dhasAmalia (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dhasamalia) wrote,@ 2007-02-23 06:26:00 |
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Photos will come, I promise
For those of you on my friends list on Kunde_Yidang, an un-edited version of this will (most likely) be posted and I reccomend you read that instead. Sorry that I am not adding other people to that list right now.
2/7/2007
Girls Hostel at Sarah
Need to get out of my insanely lazy habit and NOW. this is BAD. Anyway, I am writing this in a bit of a crazy mood and having a total emotional overload. I just found out that one of the most important people in my life (after my family, I would say he is up there at number #1) is in the hospital for open heart surgery. He is in his 80s and not in great health. Any prayers said for him would be greatly appreciated.
I hope I can even remember what happened yesterday. Well, monday I had my first language class with the new teacher, Rinzin. Rinzin speaks no english and the conversation classes are really fun! In fact, we ran 20 minutes over and didn’t even notice. I actually ducked out of meditation early on monday night because I was just having a very uncomfotable night and Ani-la was a bit concerned when she noticed that I walked out of meditation part way (albeit subtly and quietly.) She pulled me aside to talk to me about it and I assured her that I was OK. She is a sweetheart though, I really appreciate it. I will probably talk to her tomorrow about my friend, I bet she is a great person to talk to about that.
We discussed debate in class today and I asked Ani La afterwords about the chance of practicing formal debate in English. I mentioned that I do have people I can formally debate with in English here in the USA and she said she will give me some resources and maybe teach me! YAY HANDCLAPPING.
On tuesday in culture class we discussed the issues facing nuns in Tibet. Fascinating especially considering my roommate is a nun. One point that was really interesting and apparently no one had considered: One student brought up that the shaving of the heads seemed to masculinize the women while the men were not asked to feminize themselves in any way, so in reality the red robes and shaved head are not a gender androgynous uniform. I pointed out, however, that int raditional Tibetan society (up to 1959 and even now in rural areas) no self-respecting Tibetan man would EVER wear his hair shorter than his shoulders, nor wear a skirt longer than his knees, with the exception of aristocracy at formal functions. Therefore, the long red skirt and shaved head did act to de-masculinize and de-feminize all the monastics. They were very interested by this point as they had never considered how short hair as “masculine” is a very western concept.
In the evening, we watched a short documentary made by amber about the nuns in Nangchen, Kham. It was very cool and inspiring. Afterwords I joined dance practice.
Today, I went to morning class. Buddhism discussed the wheel of life, which is always interesting and afternoon class was fun. Then we all piled into cars (my roommate included) to go to Mcleod. I was supposed to go to the Tibetan doctor about my restless leg, but the doctor was out today. Dechen and I went straight to mcleod where I picked up my Losar chupas and changed my phone. My friend Mangtoe met us there and Diana joined us for dinner at the JJI cafe.
After dinner, Diana, Dechen and I went to Dechen’s friend Yangchen’s house. Yangchen is also from Tso Ngeun and braided my hair in the many, tiny, braids that is so popular among amdo women (for one thing, you don’t need to wash your hair as often or brush it at all.) It looks really cool and only took an hour.
Unfortunately, during dinner, I heard about my friend. However, Diana (being the wonderful girl that she is) was amazingly supportive. She is truly fantastic.
We headed back to Sarah and I went to the remains of dance practice then went up to Ambers room to cry for a bit. She gave me some great advice from a Buddhist perspective, including to practice Tonglen meditation (giving and recieving.) She also said that if I need time alone at Sherabling monastery (where we will be spending the next 5 days) that there will be no problem for me to find that.
Another friend of mine will be contacting a few rinpoches who closely know my friend and request them to say prayers for him. Speaking of prayers, I need to do some of my own and go to sleep. I wake up in only 6 hours for morning prayer here and I really really really need to get some sleep.
Feb 16th, 2007
Girls hostel, Sarah
Yes, another major gap. It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster here, so I am going to try and update this but I might need to do half today and half tomorrow.
Lets start all the way back at
LAST WEDNESDAY
Diana and Ani Dechen (my roommate) and I all went to mcleod. When we got there we also met up with my friend Mangtoe. after doing whatever shopping we had to do we met at JJI cafe for dinner. JJI is actually a band of 3 brothers and they also happen to run a good vegetarian cafe on bhagsu road. I had switched my phone, so I was calling my mom to tell her when she informed me that my neighbor, one of the people whom I am closest to after my parents and brother, was in the hospital for open heart surgery. What with him being in his 80s and not in the best of health I was quite distraught to hear this.
Dinner was pretty good, for vegetarian Tibetan food, although the veg and cheese momos were excellent and being able to eat *gasp* cucumber salad totally made my evening. After dinner, Diana and I went to Dechen’s friends house and she did our hair in the traditional style of tons and tons and tons of tiny braids. Lots of fun!
After we came back from mcleod, I went to talk to Amber for a bit because I was still relatively upset about Mr. Roth. I decided that the best thing to do was to talk to “Kelsang” about getting in touch with Gangkar Rinpoche at Sherab Ling in order to get in touch with Situ Rinpoche at Sherab Ling, who is very close ot Mr. Roth and hopefully eventually pass the message on to the Karmapa himself.
THURSDAY
After morning language class, we got in the cars to go to Sherab ling. I was happy to head out as I wanted to pray or Mr. Roth there. On the way, we stopped at the Chamunda Devi temple, which is a temple devoted to the Hindu goddess Kali. Not really my cup of tea.
After arriving, a few of us went to explore the Gonpa a bit. We had a nice time and I dropped in the office to ask if I could meet with Gangkar Rinpoche or Situ Rinpoche. I was informed that Gangkar Rinpoche was away for the day and would be busy, as the Mahakala Puja to clear obstacles and remove all of the negativities of the past year was to start soon and he was dorje lopon or vajra master, in charge of the ceremony, so although they would try to get me an audience, chances were slim to none. As for Situ Rinpoche, I was told he was in Delhi and would be returning and granting our group an audience and I might get a few minutes of private time at the bveginning or end. Doubting that Situ Rinpoche would return in time, i left a message for him at the office. I tried to emphasize that Situ Rinpoche would definitely want to recieve this message, but I don’t think they got the idea. I mean, how many people come in saying “I have an important message for Rinpoche! He really needs to hear it” every day? So I realized that this route would not work.
Meanwhile, Kelsang was having no luck contacting Gangkar Rinpoche’s secretary, which proves to me that if you need to contact a rinpoche, call either the Rinpoche directly, or his mother. It is really one or the other.
FRIDAY
We got up the morning and had breakfast at the guesthouse of Sherabling, which is lovely, I should tell you all. if you need a place to stay, that is really the place to do it. In the morning I explored a bit and played music for the young monks. In the afternoon we went to visit Ani Tenzin Palmo’s nunnery and Tashi Jong. At Tashi jong we meditated in Atin Rinpoche’s room and one monk there gave me some blessed salt. It was really out of the blue, but we had been chatting in Tibetan and I guess he was very appreciative to find a westerner who spoke Tibetan, so he wanted to give me something special.
The weather, however, was horrible, so once we went back, we basically stayed in the guesthouse.
SATURDAY
We headed out in the morning to Bir, again, however, the weather was horrible. But now, at least, I can say that I have hiked in the himalayan foothills...in a Chupa. We walked to bir, about one hour, stopping at TCV Suja on the way. When we arrived at TCV Suja we got lunch at Chokling Monastery, where steve, in his food paranoia, told us that he “Strongly reccomended we not eat the meat” even though Passang said he thought it owuld be relatively fresh. Steve is way too paranoid on the food. I have been feeling sick and I realized it is coming from not getting adaquate protein, so I said to steve “how MUCH do you reccomend not eating meat” and he said “Would you eat it if the chance was one in 20 that you will get sick?” I was like “WOAH! One in TWENTY? Those odds are AMAZING! I want fried mutton momos.”
I think Steve failed at getting his point across.
Then we went to a Nyingma Gonpa which was pretty amazing because even though it was nyingma, the murals on the walls represented teachers from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. We meditated and explored there for a while and then headed onward.
By coincidence, we ended up being granted an audience with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (Director of The Cup and Travellers and Magicians.) Who, not knowing I spoke Tibetan, was talking for a bit about “the girl in the amdo Chupa, even her hair looks like an Amdo girl.” hahaha. That was interesting, but since steve never told anyone who this guy was, it was kind of hard for people to come up with questions to ask him. After that we visited Dzongsar monastery and then went back to Sherabling.
SUNDAY
Diana, bless her heart, brought up waht had been bothering a lot of students. Which was that no one ever introduces the students to waht we are seeing so, unless you have a very very strong background in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, it is largely meaningless! It is never explained afterwords either. So Diana asked for a meeting to discuss what we had seen at the previous locations and what we would see at Sherabling. Steve, somehow, turned this into a 2 hour meeting which NEVER covered those topics but did cover emotions, what the favorite thing people saw were, and lots of fun touchyfeely topics. I was destinctly uncomfortable. Steve was pretty much opening patronizing to Diana. When I asked him “Well, could you tell us about what we will see today touring Sherabling?” We found out why he was avoiding the topic: He didn’t know.
Well, when this meeting was finished, I was pretty damn stressed. Diana was furious and I really can’t blame her. I was rather displeased as my goal for the morning had been to find a way to get in touch with ONE of the Rinpoches, we we had just found out that Situ would be staying in Delhi and we would not be getting an audience. In order to try and relieve our stress, Diana and I went to the Gonpa, in the pouring, freezing rain. We arrived to find it locked.
Not happy about that. So, not wanting to go back to the guesthouse, we just sat down outside the shrine room, under the awning and talked. As we were talking, a monk in slightly different robes walked by. It took me a second but I realized it was Gangkar Rinpoche! However, with him being busy with preparations for the puja, it would have been a great breach of protocol to stop him. However, he remembered me from his birthday, stopped and stared for a moment. I stared back, not entirely sure it was him, but when he kept hesitating and looking at me, I took that as my cue. I stand up and pulled a Khata out of my purse and presented it to him, and he returned it to me. Diana stood up and I introduced him to her. It turns out that he speaks almost no english, so I translated for a bit. He asked where we were staying, if we had gotten our rooms yet, how long we were staying, and general questions. Finally I said to him in VERY formal Tibetan (which I never speak) “Rinpoche, I need to ask you something.” I explained the situation with Mr. Roth, which had been greatly on my mind and I was pretty emotional. I get a bit embarrassed about showing emotion when I am trying to be formal, but he stood there comforting me. I was especially nervous because asking to use a rinpoche as a messenger service is NOT what one is supposed to do, so I was doing something that could e considered a breach of protocol. However, he was very kind and supportive. Finally I explained that i needed help passing on the message to Situ Rinpoche, who knows Mr. Roth very well, and that I didn’t think the office was taking me seriously and (at this point my formal Tibetan failed me and I switched back to my Khampa slang...which happens to be this Rinpoche’s native tongue) I needed him to help me.
Rinpoche told me to wait there, and a minute later, a monk came back with a phone number: Situ Rinpoche’s personal secretary’s mobile phone. Skip the office, go to the source.
Khata around my neck and walking on a cloud, I returned to the guest house where I immediately called the secretary. At first he was confused. I tried to explain who I was in relation to Mr. Roth but it seemed that he did not know who Mr. Roth was. I explained that this was OK, but that Situ Rinpoche definitely knew Mr. Roth very well and he should tell Situ Rinpoche that Mr. Roth was in the hospital awaiting a serious surgery. He still seemed a bit confused, but said he would pass on the message. Then he suddenly hesitated and asked “Wait a moment, what state are you from?”
“I am from New York” I responded.
“Will Roth from KTD and the Albany KTC? He is in the Hospital?”
Finally it clicked for the secretary, who apparently knows Mr. Roth as well. Suddenly I might as well ahve been family and this message was going through first thing! He also assured me that one thing he knew of Mr. Roth (and I know too) is that he is a fighter!
OK, I need to go to sleep. I will continue writing this tomorrow.
February 19th
Girls hostel
SUNDAY, CONTINUED
Anyway, after lunch the group was supposed to on on a tour, but Rinpoche told me that he wanted me and Diana to be at Puja at one and I mentioned this to Steve who also understood that I was feeling some stress so instead of going on the tour I just joined the Puja at one. I stayed until 6:00 with Diana, saying my own prayers. Every hour, there is a tea break and also a bathroom break. When all the monks are on bathroom break (the lay people can leave whenever they want) its a nice chance to explore the shrine room. Anyway, the Rinpoches enter through a back door so I was standing by this door when tnhey came in (Gangkar and a younger rinpoche, about 15 years old.) Gangkar Rinpoche checked to make sure I got the number and stuff and was very nice.
We prayed some more then during another break, I was again near the shrine when the Rinpoches camein (they come in before the other monks) and Gangkar Rinpoche and the younger Rinpoche were teasing each other. Apparently this is just waht they do and its really fun to watch. Gangkar Rinpoche will occasionally whisper to or poke the younger Rinpoche, and the younger Rinpoche would sometimes make silly faces at the small monks. All in all it was really cute. Anyway, the shrine room was virtually abandoned, just me, Diana, Taylor and these two Rinpoches goofing off. The younger Rinpoche was heading over to his throne, playing a bit when he discovered why polished floors and socks are a bad combination. It was like something out of acartoon: Flying Rinpoche! The poor boy’s feet totally went right about his head. He knocked the tray off his throne (Taylor scrambled to pick everything up) meanwhile, Gangkar Rinpoche, Diana and I are all lunging to this young Rinpoche to help him up, and he is trying to get up and save SOME sort of face. And we all lost it. All five of us. Totally. Utterly. Lost it. We were laughing so hard. The young Rinpohce was taking it really well laughing with us with that sheepish little “Yep...that was all me” look and we were just laughing and making sure he was OK. It was absolutely hilarious. It was also this fun moment of young people, all between the ages of 15-25 just BEING YOUNG PEOPLE, not Rinpoches and devotees.
After dinner, I returned to Puja with Diana, Emily and Rachel and we stayed until 9:30 PM. Now, the idea of this Puja is to flush out all of the negativities of the past year, and this apparently has “side effects” like people having bad dreams and stuff. Apparently everyone was getting REALLY weird vibes in the guest house, including a few people waking up at the same time with a feeling that SOMEONE was in their room, and 2 people had the same experience where they were walking down to the ground floor to get a cup of tea but couldnt step off the last step because SOMETHING WAS TERRIFYINGLY WRONG, but they couldn’t place what. Very bizarre.
Anyway, I asked the monks what time Puja started the next day, they answered 2 AM.
MONDAY
So, I woke up at 3:30. I figure, I can pull off being two hours late what with me beign a lay person (Insert a “z” before the “y” in Lay and get the real meaning!)
Now before you think I am totally nuts for this, it was a really cool shrine room and I was getting to relax, meditate, reflect and pray for a friend in need. Plus I was sitting near all the young monks who are a veritable comedy show.
I walk into Puja at 4 AM and the younger rinpoche is DISTINCTLY asleep on the throne. Gangkar Rinpoche kept having to poke him occasionally to wake up. A lot of the younger monks were alseep. Once the younger Rinpoche was awake, he recognized me in the back and kept smiling and shooting me thumbs up, peace signs, salutes and silly faces and stuff.
Anyway, at 8 I came back to the guest house for breakfast. Then we drove back to campus and I rested a bit.
TUESDAY
Tuesday (India Time) was my big brother’s birthday so I decided to call him. We had a fun conversation and I got to wish him a happy birthday from India.
There were no afternoon classes on tuesday so after finding out that a friend of my family, who often had taken care of me when I was little, had passed away, I decided that rather than be sad around students trying to be happy and prepare for losar making cookies, I would head back to sherabling and say prayers for our friend. (Also, it would have been culturally unacceptable for me to, after finding out about a friends death, be making khapse RATHER than being at a gonpa.)
I spent about 5 hours there and it was a good way for me to get a lot of stress and mourning out all together and just let everything go. It worked out nicely. Of course the monks were rather baffled by the American girl, in a chupa, back AGAIN but instead of looking happy looking sad. I ran into the younger Rinpoche again during a break, who pantomimed sliding head over heels, which made me laugh. Of course then we had to explain it to a VERY young (like 7) Rinpoche who had no idea about what had happened. But it was funny and I felt I managed to bond with the Rinpoche’s on a friendly and informal level over that. They felt so too as we just ended up chatting about stuff for a while and trading mobile phone numbers.
Finally I came back to school and went to sleep.
WEDNESDAY
Don’t remember much
THURSDAY
Mom called in the morning to let me know that my neighbor had made it through surgery OK and now it was just a question of recovery. I was very, VERY relieved. I called up Situ Rinpoche’s secretary, who was thrilled to hear it and promised to keep in touch with me and also to pass the passage on to the Karmapa, who will most likely do prayers for his health.
FRIDAY
GUTOR!!!!! OK, Gutor is like new years eve, except its two days before New Years Eve. The organizers were planning to take the students to the Torgyal offering at Namgyal monastery, but Diana and I had been invited to attend the Cham (masked dances) at Sherabling. This invitation was somewhat compounded when i was woken at 7:12 AM by Gangkar Rinpoche calling to ask where I was (Cham starts at 7:30.) it was a weird wake up, that is for damn sure. And it also sent a pretty clear message to me that I should NOT skip out on Cham.
However, the group was expected for the Torgyal offering. I spoke to the gorup organizers and they said that we COULD skip out bu tthey wouldn’t recomend it. Well, most of the group decided ot go to the Torgyal but Diana and I decided that we would go to Sherabling. At first I really didn’t want to. it seemed too risky to go on a two hour drive iwthout the group for the possibility of huge crowds and not being able ot see anything in order to get MAYBE 2 hours of dances, but Rinpoche’s call in the morning was bugging me. Finally Diana and I hired a car and headed out with our friend Dhondup in tow.
We soon discovered that poor dhondup gets rather violently car sick.
We also discoverd that driving through Baijunath, site of one of the oldest, holiest Shiva temple in India on Shiva Ratri, the most sacred day of the Shivite calender, might not be a great idea traffic wise. However, you can’t really mind being stuck in a traffic jam of people dancing and parade like cars with people dressed as Shiva and his wife in the back.
As we came towards the mountain on which Sherab ling is located, we were surprised to find that while the surroundings were a glorious, warm, mild, sunny day, a black storm cloud was surrounding Sherab ling. Like it looked like night on just that mountain. As we drove in, it was cold, rainy and wind was blowing. It was bizarre! Apparently this is another common side effect of the ceremonies to remove negativities.
Fortunately, due to the weather, we didn’t need to battle with crowds and got into the courtyard, right by the only entrance, so whenever the rinpoche had to enter or leave the ceremony, which was frequent, he would pass us and we could see whatever he was carrying or doing, which was fascinating! We arrived during the last dance of the cham, the black hat dance. I took photos and shall post them. Rinpoche was Dorje Lopon, so he was coming in and out bringing the Torma out to the fire as monks played outside with fire crackers.
It was an amazing transformation from the goofy Rinpoche who gives young monks spray foam at his birthday party into a young man taking this religious duty very seriously!
After the dance was finished the Torma, a GIGANTIC butter and tsampa sculpture that was supposed to take in all the negativity of the year, was broken into peices and placed on a bonfire. The bonfire was stuffed with firecrackers which would burst, sending chunks of Torma flying. We were all laughing as we dodged out of the way, but Rinpoche, surprisingly, maintained a completely serious demeanor.
Soon, we got back into the car and drove back to Sarah. As it turned out, due to crowds and traffic, the rest of the emory group never even ARRIVED at Namgyal. In short, we made the right decision. (Kudos to Rinpoche’s 7 AM phone call!)
Dinner was Guthuk, which is so much fun I am going to need to start making that at home. Guthuk is a noodle soup, just like any other Tietan noodle soup except it has some special ingredients mixed in. But the real key to guthuk is the dumplings. The dumplings are stuffed with rolled up peices of paper. Everyone serves themselves and then, if they find a dumpling, opens it up and reads what is inside. There are different meanings, for example Sun and Moon (Nyinda) is a good person, auspicious to be around. The happy shoe is a happy person, barbed wire is an overly critical person, coal is a negative person, salt is a lazy person, cotton is a hard worker.
I got Siben (Chili) meaning that I have a sharp tongue (a blunt speaker.) We all got a REALLY good laugh out of that because it fits me to a T.
After guthuk we all were given a peice of raw dough, which you roll along your skin to remove the engativities of the year (everywhere except the forehead, where supposedly it will steal your good Karma) then you mix in a thread of your clothing and the dough is burned. Then we lit firecrackers and danced gorshey for a while.
SATURDAY
My roommate headed out to Dharamsala to celebrate Losar, which meant that there was no Tibetan in my room to help me set up my losar altar! Well, I have never set up a losar altar before, so I headed up to Mcleod Ganj and decided just ot try my best!
A group of students needed to go to Mentseekhang, and that cab was free, so I took that and then walked the half hour, EXTRAORDINARILY STEEP hike up to Mcleod Ganj. Along the way I was joined by a newly arrived monk from Kham who had just come from Tibet two months before, and he was very nice to talk to.
When I arrived, I met my friends Lodroe and Legdup who decided to help me with the task of setting up my altar.
What we had to buy:
Bowls
Khapse (friend cookies)
Tsampa (roast barley flour)
Butter
Sugar
Stalks of wheat
Dro (a kind of seed)
Khatas
Prayer flags
Grass (not weed, grass, like on a lawn)
Cookies
Candy
A painted wooden palate with auspicious images
I really wanted to buy a traditional Losar offering box, which is a wooden, carved box, split into two sections, but at 3500 a pop (About $80) i really couldn’t justify it so I bought two beautiful Tibetan wood and copper bowls for 300 RS ($7.50)
I came back to my room and set up my altar. First I put the religious images in the center of our table, then inf ront of that stacked khapse, cookies, and the wheat which I draped with a khata. In one bowl, I put a mix of tsampa, butter and sugar, and in that I stuck the wooden palate. In the other, I put the dro. On a plate I laid out the remaining cookies and sweets for guests. I put the grass next to chemar bowl (tsampa and butter bowl) and then took a glass, put some butter on the rim and then filled it with pepsi (I don’t have chang.)
SUNDAY
Losar la tashi delek! Happy Tibetan new year, year of the fire pig. We were woken up at 5 AM by someone screaming TASHI DELEK! It is auspicious for the first thing you hear on losar to be someone wishing you an auspicious Losar, so that was alright. I got myself Chuba-fied and went to the gonpa where the student body had morning prayer. After morning prayer was finished as well as khatag offerings, a group of students performed the Tashi Sholpa dance outside of the gonpa.
At breakfast, we were served relatively mediocre Changkol (beer porridge) while sitting in a traditional Tibetan picnic tent!
At this point it is the time to start visiting other students rooms. I warned the emory students to pace themselves, and they learnt very quickly thatr I was right on this. Kelsang, by 11:30 was so drunk that he was passing in and out of consciousness. Whenever he was conscious, he was just telling me that I was an amazing singer or that I was his best friend and then passing out again. I was actually kind of worried. He also informed us that he had drunk too much 9 PM (the name if the whiskey is 8 PM.) we all found this kind of amusing.
I continued visiting rooms, doing chemar and playing music. At lunch, we had lunch in the big picnic tent again which was lovely. Then i spent the afternoon playing an indian game, the nmame of which I don’t know, and playing music with Kalsang (not kelsang, different people) and Dhondup.
In the evening, I hijacked the gorshey and put on Khampa music, which went over amazingly well.
I have been ahving some big-time respiratory issues, so I stopped dancing after not too long and went to finish my homework. During Losar boys and girls can enter each other dorms, so I left my room unlocked and lots of guys and girls came in t do Chemar and we also played some music. Nordhen dropped b and Yega also came and kept me company while finishing my work. “Y”, Yega’s roommate busted into the room TOTALLY drunk because he wanted Yega to come back to the room. He was going on and on about how I was his best friend (great drunk rant there) but Yega was his old friend and Yega was going to come back now, and general babbling. It took a good deal of work to get him out of my room.
MONDAY
Breathing issues were getting a lot worse, wiht a productive, wet cough added into the mix. i was very worried about my voice for the performance for the Karmapa. I was feeling dizzy and quite ill but we went up to Mcleod ganj to visit the temple and meet Demo Lochoe Rinpoche. I was dressed in one of my nicest Amdo Chupas which many Tibetans appreciated. One particularily sweet moment was when a middle aged Amdo woman, who obviously had JUST arrived from Amdo as one could see from her hair and clothing just came up to me smiling and patting down my chupa and touching my necklace and commenting in Tibetan.
We met Demo Lochoe Rinpoche and presented Khatas but I was feeling so sick I remember very little about the meeting and afterwords we went back to Sarah and I slept until dinner.
After dinner, in order to rehearse for our Tilokpur perfomance, we did a full dress rehearsal on the Sarah Basketball court. All the students came out to watch, and it was fun. Our driver, Tenzin Woebar, totally let loose and several of the (drunk) students and teachers would jump on to the “stage” and join our dancing!
After this I was feeling very very tired and I went to bed.
For those of you on my friends list on Kunde_Yidang, an un-edited version of this will (most likely) be posted and I reccomend you read that instead. Sorry that I am not adding other people to that list right now.
2/7/2007
Girls Hostel at Sarah
Need to get out of my insanely lazy habit and NOW. this is BAD. Anyway, I am writing this in a bit of a crazy mood and having a total emotional overload. I just found out that one of the most important people in my life (after my family, I would say he is up there at number #1) is in the hospital for open heart surgery. He is in his 80s and not in great health. Any prayers said for him would be greatly appreciated.
I hope I can even remember what happened yesterday. Well, monday I had my first language class with the new teacher, Rinzin. Rinzin speaks no english and the conversation classes are really fun! In fact, we ran 20 minutes over and didn’t even notice. I actually ducked out of meditation early on monday night because I was just having a very uncomfotable night and Ani-la was a bit concerned when she noticed that I walked out of meditation part way (albeit subtly and quietly.) She pulled me aside to talk to me about it and I assured her that I was OK. She is a sweetheart though, I really appreciate it. I will probably talk to her tomorrow about my friend, I bet she is a great person to talk to about that.
We discussed debate in class today and I asked Ani La afterwords about the chance of practicing formal debate in English. I mentioned that I do have people I can formally debate with in English here in the USA and she said she will give me some resources and maybe teach me! YAY HANDCLAPPING.
On tuesday in culture class we discussed the issues facing nuns in Tibet. Fascinating especially considering my roommate is a nun. One point that was really interesting and apparently no one had considered: One student brought up that the shaving of the heads seemed to masculinize the women while the men were not asked to feminize themselves in any way, so in reality the red robes and shaved head are not a gender androgynous uniform. I pointed out, however, that int raditional Tibetan society (up to 1959 and even now in rural areas) no self-respecting Tibetan man would EVER wear his hair shorter than his shoulders, nor wear a skirt longer than his knees, with the exception of aristocracy at formal functions. Therefore, the long red skirt and shaved head did act to de-masculinize and de-feminize all the monastics. They were very interested by this point as they had never considered how short hair as “masculine” is a very western concept.
In the evening, we watched a short documentary made by amber about the nuns in Nangchen, Kham. It was very cool and inspiring. Afterwords I joined dance practice.
Today, I went to morning class. Buddhism discussed the wheel of life, which is always interesting and afternoon class was fun. Then we all piled into cars (my roommate included) to go to Mcleod. I was supposed to go to the Tibetan doctor about my restless leg, but the doctor was out today. Dechen and I went straight to mcleod where I picked up my Losar chupas and changed my phone. My friend Mangtoe met us there and Diana joined us for dinner at the JJI cafe.
After dinner, Diana, Dechen and I went to Dechen’s friend Yangchen’s house. Yangchen is also from Tso Ngeun and braided my hair in the many, tiny, braids that is so popular among amdo women (for one thing, you don’t need to wash your hair as often or brush it at all.) It looks really cool and only took an hour.
Unfortunately, during dinner, I heard about my friend. However, Diana (being the wonderful girl that she is) was amazingly supportive. She is truly fantastic.
We headed back to Sarah and I went to the remains of dance practice then went up to Ambers room to cry for a bit. She gave me some great advice from a Buddhist perspective, including to practice Tonglen meditation (giving and recieving.) She also said that if I need time alone at Sherabling monastery (where we will be spending the next 5 days) that there will be no problem for me to find that.
Another friend of mine will be contacting a few rinpoches who closely know my friend and request them to say prayers for him. Speaking of prayers, I need to do some of my own and go to sleep. I wake up in only 6 hours for morning prayer here and I really really really need to get some sleep.
Feb 16th, 2007
Girls hostel, Sarah
Yes, another major gap. It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster here, so I am going to try and update this but I might need to do half today and half tomorrow.
Lets start all the way back at
LAST WEDNESDAY
Diana and Ani Dechen (my roommate) and I all went to mcleod. When we got there we also met up with my friend Mangtoe. after doing whatever shopping we had to do we met at JJI cafe for dinner. JJI is actually a band of 3 brothers and they also happen to run a good vegetarian cafe on bhagsu road. I had switched my phone, so I was calling my mom to tell her when she informed me that my neighbor, one of the people whom I am closest to after my parents and brother, was in the hospital for open heart surgery. What with him being in his 80s and not in the best of health I was quite distraught to hear this.
Dinner was pretty good, for vegetarian Tibetan food, although the veg and cheese momos were excellent and being able to eat *gasp* cucumber salad totally made my evening. After dinner, Diana and I went to Dechen’s friends house and she did our hair in the traditional style of tons and tons and tons of tiny braids. Lots of fun!
After we came back from mcleod, I went to talk to Amber for a bit because I was still relatively upset about Mr. Roth. I decided that the best thing to do was to talk to “Kelsang” about getting in touch with Gangkar Rinpoche at Sherab Ling in order to get in touch with Situ Rinpoche at Sherab Ling, who is very close ot Mr. Roth and hopefully eventually pass the message on to the Karmapa himself.
THURSDAY
After morning language class, we got in the cars to go to Sherab ling. I was happy to head out as I wanted to pray or Mr. Roth there. On the way, we stopped at the Chamunda Devi temple, which is a temple devoted to the Hindu goddess Kali. Not really my cup of tea.
After arriving, a few of us went to explore the Gonpa a bit. We had a nice time and I dropped in the office to ask if I could meet with Gangkar Rinpoche or Situ Rinpoche. I was informed that Gangkar Rinpoche was away for the day and would be busy, as the Mahakala Puja to clear obstacles and remove all of the negativities of the past year was to start soon and he was dorje lopon or vajra master, in charge of the ceremony, so although they would try to get me an audience, chances were slim to none. As for Situ Rinpoche, I was told he was in Delhi and would be returning and granting our group an audience and I might get a few minutes of private time at the bveginning or end. Doubting that Situ Rinpoche would return in time, i left a message for him at the office. I tried to emphasize that Situ Rinpoche would definitely want to recieve this message, but I don’t think they got the idea. I mean, how many people come in saying “I have an important message for Rinpoche! He really needs to hear it” every day? So I realized that this route would not work.
Meanwhile, Kelsang was having no luck contacting Gangkar Rinpoche’s secretary, which proves to me that if you need to contact a rinpoche, call either the Rinpoche directly, or his mother. It is really one or the other.
FRIDAY
We got up the morning and had breakfast at the guesthouse of Sherabling, which is lovely, I should tell you all. if you need a place to stay, that is really the place to do it. In the morning I explored a bit and played music for the young monks. In the afternoon we went to visit Ani Tenzin Palmo’s nunnery and Tashi Jong. At Tashi jong we meditated in Atin Rinpoche’s room and one monk there gave me some blessed salt. It was really out of the blue, but we had been chatting in Tibetan and I guess he was very appreciative to find a westerner who spoke Tibetan, so he wanted to give me something special.
The weather, however, was horrible, so once we went back, we basically stayed in the guesthouse.
SATURDAY
We headed out in the morning to Bir, again, however, the weather was horrible. But now, at least, I can say that I have hiked in the himalayan foothills...in a Chupa. We walked to bir, about one hour, stopping at TCV Suja on the way. When we arrived at TCV Suja we got lunch at Chokling Monastery, where steve, in his food paranoia, told us that he “Strongly reccomended we not eat the meat” even though Passang said he thought it owuld be relatively fresh. Steve is way too paranoid on the food. I have been feeling sick and I realized it is coming from not getting adaquate protein, so I said to steve “how MUCH do you reccomend not eating meat” and he said “Would you eat it if the chance was one in 20 that you will get sick?” I was like “WOAH! One in TWENTY? Those odds are AMAZING! I want fried mutton momos.”
I think Steve failed at getting his point across.
Then we went to a Nyingma Gonpa which was pretty amazing because even though it was nyingma, the murals on the walls represented teachers from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. We meditated and explored there for a while and then headed onward.
By coincidence, we ended up being granted an audience with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (Director of The Cup and Travellers and Magicians.) Who, not knowing I spoke Tibetan, was talking for a bit about “the girl in the amdo Chupa, even her hair looks like an Amdo girl.” hahaha. That was interesting, but since steve never told anyone who this guy was, it was kind of hard for people to come up with questions to ask him. After that we visited Dzongsar monastery and then went back to Sherabling.
SUNDAY
Diana, bless her heart, brought up waht had been bothering a lot of students. Which was that no one ever introduces the students to waht we are seeing so, unless you have a very very strong background in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, it is largely meaningless! It is never explained afterwords either. So Diana asked for a meeting to discuss what we had seen at the previous locations and what we would see at Sherabling. Steve, somehow, turned this into a 2 hour meeting which NEVER covered those topics but did cover emotions, what the favorite thing people saw were, and lots of fun touchyfeely topics. I was destinctly uncomfortable. Steve was pretty much opening patronizing to Diana. When I asked him “Well, could you tell us about what we will see today touring Sherabling?” We found out why he was avoiding the topic: He didn’t know.
Well, when this meeting was finished, I was pretty damn stressed. Diana was furious and I really can’t blame her. I was rather displeased as my goal for the morning had been to find a way to get in touch with ONE of the Rinpoches, we we had just found out that Situ would be staying in Delhi and we would not be getting an audience. In order to try and relieve our stress, Diana and I went to the Gonpa, in the pouring, freezing rain. We arrived to find it locked.
Not happy about that. So, not wanting to go back to the guesthouse, we just sat down outside the shrine room, under the awning and talked. As we were talking, a monk in slightly different robes walked by. It took me a second but I realized it was Gangkar Rinpoche! However, with him being busy with preparations for the puja, it would have been a great breach of protocol to stop him. However, he remembered me from his birthday, stopped and stared for a moment. I stared back, not entirely sure it was him, but when he kept hesitating and looking at me, I took that as my cue. I stand up and pulled a Khata out of my purse and presented it to him, and he returned it to me. Diana stood up and I introduced him to her. It turns out that he speaks almost no english, so I translated for a bit. He asked where we were staying, if we had gotten our rooms yet, how long we were staying, and general questions. Finally I said to him in VERY formal Tibetan (which I never speak) “Rinpoche, I need to ask you something.” I explained the situation with Mr. Roth, which had been greatly on my mind and I was pretty emotional. I get a bit embarrassed about showing emotion when I am trying to be formal, but he stood there comforting me. I was especially nervous because asking to use a rinpoche as a messenger service is NOT what one is supposed to do, so I was doing something that could e considered a breach of protocol. However, he was very kind and supportive. Finally I explained that i needed help passing on the message to Situ Rinpoche, who knows Mr. Roth very well, and that I didn’t think the office was taking me seriously and (at this point my formal Tibetan failed me and I switched back to my Khampa slang...which happens to be this Rinpoche’s native tongue) I needed him to help me.
Rinpoche told me to wait there, and a minute later, a monk came back with a phone number: Situ Rinpoche’s personal secretary’s mobile phone. Skip the office, go to the source.
Khata around my neck and walking on a cloud, I returned to the guest house where I immediately called the secretary. At first he was confused. I tried to explain who I was in relation to Mr. Roth but it seemed that he did not know who Mr. Roth was. I explained that this was OK, but that Situ Rinpoche definitely knew Mr. Roth very well and he should tell Situ Rinpoche that Mr. Roth was in the hospital awaiting a serious surgery. He still seemed a bit confused, but said he would pass on the message. Then he suddenly hesitated and asked “Wait a moment, what state are you from?”
“I am from New York” I responded.
“Will Roth from KTD and the Albany KTC? He is in the Hospital?”
Finally it clicked for the secretary, who apparently knows Mr. Roth as well. Suddenly I might as well ahve been family and this message was going through first thing! He also assured me that one thing he knew of Mr. Roth (and I know too) is that he is a fighter!
OK, I need to go to sleep. I will continue writing this tomorrow.
February 19th
Girls hostel
SUNDAY, CONTINUED
Anyway, after lunch the group was supposed to on on a tour, but Rinpoche told me that he wanted me and Diana to be at Puja at one and I mentioned this to Steve who also understood that I was feeling some stress so instead of going on the tour I just joined the Puja at one. I stayed until 6:00 with Diana, saying my own prayers. Every hour, there is a tea break and also a bathroom break. When all the monks are on bathroom break (the lay people can leave whenever they want) its a nice chance to explore the shrine room. Anyway, the Rinpoches enter through a back door so I was standing by this door when tnhey came in (Gangkar and a younger rinpoche, about 15 years old.) Gangkar Rinpoche checked to make sure I got the number and stuff and was very nice.
We prayed some more then during another break, I was again near the shrine when the Rinpoches camein (they come in before the other monks) and Gangkar Rinpoche and the younger Rinpoche were teasing each other. Apparently this is just waht they do and its really fun to watch. Gangkar Rinpoche will occasionally whisper to or poke the younger Rinpoche, and the younger Rinpoche would sometimes make silly faces at the small monks. All in all it was really cute. Anyway, the shrine room was virtually abandoned, just me, Diana, Taylor and these two Rinpoches goofing off. The younger Rinpoche was heading over to his throne, playing a bit when he discovered why polished floors and socks are a bad combination. It was like something out of acartoon: Flying Rinpoche! The poor boy’s feet totally went right about his head. He knocked the tray off his throne (Taylor scrambled to pick everything up) meanwhile, Gangkar Rinpoche, Diana and I are all lunging to this young Rinpoche to help him up, and he is trying to get up and save SOME sort of face. And we all lost it. All five of us. Totally. Utterly. Lost it. We were laughing so hard. The young Rinpohce was taking it really well laughing with us with that sheepish little “Yep...that was all me” look and we were just laughing and making sure he was OK. It was absolutely hilarious. It was also this fun moment of young people, all between the ages of 15-25 just BEING YOUNG PEOPLE, not Rinpoches and devotees.
After dinner, I returned to Puja with Diana, Emily and Rachel and we stayed until 9:30 PM. Now, the idea of this Puja is to flush out all of the negativities of the past year, and this apparently has “side effects” like people having bad dreams and stuff. Apparently everyone was getting REALLY weird vibes in the guest house, including a few people waking up at the same time with a feeling that SOMEONE was in their room, and 2 people had the same experience where they were walking down to the ground floor to get a cup of tea but couldnt step off the last step because SOMETHING WAS TERRIFYINGLY WRONG, but they couldn’t place what. Very bizarre.
Anyway, I asked the monks what time Puja started the next day, they answered 2 AM.
MONDAY
So, I woke up at 3:30. I figure, I can pull off being two hours late what with me beign a lay person (Insert a “z” before the “y” in Lay and get the real meaning!)
Now before you think I am totally nuts for this, it was a really cool shrine room and I was getting to relax, meditate, reflect and pray for a friend in need. Plus I was sitting near all the young monks who are a veritable comedy show.
I walk into Puja at 4 AM and the younger rinpoche is DISTINCTLY asleep on the throne. Gangkar Rinpoche kept having to poke him occasionally to wake up. A lot of the younger monks were alseep. Once the younger Rinpoche was awake, he recognized me in the back and kept smiling and shooting me thumbs up, peace signs, salutes and silly faces and stuff.
Anyway, at 8 I came back to the guest house for breakfast. Then we drove back to campus and I rested a bit.
TUESDAY
Tuesday (India Time) was my big brother’s birthday so I decided to call him. We had a fun conversation and I got to wish him a happy birthday from India.
There were no afternoon classes on tuesday so after finding out that a friend of my family, who often had taken care of me when I was little, had passed away, I decided that rather than be sad around students trying to be happy and prepare for losar making cookies, I would head back to sherabling and say prayers for our friend. (Also, it would have been culturally unacceptable for me to, after finding out about a friends death, be making khapse RATHER than being at a gonpa.)
I spent about 5 hours there and it was a good way for me to get a lot of stress and mourning out all together and just let everything go. It worked out nicely. Of course the monks were rather baffled by the American girl, in a chupa, back AGAIN but instead of looking happy looking sad. I ran into the younger Rinpoche again during a break, who pantomimed sliding head over heels, which made me laugh. Of course then we had to explain it to a VERY young (like 7) Rinpoche who had no idea about what had happened. But it was funny and I felt I managed to bond with the Rinpoche’s on a friendly and informal level over that. They felt so too as we just ended up chatting about stuff for a while and trading mobile phone numbers.
Finally I came back to school and went to sleep.
WEDNESDAY
Don’t remember much
THURSDAY
Mom called in the morning to let me know that my neighbor had made it through surgery OK and now it was just a question of recovery. I was very, VERY relieved. I called up Situ Rinpoche’s secretary, who was thrilled to hear it and promised to keep in touch with me and also to pass the passage on to the Karmapa, who will most likely do prayers for his health.
FRIDAY
GUTOR!!!!! OK, Gutor is like new years eve, except its two days before New Years Eve. The organizers were planning to take the students to the Torgyal offering at Namgyal monastery, but Diana and I had been invited to attend the Cham (masked dances) at Sherabling. This invitation was somewhat compounded when i was woken at 7:12 AM by Gangkar Rinpoche calling to ask where I was (Cham starts at 7:30.) it was a weird wake up, that is for damn sure. And it also sent a pretty clear message to me that I should NOT skip out on Cham.
However, the group was expected for the Torgyal offering. I spoke to the gorup organizers and they said that we COULD skip out bu tthey wouldn’t recomend it. Well, most of the group decided ot go to the Torgyal but Diana and I decided that we would go to Sherabling. At first I really didn’t want to. it seemed too risky to go on a two hour drive iwthout the group for the possibility of huge crowds and not being able ot see anything in order to get MAYBE 2 hours of dances, but Rinpoche’s call in the morning was bugging me. Finally Diana and I hired a car and headed out with our friend Dhondup in tow.
We soon discovered that poor dhondup gets rather violently car sick.
We also discoverd that driving through Baijunath, site of one of the oldest, holiest Shiva temple in India on Shiva Ratri, the most sacred day of the Shivite calender, might not be a great idea traffic wise. However, you can’t really mind being stuck in a traffic jam of people dancing and parade like cars with people dressed as Shiva and his wife in the back.
As we came towards the mountain on which Sherab ling is located, we were surprised to find that while the surroundings were a glorious, warm, mild, sunny day, a black storm cloud was surrounding Sherab ling. Like it looked like night on just that mountain. As we drove in, it was cold, rainy and wind was blowing. It was bizarre! Apparently this is another common side effect of the ceremonies to remove negativities.
Fortunately, due to the weather, we didn’t need to battle with crowds and got into the courtyard, right by the only entrance, so whenever the rinpoche had to enter or leave the ceremony, which was frequent, he would pass us and we could see whatever he was carrying or doing, which was fascinating! We arrived during the last dance of the cham, the black hat dance. I took photos and shall post them. Rinpoche was Dorje Lopon, so he was coming in and out bringing the Torma out to the fire as monks played outside with fire crackers.
It was an amazing transformation from the goofy Rinpoche who gives young monks spray foam at his birthday party into a young man taking this religious duty very seriously!
After the dance was finished the Torma, a GIGANTIC butter and tsampa sculpture that was supposed to take in all the negativity of the year, was broken into peices and placed on a bonfire. The bonfire was stuffed with firecrackers which would burst, sending chunks of Torma flying. We were all laughing as we dodged out of the way, but Rinpoche, surprisingly, maintained a completely serious demeanor.
Soon, we got back into the car and drove back to Sarah. As it turned out, due to crowds and traffic, the rest of the emory group never even ARRIVED at Namgyal. In short, we made the right decision. (Kudos to Rinpoche’s 7 AM phone call!)
Dinner was Guthuk, which is so much fun I am going to need to start making that at home. Guthuk is a noodle soup, just like any other Tietan noodle soup except it has some special ingredients mixed in. But the real key to guthuk is the dumplings. The dumplings are stuffed with rolled up peices of paper. Everyone serves themselves and then, if they find a dumpling, opens it up and reads what is inside. There are different meanings, for example Sun and Moon (Nyinda) is a good person, auspicious to be around. The happy shoe is a happy person, barbed wire is an overly critical person, coal is a negative person, salt is a lazy person, cotton is a hard worker.
I got Siben (Chili) meaning that I have a sharp tongue (a blunt speaker.) We all got a REALLY good laugh out of that because it fits me to a T.
After guthuk we all were given a peice of raw dough, which you roll along your skin to remove the engativities of the year (everywhere except the forehead, where supposedly it will steal your good Karma) then you mix in a thread of your clothing and the dough is burned. Then we lit firecrackers and danced gorshey for a while.
SATURDAY
My roommate headed out to Dharamsala to celebrate Losar, which meant that there was no Tibetan in my room to help me set up my losar altar! Well, I have never set up a losar altar before, so I headed up to Mcleod Ganj and decided just ot try my best!
A group of students needed to go to Mentseekhang, and that cab was free, so I took that and then walked the half hour, EXTRAORDINARILY STEEP hike up to Mcleod Ganj. Along the way I was joined by a newly arrived monk from Kham who had just come from Tibet two months before, and he was very nice to talk to.
When I arrived, I met my friends Lodroe and Legdup who decided to help me with the task of setting up my altar.
What we had to buy:
Bowls
Khapse (friend cookies)
Tsampa (roast barley flour)
Butter
Sugar
Stalks of wheat
Dro (a kind of seed)
Khatas
Prayer flags
Grass (not weed, grass, like on a lawn)
Cookies
Candy
A painted wooden palate with auspicious images
I really wanted to buy a traditional Losar offering box, which is a wooden, carved box, split into two sections, but at 3500 a pop (About $80) i really couldn’t justify it so I bought two beautiful Tibetan wood and copper bowls for 300 RS ($7.50)
I came back to my room and set up my altar. First I put the religious images in the center of our table, then inf ront of that stacked khapse, cookies, and the wheat which I draped with a khata. In one bowl, I put a mix of tsampa, butter and sugar, and in that I stuck the wooden palate. In the other, I put the dro. On a plate I laid out the remaining cookies and sweets for guests. I put the grass next to chemar bowl (tsampa and butter bowl) and then took a glass, put some butter on the rim and then filled it with pepsi (I don’t have chang.)
SUNDAY
Losar la tashi delek! Happy Tibetan new year, year of the fire pig. We were woken up at 5 AM by someone screaming TASHI DELEK! It is auspicious for the first thing you hear on losar to be someone wishing you an auspicious Losar, so that was alright. I got myself Chuba-fied and went to the gonpa where the student body had morning prayer. After morning prayer was finished as well as khatag offerings, a group of students performed the Tashi Sholpa dance outside of the gonpa.
At breakfast, we were served relatively mediocre Changkol (beer porridge) while sitting in a traditional Tibetan picnic tent!
At this point it is the time to start visiting other students rooms. I warned the emory students to pace themselves, and they learnt very quickly thatr I was right on this. Kelsang, by 11:30 was so drunk that he was passing in and out of consciousness. Whenever he was conscious, he was just telling me that I was an amazing singer or that I was his best friend and then passing out again. I was actually kind of worried. He also informed us that he had drunk too much 9 PM (the name if the whiskey is 8 PM.) we all found this kind of amusing.
I continued visiting rooms, doing chemar and playing music. At lunch, we had lunch in the big picnic tent again which was lovely. Then i spent the afternoon playing an indian game, the nmame of which I don’t know, and playing music with Kalsang (not kelsang, different people) and Dhondup.
In the evening, I hijacked the gorshey and put on Khampa music, which went over amazingly well.
I have been ahving some big-time respiratory issues, so I stopped dancing after not too long and went to finish my homework. During Losar boys and girls can enter each other dorms, so I left my room unlocked and lots of guys and girls came in t do Chemar and we also played some music. Nordhen dropped b and Yega also came and kept me company while finishing my work. “Y”, Yega’s roommate busted into the room TOTALLY drunk because he wanted Yega to come back to the room. He was going on and on about how I was his best friend (great drunk rant there) but Yega was his old friend and Yega was going to come back now, and general babbling. It took a good deal of work to get him out of my room.
MONDAY
Breathing issues were getting a lot worse, wiht a productive, wet cough added into the mix. i was very worried about my voice for the performance for the Karmapa. I was feeling dizzy and quite ill but we went up to Mcleod ganj to visit the temple and meet Demo Lochoe Rinpoche. I was dressed in one of my nicest Amdo Chupas which many Tibetans appreciated. One particularily sweet moment was when a middle aged Amdo woman, who obviously had JUST arrived from Amdo as one could see from her hair and clothing just came up to me smiling and patting down my chupa and touching my necklace and commenting in Tibetan.
We met Demo Lochoe Rinpoche and presented Khatas but I was feeling so sick I remember very little about the meeting and afterwords we went back to Sarah and I slept until dinner.
After dinner, in order to rehearse for our Tilokpur perfomance, we did a full dress rehearsal on the Sarah Basketball court. All the students came out to watch, and it was fun. Our driver, Tenzin Woebar, totally let loose and several of the (drunk) students and teachers would jump on to the “stage” and join our dancing!
After this I was feeling very very tired and I went to bed.
