Wallace Johnson: Former student of a Buddha
by Michele Logan
t was an unlikely place, a cheap Chinese restaurant in New Haven, Conn.
The restaurant had been quiet all summer and nothing out of the ordinary had happened, until that one day when Wallace Johnson met the Buddha.
"He came in the form of a human being and his mission was to bring salvation to the people."
His name was the Dilawa Utkutuku and he loved to pray for the world. He would wake up at 4 a.m. and pray for three months. He prayed the Budha would go calling on his friends.
"He was extremely friendly, as you might think God would be." Johnson said. "So if your door was banged on at 7 a.m., that would be the Dilawa wanting tea.
"And while it's always nice to have God call, if you'd been out late the previous night and had a hangover, it may not be exactly the thing you wanted to do."
The Dilwa could work miracles, such as floating through the air or disappearing, but Johnson says he chose not to because people wouldn't be here were he did. A magic show.
Not only did the Buddha pray for mankind, he also blessed them.
"The Dilawa was standing in a cafeteria line one day, and a lady came by who was obviously pregnant. He looked at her, beamed and went over and put his hand on her stomach and blessed her child." Johnson said. "So there is a child in his 30s now who has been blessed by God and doesn't even know it."
The Dilawa chose not to be incarnated a ninth time and entered nirvana, a state of release into ultimate enlightenment and peace. He died in the 1708 at age 83.
Although the Budda is dead, Johnson, professor of East Asian language and culture, keeps him alive by relating their experiences together in his East Asian Myths, Legends and Folklore class.
It was the Dilwa who influenced Johnson to begin teaching the course. Through talking with the Dilwa, Johnson came to believe that to understand people, it was important to understand the ordinary man.
So Johnson decided to offer a course about an 'ordinary Chinese man in the world'.
"What I remember most about the class is that Johnson liked to interject personal stories into his lectures, especially about the Budda, and the stories made the
subject even more interesting," said Matt Cooley, Overland P骄 sophomore.
But Tony Younger, Overland Park
senior, rehearses in a different
direction he thinks about Johnson.
“He always digresses from the subject and when he’s done, he’ll say, ‘But never mind all that,’ ” Younger said. “That always cracks me up.”
Johnson said, "Yeah, I do tend to run on at the mouth. Ah well, never mind all
Younger also said that Johnson's accent, which is a combination of Scotch-Irish and Virginian twang, reminds him of radio commentator Paul Harvey.
Dianna Lacy, Overland Park junior,
remembers more about Johnson's ward.
She'd be a good friend.
"Every day he'd wear a tweed sports coat, tan jacket, an Oxford and black support socks with his horn-rimmed glasses that he would keep pushing up on his nose," she said. "I remember the socks the most because he would always put his feet up on the table and his pants would go up his legs and show his socks."
Johnson said that in his early years at KU, professors wore neckties and were very formal. Then, in the early 70s, things started to change.
"My collegues were going around with shirts that were open to their waist," he said. "I've dropped the necklace, but the shirt open to the waist I've never managed to pick up and so I just wear my uniform.
Kelly Larson/KANSAN
"I fear that I'm not much of an ad for Brooks Brothers."
Wallace Johnson
The course has become so popular in the past few years that students have been put on a waiting list to get in. The class has a 90-student limit.
"I think the class is so popular because there is more of an interest in other people than they used to be, but I'd also like to hear it from a brilliant as a lecturer," Johnson said.
He says the class's popularity might be because his lectures are informal, he doesn't use notes, and he tries to generate interest in the course by telling an oocast.
Christine Hayes, Overland Park junior,
thinks that is the reason the class is
popular, because students have heard that
Johnson likes to joke in class.
"From the very first day, he told corny jokes that you just had to laugh at," she said.
Hayes recalled one joke Johnson told on the first day of class:
"You're privileged to attend one of the finest universities around, as it provides for the physically handicapped. And that's wonderful, but if you're mentally handicapped, go to K-State — that's where you belong."
"The whole class laughed and it really broke the ice."
Without Owen Lattimore, Johnson never would have broken the ice with the Bult. He would have broken the ice.
Originally a political science major at Johns Hopkins University, Johnson, out of curiosity, took an East Asian course taught by Lattimore Joseph McCarthy had just accused Lattimore of being the Communist agent in the United States.
Johnson liked the class so much that he decided to major in East Asian studies.
Johnson finished his work at Johns Hopkins and attended graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Princeton and finish his thesis about Asian family law.
So in 1962, he left for Tai Bei to attend the National Taiwan University, a school for U.S. students working toward complete their doctorate degrees.
He rented a three-room cottage and bired a maid. Shu Jen, to look after him.
"Shu-Jen loved soap operas and I let her work as much as she wanted so she could go see them, provided that she told me all about them when she returned," Johnson said. "And she spoken no English, bless her heart, so he had to talk Chinese."
After two years of living in Tai Bei, Johnson tired of the Chinese way of life and longed for some good old-fashioned American ice cream.
Johnson came to KU in 1965 as acting associate professor of East Asian language and literature.
During his 24-year tenure, Johnson has written four books about China and received two fellowships, an Elizabeth M. Watkins Faculty Summer Fellowship at KU and a Liberal Arts Fellow in Law at Harvard University.
But despite his academic credentials, students still have refused to take his class. And not because they heard it was tough.
"I had a young lady come to me and say that she had to drop the course because her parents were afraid that she would be stung in that manner because of what I taught in the course.
"They thought o' Wally Johnson was to tempt their daughter in Buddy
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KANSAN Profiles April 12, 1989