1/24/2007
Guesthouse, IBD, Sarah, Dharamsala
This is likely the last (or second to last time) I will write from the IBD guesthouse. I am moving into my roommates room either tomorrow or the day after. There is a brief question about who my roomate is.
Katie was placed with a Buddhist nun from Amdo who speaks no, literally NO, English. Sangmo’s english is limited but it is existant. Katie speaks no, literally NO, Tibetan. I speak it pretty comfortably. It is possible that Katie and I will switch, but I don’t know for sure yet.
A few interesting things happened yesterday after I got on the net, so I want to write about them on here. First of all, when I was walking over to load this onto the net, I was destracted by a guy on a DAMN NICE motorbike. (Sorry, dad, I don’t remember what make.) The guy saw I was wearing an SFT T-shirt and I mentioned that I had been involved with SFT for about 6 years now. Upon hearing this he extended his hand to me and explained that he was Choeying, head of SFT India! Then he asked if I was Amalia (yeah, way too many Tibetans know who I am) because apparently Passang la had told him that one of the students was big into activism.
We were joking about the shirts and I mentioned that I wore it to the Himalayan Live concert. “This under a chupa” I said “Right on stage in front of a few thousand Tibetans and Nepalis. Showing SFT pride up on the stage” and he goes “Wait, you were PERFORMING with them?!” I guess Passang la hadn’t told him that part. So I ran upstairs and grabbed a copy of my CD and gave it to him. He told me “This is exactly what we want!” and explained that this coming Friday (January 26th, the anniversary of the incarceration of Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche) there would be a rally at the Tsuglagkhang, or the Dalai Lama’s main temple, in support of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. There would be speeches in Tibetan, letter and petition signing, and performances by different Tibetan singers. Choeying asked me to sing some freedom songs. So I am singing Tso Ngeunbo (the last verse of which says “In order to fight for freedom, Tibetan youth must study hard,) and Zog Nit Keyn Mol, which is an amazing song of freedom and resistance from the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto and is very special to me.
By the way, writing that paragraph reminded me I needed to call Choeying. It turns out that today he was with Lhasang Tsering, former armed-resistance freedom fighter (Chushi Kangdruk) and former president of TYC, a man who I admire greatly. Choeying showed him my CD and Lhasang la was so impressed that he asked to keep the CD. Apparently his wife commented that she felt shame in being a Tibetan who could not sing Tibetan songs and they were so thrilled to hear a westerner singing in Tibetan. To get that good a reaction from Lhasang Tsering is making me so happy.
Anyway, after posting my last gigantic post and photos and everything I went to watch basketball. I ended up talking with Lobsang Gelek, the amazing singer from Kham who wanted to ask me a favor. Apparently, this sunday is Gonkar Rinpoche’s birthday. Gonkar Rinpoche is a Karma Kagyu Rinpoche at Sherab Ling, Tai Situ Rinpoche’s monastery. The monastery is located in Bir, about two hours away, which is a Tibetan settlement entirely filled with Khampas. Lobsang had been invited to perform along with a few other students from Sarah and wanted to know if I would sing as well! I am thrilled and will definitely be singing.
Today, morning class was an assault of VERBSSSSSSSSSS, yes, verbs, verbs, verbs. Random note: coconut crunchies are the best cookies ever. We then had philosophy class, which Geshe la always starts off with 10 minutes of meditation. This is good because it means that at a bare minimum I am meditating twice a week. Once I move in with my roomate (and therefore start regularily attending morning prayers, I will also be trying to attend daily meditation for half an hour.
Lunch was....icky. I think every other day is rice and vegetables, and every other day is tingmo and curries. I prefer tingmo days, hence the need for coconut crunchies right about now. Yiga from Amdo and Lobsang Delek are helping me to translate Zog nit keyn mol and a brief explination about it’s history into Tibetan so that I can explain it to the crowd at the tsuglagkhang.
In afternoon class, we read another childrens story. This one was easier. Hopefully this means my reading is improving. Once afternoon class finished, Alex and I headed up to mcleod. I grabbed Gyeltsen from the roof of the tsongkha and alex and I switched money then bought cell phones. I don’t expect to be using it much, but if you are doing any travel in India (such as being shuttled around to random shows) it really pays to have one so you can call back to the group and tell them where the heck you are! (I just loaded my otter box with coconut crunchies. Are we noticing a pattern in today’s post?)
I ran some errands for Amber and Dan then went to the tailors to pick up my 2 new chupas, which are LOVELY. I will try to take photos. One is a plain, shimmery pink with a black blouse. The other is green embroidered silk. I ordered 2 more for the upcoming concerts (at $15-25 a pop, I decided my stupid money is going to dresses.) I do need to order any dresses I want between now and March NOW, because with Losar coming up it is going to get more complicated.
Sadly, by the time I got out of the tailor, the Gyuma (Tibetan Blood Sausage) seller on the street had closed for the day (I know street food is off limits, but I somehow think being fried in boiling oil does alot to kill bacteria, and yes, they fry it in front of you.) My desire for food that actually makes you FULL (you know, with some sort of protein?) was getting pretty strong, so rather than make Kora, we went to get a few momo.
By the end of that, it was time for Alex and I to get back to Sarah, so we started to walk up to the Taxi stand. I always wonder, while walking, if I will run into someone I know from home. So I was utterly horrified to see a person who I have had the misfortune to come to know in America. In fact I saw him only 3 weeks ago in New York City at one of my shows. He is, and half the Tibetans in the world will agree with me, a horrible person on several different counts. I despise him on both a political and personal level. Not only has he made accusations against and insulted people and organizations who I am friends with or affiliated with, he has done some rather “interesting” things to me as well. Things which, in future encounters, he has only added to.
He has also attempted to take sexual advantage of a few of my friends. Do something against me, I might be able to forgive you. Hurt my friends? That is another matter entirely.
There are some people you don’t want to run into half a world away from home. And there are some people who you are so furious to run into when you thought that being 7000 miles away would put some distance between you that you are angered to a point of near tears and feel sick to the stomach. He is one of the latter.
I remained rather shaken from the encounter. And since (as I later learned) he tends to sexually target American students with an interest in Tibet, I am pulling aside the girls later to give them the heads up.
Then while eating dinner, and in a rather bad mood from all of this (7000 friggen miles away and he has to friggen show up in DHARAMSALA???) one of the monks from Sarah comes in and asks me if I know Didi from New York! He then pulls me outside where, lo and behold, Dhondhup (aka Didi, or the guy who took my mom’s shoes) from Ithaca, is standing on the Sarah porch! I was so thrilled to see him. He is staying in Tso Pema (about 4 hours away, where Padmasambhava was born) and has invited me to come visit. I think that seals my plans for next weekend! I am so excited to see Tso Pema!
Then, it just so happens that Passang bought aprojector while in Delhi. All of Sarah gathered together in the main shrine of the monastery and we watched “Narnia.” It was actually really interesting to listen to the Tibetans and watch their reaction. First of all, our mythical creatures are totally different from their’s (centaurs, mermaids, griffens) and so that was strange to them. Also they are much more vocal and emotional in response to movies. It was a ton of fun to watch with them.
That over, I came back to the room, washed some clothing and called Choeying as mentioned before. I might plug this online tomorrow (I think Monday and Thursday will be my internet days.)
1/25/2007
Sarah College, Girls Dormitory
Yet another exciting day. Really, things don’t seem to be slowing down here at all. In the morning, as usual, I had grammer class, which is always pretty boriung and somewhat confusing for me. It involves a lot of listing of verbs and just trying to get spelling right. And spelling in Tibetan is evil. Unfortunately, this is one of the classical Asian styles of teaching where the teacher lectures and the class simply copies down whatever he or she says. So I am not getting to practice writing sentences with the words I am learning. Hopefully continuing to read will help me more with my reading.
I found out in the afternoon that I would actually be moving in with the nun. her name is Dechen Dolma, and she is from Tso Ngeun, Amdo (known to English speakers as lake Kokonor.) Since she does not speak any English as of yet, I was placed with her and my roomate who speaks some English was given to another girl who as of yet doesn’t speak Tibetan.
Culture class was about the concept of sacred space. It was interesting but ran an entire half an hour too long, so by the time we arrived in the cafeteria basically everyone had already left. It was OK, but kind of disappointing because I really like chatting with the other students. I ended up chatting with Yega (formerly, and incorrectly, spelled Yiga,) and we decided that he would teach me dance steps to the song “trey yong” (’phrad byung) if I would teach himthe words to Lhendzom (lhan ‘dzom.) So on Sunday in Bir, we will probably perform Lhendzom together and I will sing Trey Yong solo, with some snazzy dance steps. We decided to meet at four o’clock to practice.
In the afternoon, we played some games in language class and I was put with a Tuvan boy named Chechen. We had to take shuffled words and form them into coherent sentences. Chechen and I actually did pretty well.
After this I edited some music on the computer for the performance in Bir then went over to the basketball court to wait for Yega. Sichoe came over to talk to me and asked if I was free the second day of Losar to perform at an Ani Gonpa (Nunnery.) I said hta ti was pretty sure that I was free. He then told me that he wanted me to come sing and that a whole group of Sarah students would be performing and that the Karmapa would be coming to watch! The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu school of Buddhism, the school that I follow. I was just in total shock! I pulled aside the program coordinators and explaine dhte situation and they agreed that even if there were other activities that day, this was something I COULD NOT MISS and therefore it would be OK for me to go. I am so excited! I am supposed to sing Yi Re Kyo and possibly Lhendzom. I might also learn a few dances with the school dance troupe to perform. I was totally freaking out over this.
Then Yega came over and we went onto the roof of the class building and practiced singing and dancing up there. It is actually a very good location. There aren’t too many people and it’s out of the way. You are less likely to attract a whole swarm of people. We are also going to practice on saturday before heading out to Bir on sunday. And Gyeltsen also called to tell me that he found a kham chupa for me. YAY!
Unfortunately, when I was with Yega, I realized that I had lost my necklace blessed by the Karmapa. Fortunately I just found it while unpacking just now.
After dinner, Amber was giving funky haircuts. It was actually really cool because she has this amazing way of doing totally unconventional, but utterly awesome haircuts. I wouldn’t let her touch mine though. I want to grow mine out.
At 9:30, Dechen and Sangmo came over and we moved me into Dechen’s room. I am almost entirely unpacked, but I didn’t want to do all of it right now.
I can’t really think of much else, so I am going to close up and go to sleep.
1/29/2007
Monday
Basketball Court @ Sarah, IBD
Yes, I am getting lazy. it is official. have not written for three days and, since I appear to have lost my flash drive, it is likely that this won’t go online for a while. Oh well.
So let me see if I can actually remember anything that has happened for the past three days. On Friday I had class in the morning. Tibetan language class, I find, is actually pretty boring for me. I am used to a more interactive language class and i truly feel that an interactive language class is necesary in order to try and learn any language. I am sure it is helping me, but it just doesn’t feel lik,e that.
After language, we had a discussion group. Since a lot of people still had to move into their rooms, the discussion group was left relatively short so as to provide time to move. It asw a fascinating discussion on Buddhist philosophy mostly.
In the afternoon, we took Sumo cabs, as we call them, to Mcleod to the new reception center. There we met Ama Adhe, former armed freedom fighter with the Khampa resistance, and 27 year political prisoner. She now runs the new reception center. Gen Norsang la was brought along to translate, but when Ama Adhe started speaking, in relatively heavy Khamke, he couldn’t understan her at all. I could hardly hold in my laughter because she was speaking virtually the same dialect that all of the monks visiting my house speak and so I was getting every word. Passang ended up translating.
As much as I admire Ama Adhe (and I may even post the english tranlsation of her talk) I disagree with the change in her stance, from Rangzen (complete freedom) to that of genuine autononmy. I would agree with the stance of autonomy if it were even slightly feasible, but the fact of the matter is it is NOT feasible. Anything that relies on the continued goodwill of the CCP government is doomed to failure.
When the talk ended, we rushed over to the Tsuglagkhang for the Tenzin Delek Rinpoche freedom Rally. I met up with Choeying from SFT who introduced me to Tenzin Tsundue, the famous Tibetan freedom activist whpo once hung a banner off of the building where (the vice) president Hu Jintao was staying. Pretty impressive in my opinion. He is such an extreme activist that when (now) president Hu Jintao came ot vcisit India this year, he was placed under house arrest in Dhasa.
I sang Yi Re Kyo (Nyin Da Kar Sum) by Kunga and Zog Nit Keyn Mol (a Jewish resistance song) and the audience greatly appreciated it, to my pleasure. After singing, I walked over to choeying, who was on the phone with an odd look on his face. “Someone over at the T-shirt table knows you” he said.
I walked over and lo and behold, it was Dhondup Shyalpatsang, from Free Tibet Action Camp 2003! He moved to India not long after camp and, what with him not telling me that, we fell out of touch. And here he was in Dharamsala. He apparently saw me on the stage, recognized the name and called Choeying! I was so thrilled, I just kept hugging him. I ran into a lot of people who had heard of me or who recognized me from the photo in the magazine.
After the rally, Tsundue, Dhondup, a New York Tibetan named Tsering and I all went to Jimmy’s Italian Kitchen for snacks and (in my case) dinner. You know, they make a damn good pepperoni pizza there. I had a craving for meat and western style cheese. Talk about joy. I think I am going to have to go back.
On the cab ride back, I sat with Phuntsok Tsering, the founder and director of Thangtong Lhugar Tibetan Performing Arts school, which is the school right near Sarah. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was to show up at the school at 10 AM the next morning because, although my sound was very good, my technique was not (I learnt most of my dranyen by teaching myself. I have no proper technique) and if I was going to FINALLY have a teacher, he wanted to guarantee that the teacher would be from a proper school! Apparently Thangtong Lhugar has a good reputation, second to TIPA.
I called Yega and we met in a classroom to practice our song for sunday. Unfortunately I have been suffering from relatively bad dizzy spells, so I was not in a veyr good mood, but we made reasonable progress.
So, saturday morning, I woke up for morning prayers (Yega had been bugging me about not going) and then went back to sleep until 9:15. Then I got dressed and headed over to Thangtong Lhugar. Phuntsok helped restring my loaner Dranyen and then brought over a girl named Choekyi to teach me Nangma Toeshey, a style of classical dranyen. I really do not like Nangma Toeshey, but it is important for learning technique. I mastered the first section pretty quickly and so we headed on to drukshey, or the super fast second part of every song. I have never been able to get drukshey, but with Choekyi’s masterful instruction, I was able to recognizably, if not actually well, play a drukshey. It is a difficult task, especially considering I really don’t actually like nangma or toeshey.
By the way, nothing makes you conscious of how much our life revolves around bodily functions like moving to a country with squat toilets.
I went back for lunch at Sarah and after lunch, Yega and I met and practiced singing for a while on top of the guesthouse. It was a good place for privacy mostly, wiht only a few interruptions. The Yega had to get dinner and afterwords we went into one of the classrooms and practiced with some of the other students for a whlie. After I had dinner there was some more practice. I was in serious need of some real food (the lunches here leave so much to be desired) and so we went to the canteen where I got tenthuk and they got chowmein and soutsemein. I didn’t know we had a canteen!!!!
Sunday...ohhhhh sunday. Sunday morning I slept in for a while, which was very very nice, then went for a walk with Alec, one of my Tuvan classmates, and Yega. We walked up into the town of Sarah, which is a couple of miles, and got chai and then walked back. Then Yega, Tom, Yonden Gonpo and I all went to the canteen for lunch. I just did not want to get lunch at the dining hall again. That would not make me happy.
In Mcleod on friday, Gyeltsen managed to get me a dress from Kham but it was just too simple and too short to wear in Bir (not short as in miniskirt, short as in Tibetan dresses should go well past the ankles.) So I went back to my room, got changed into my amdo chupa, and was heading out at 1:30 to get to the taxi before 2 when Yega calls me telling me to rush. But Tibetans are never on time! What was this?!?! I call Karen and tell HER to rush and before long the two of us are running to get into the Taxi. 10 people in a jeep. It’s what India is all about. Fortunately, Karen and I were given front seat. Karen and I enjoyed the ride immensely, having great philosophical discussions (in fact, Karen kept pulling out her recorder to catch bits of it.)
Two hours and a few wrong turns later, we arrived in Sherabling, Tai Situ Rinpoche’s monastery in Bir. I still wasn’t sure WHICH Rinpoche’s birthday it was, but I knew it wasn’t Situ’s. We drove into a big field, surrounded by Indian style cloth walls and tents. In one tent was a huge, as in about 10 layer, cake with a big sign wishing Bo Gangkar Rinpoche a happy 25th birthday. In the field, young monks were having a football (for Americans, soccer) competition and a volleyball competition, and all of the Sarah students and I were treated to sweet tea and cookies. Michael (Aka Tenzin Gyalpo) from Delhi showed up to perform as well and he is a comedian so we were having a fantastic time just chatting.
The entire event was being filmed by an Indian film crew and we had a severe case of “White girl in a Chupa Syndrome” (WGCS) were the film crew kept stopping by me and Karen.
After dinner, we offered Khatags to Bo Gangkar Rinpoche, who I recognized immediately upon seeing him. I was one of very few non-Himalayans there so he greeted me in English, to which I responded in Tibetan. Definitely got an eyebrow up.
After dinner, Rinpoche cut the cake and......everyone decided to loosen up even a bit more. See, rinpoche bought all the little monks and nuns (HUNDREDS of them) sparkley party hats and cans of foam and silly string, which the monks and nuns ran around with spraying everyone with in the absolute definition of rambunctiousness. Rinpoche, being only 25, is far from being stiff and formal. Cake, foam, funny hats, and sports competitions (which Rinpoche then gave trophies for the winning teams) made for one of the best birthday parties I have ever been to.
The performances were pretty good, but, unfortunately, the sound system was HORRIBLE. Everyone loved it anyway, but it made it very difficult to sing. I am still proud of how I did, but I was very unhappy with the sound quality. One mic was defective and kept cutting out or making bad noises. The Sarah students were loved by the crowd. There were also a group of students from Suja (Tibetan Childrens’ Village) who were all originally from Muenya, Kham. During some of the pop songs they would run up to the stage and start doing high-speed traditional Khampa dancing. It was FANTASTIC.
Rinpoche was having a great time. When I wasn’t on stage I could see him laughing and smiling. I also saw the Karmapa’s sister there.
At the end, after all the performances were done, Rinpoche presented all of us singers each with a HUGE (9 foot long) khatag, Sherabling monastery sports jersey, a Kagyu Tibetan 12 month calender, a laminated photo of Situ Rinpoche and an envelope. I didn’t look in the envelope until today, but it felt...thick. It contained 980 (although the envelope said 1000, someone made off with 20 from each envelope probably...that really makes me laugh!) rupees. that’s about $25 USD, but in spending terms, 20 full dinners in Mcleod (appetizer, tea, dinner) or one full length, personally tailored, fancy silk Tibetan dress. In short, nothing to be sneezed at. I am probably going to donate a chunk to the SFT here in India. It was an unexpected windfall, although I have found out that it was expected by pretty much everyone except me. I find it interesting that I probably get paid more for singing here (at least value wise) than I do in the USA! I actually felt very awkward recieving money for it, but it is normal.
at midnight we jammed ourselves back into the jeep and all fell asleep on each other for the ride back. We arrived back at 2 AM, totally exhausted.
This morning, i was planning on waking up for morning prayers, but after only getting 4 hours of sleep, that was just not going to happen. Morning class was, well, morning class. Philosophy was great though! We are now being taught by a German nun named Ani Kelsang Wangmo, and she is enthusiastic and teaches in a more western style, which I prefer.
Unfortunately, my roommate was feeling pretty sick to her stomach today (although not throwing up, thank goodness) so I had lunch with Dhondup, Yega, Tom and Lucy today. After lunch, Yega, Tom and I all got tea at the canteen. Afternoon class was alright and then I took a nap, which i really really needed. For some reason, in the afternoon, 3 Tuvan students grabbed me and brought me over to Thangtong Lhugar. I am still not sure why. Then I came back to campus, sent some e-mails, got dinner, did homework, got some tea with some friends and came back to my room.
Dechen, Ani Choenzin and I watched Tibetan music videos and chatted for a while and then I finished this up, because goodness knows I really needed to update. Anyway, it is nearly midnight and I AM going to get up for morning prayers tomorrow if it kills me!!!
Things to remember to write about tomorrow:
Barefootedness
Men and Chocolate (and chocolate in general)
Some other things that I cannot remember
1/30/ 2007
Tuesday
Girls hostel, Sarah College
So, the points from last time.
Barefootedness. In Thailand, shoes came off upon entering a house, bedroom, temple, dormitory, and even classroom. I assumed that we would keep shoes on in the classroom here but that shoes would come off at the door of the bedroom at least. Well, I was right about the classroom, and shoes coming off in the temple, but apparently the temple is the only place where having one’s shoes off is acceptable! Even wandering around our clean room, if I try to even take one step off my bed without slippers on, my roommate looks at me in horror and passes me her slippers, because obviously, if I don’t have slippers on, it’s because I don’t own them. And we are talking just for me to walk the 1 meter from my bed to my shelves. She firmly believes that walking barefoot will make me sick.
Men and chocolate. Well, in Tibetan society, Chocolate is a girls food. Men don’t eat it. In fact a lot of men here cannot understand how American men can like chocolate! They think it’s really really strange that Americans in general will crave chocolate and even stranger that men will voluntarily eat it. One of my Tibetan friends in America once broke up with a girlfriend over chocolate (he wouldn’t eat it.)
Other news: bucket showers hear are glorious in comparison to Thailand. We don’t have hot water showers but we do have ONE hot water tap per floor. Fill big bucket with hot water, have a wonderful bucket shower. I feel awesome.
I spoke to Geshe la this morning about Tibetan language class and how I don’t realy feel like I am getting anything out of it. He said to ride it out for the rest of the week and if I still feel unsatisfied to talk to him again and we will work something out.
For culture class, Geshe la discussed Tibetan visualization meditation and taught and led us in the purification meditation of Vajrasattva (Dorje Sempa) (By the way, I am going to mostly be using Tibetan, versus the sanskrit names which are used more frequently in America.) I had recieved the empowerment of Vajrasattva about a year and a half ago from Garchen Rinpoche but never recieved clear, guided instruction. Geshe la led this like a guided meditation, making it very easy to follow and pleasurable to do! He said that if we are interested, he will later teach Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) and Tonglen (giving and recieving practice.) For the latter, he noted that the text is usually sung and proposed to me that I take the song and re-compose it for dranyen. Sounds like an interesting idea.
I ate too much at breakfast, at it was fried food, so I was feeling a bit ill at lunch and skipped out. I took a nap instead. I did wake up for morning prayers so I was pretty darn exhausted! Afternoon Tibetan class was OK.
After that Yega, Will, Lucy, Julia, Katie and I all headed to Mcleod. I returned the kham chupa to Gyeltsen, tried to fix my phone (and failed) got some gyuma (To hell with the street food ban! It’s DELICIOUS!) and dropped my publicity photos off fo the concert posters. Then Yega and I made Kora (Gyeltsen was hung over and just couldn’t do it!)
On the way, I ran into Choeying (SFT India president) Tenchoe, (SFT India other high-up) Tsering (SFT India alternate high-up) Ani Kalsang Wangmo (my Buddhism teacher) and Tenzin Tsundue (mentioned earlier.) I also once again passed on the road the certain person who I despise. Apparently he has the common sense even when passing 6 inches away from me not to acknowledge or try to talk to me. Yega pointed out something I couldn’t hear, which was the fact that since my Tsuglagkhang performance, everyone on the street is commenting on the inji-bhumo who sings.
Then Yega, Lucy, Julia and Katie headed back but Will and I headed to Jimmy’s italian kitchen. Sometimes western food is good. While there, Mangtoe from SFT, Tibetan Youth Congress and the guy who needed my publicity photos came in. It turns out I was also sitting right behind the president of the National Democratic Party of Tibet. So I made a lot of good contacts and spoke to Mangtoe for a while about Tibetan typing fonts, since he teaches computers here, and also computer security. (Little shout out to my brother is necesary here. I think Mangtoe is taking this more seriously! Further correspondences will follow!)
A cute little cat snuck into the restaurant and stole the bulk of Will’s food (although, fortunately, will was already done.) and then Mangtoe helped us get a good deal on a cab and we headed back to Sarah.
I worked a bit on homework then at 9:00 joined Gonpo, Sichoe, Palkyi, Yega, Bhutse, Karma and the other performers to rehearse for our performance for the Karmapa. Palkyi said that if I can pick up the dances, I can join those too! Yaaaaaaay. So now I am trying to learn Ladakhi dance and maybe one modern Tibetan dance.
Tharchin, editor of TibetToday magazine gave me the unedited version of my interview, which I proceeded to correct vigorously. There is an issue with conducting this sort of interview, which is, if a person does not speak English as a first language and you are listing English instruments, they are bound to come up with some pretty interesting things. My favorite thus far was Tharchin’s interpretation of Hammer Dulcimer and penny whistle:
TIBETODAY: What are the other instruments you are familiar with?
Amalia: Dranyen, Mandolin, Hammerdorf Snar dorf, an instrument very similar to Yangchen, Penny vessel and I used to study piano also.
I laughed so hard when I read that, I had tears streaming down my face and could not stop laughing because every time I looked at it, I totally lost it! Meanwhile everyone around me is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and I just cannot translate this! Even now looking at it I keep breaking down laughing. Hammerdorf Snar dorf!! Thank you, Tharchin, for making my day a little bit more funny.
After dance practice I came back to my dormitory, took a nice hot bucket shower and now I am going to sleep! goodnight!
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