Lidzhi Amikov, Name Giving

Lidzhi talks about the power of personal names. He contends that people’s fate depends on their names. When his granddaughter was born, Lidzhi wanted to name her Amulanga (meaning ‘Calm’), because he saw this name in his dreams. His wife, however, offered to choose one of three names. They went to a temple and asked the lama to choose a name. The lama chose Amulanga from a list of four names. Lidzhi recalls a lama named Bada Pavlovich who secretly practiced folk healing methods in the Soviet period. In his youth this lama spent 10 years studying at a Buddhist Academy. When Lidzhi’s cousin fell ill, Lidzhi and his brother went to see that lama. The lama asked: ‘Who named this boy?’ ‘His grandfather’, was the answer. ‘If it is his grandfather, then everything will be all right’, said the lama. Lidzhi’s brother’s name is Nikolai who was a sickly boy in his childhood. In 1959 the family went to the lama Bada Pavlovich who tied five amulets to the boy’s legs, arms and neck, and instructed: ‘When you give your boy a bath, untie the amulets and put them in a clean place. Every time one amulet will disappear. When four amulets disappear, keep the fifth one to yourself.’ Things turned out as the lama predicted, and in four days four amulets disappeared. After this Nikolai recovered.Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin