Jalue Dorje knew it would be the last big party before he joins a monastery in the Himalayan foothills -- thousands of miles from his home in a Minneapolis suburb, where he grew up like a typical American teen playing football and listening to rap music.

The youthful Buddhist lama sat on a throne near an altar decorated with flowers, fruits and golden statues of the Buddha, watching the celebrations of his 18th birthday in silence, with a faint smile.