Meanwhile, as the youth leadership panel took place in Irvine, thousands of miles away in Australia, Haunani Kane on Tuesday became the latest apprentice from Hawaii to successfully solo-navigate a voyaging canoe across hundreds of miles of ocean wilderness. Kane, 28, guided the Hokule‘a from Thursday Island to Darwin, some 600 miles away, using only the stars, swells and other visual cues.

Also on Tuesday, back on Oahu, the Hokule‘a’s former escort vessel, the Hikianalia, arrived back at its Sand Island dock after a trip to Nihoa, some 170 miles northwest of Kauai, led by a new captain, Kaleo Wong. Wong, 33, navigated the Hokule‘a in May to Australia’s east coast from New Zealand.

Leaders of the Oahu-based Polynesian Voyaging Society, which is running the Hoku­le‘a’s global sail, have said that they aim to use the Malama Honua voyage to train a new generation of leaders and navigators, including Kane and Wong.

Thompson has previously stated his broader ideas of what it means to be a navigator in this day and age, and particularly for the Hokule‘a’s global sail.

"No longer can we sail just to find islands," Thompson said in September aboard the deck of the canoe. The point of the Hokule‘a’s worldwide voyage, he said, is more about rediscovering traditions and man’s relationship to nature.