Linux Umbrella Girls flower tattoo
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Gega Lama, Bhutanese Artists & Kalachakra
Awoke to a beautiful morning with clear blue sky and fresh air. JL and I went to the local Kagyu Monastery in the Lingtsang Settlement. It was originally funded by Lama Tsewang Gyurme of Vancouver, B.C. who is also Lingtsang. A large stupa stands to the west side of the main temple, designed and built by the famous Karma Gadri Lingtsang artist Gega Lama. The murals inside the temple were done by Bhutanese artists and the temple although originally associated with Lama Kalu Rinpoche now is a branch monastery associated with Situ Rinpoche. (Images to follow).
The Kalachakra initiation began at 2:30 with a short speech by Sakya Trizin followed by a lengthy history lesson on the various traditions and source lineages of Kalachakra. It was relatively easy to follow the general points because I was familiar with the subject matter but it was still all in Tibetan and the subtlety was lost on me. It appears that the empowerment was originally requested over a year ago by Khenpo Gyatso the head of Sakya College. Sakya Trizin decided to give the empowerment at this time as part of the ceremonies for the opening of the Nunnery. The 'tagon' began at 4:00 and ended at 5:30. There were easily 3000 plus people in attendance. Six hundred were in the temple with a few lay Tibetans and a small handful of westerners not more than 10 or so. The majority were monks from Sakya College and Sakya Centre. The lay people and over flow monks and nuns filled all of the courtyard and completely filled the walkways surrounding the temple and the balconies of the nun's quarters that over look the courtyard.
Khenpo Gyatso looks almost as he did 35 years ago. We talked briefly and joked about the passing years, his spoken English and my Tibetan. Both were not very good. Yontan Zangpo, JL's cousin, is virtually identical to the last time I saw him in July of 1981. The last time I was in India he was either in Singapore or Taiwan. He traveled in the car with us back to Manduwalla so he could spend some time with his elderly mother. His duties for the morning at the monastery were canceled because of the Kalachakra empowerment.
ST will give a follow up Green Tara initiation of Thursday which we will also attend because JL's mother wants to go. ST will then return to the palace (podrang) in Rajpur a 15 minute drive from the nunnery where he has been staying for the duration of the opening ceremonies.
I am happy to say that the most attentive boy at the empowerment was Ani Rinpoche's son who is about 10 or 11 years old. During the 3 1/2 hours he never really took his eyes off of ST nor did he fall asleep or fidget. He also new all the prayers at the beginning, during the initiation, mang ja prayers, and the dedications at the end. I will let his grandmother, Dagmo Kusho, know how good he was so that she can be even more proud of him than I was. Zaya Rinpoche's son was also there and well representing the family but he has not yet had the same training as his younger cousin.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Kalachakra Initiation & Old Friends
I had a very good meeting at the new Sakya Nunnery with Sakya Trizin Rinpoche yesterday. We discussed art, Bon, Mongolia and Kalachakra, and agreed to meet again before I leave for Delhi. Today is the first day, 'ta gon', of the two day Kalachakra empowerment. It is an introduction or preparation prior to entering the mandala which takes place on the second day of the empowerment and called the 'ngo shi'. For more information see the Kalachakra Outline Page and the excellent Kalachakra website of Edward Henning.Each day I meet old friends, some I have not seen for 35 years while others I have seen more recently in Tibet, China, the USA or Europe. Today undoubtedly I will see many people. I expect several thousand people to attend the empowerment at the new Nunnery (probably the largest Tibetan nunnery in South Asia with approximately 300 nuns).
The image above is a depiction of the world according to the Buddhist Abhidharma system. The world is flat with four principal continents in the four directions with a large mountain in the middle - the flat earth theory. The Buddhist Kalachakra Tantra system on the other hand presents a round earth theory long before the Italian Galileo came up with his ideas.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Bon Monasteries & Temples
Sunday (today is Monday) was spent looking at Bon paintings and murals along with traveling the short distance from Manduwalla to Lama Tenzin Wangyal's (Ligmincha Institute, Charlottesville, Virginia) new retreat (institute) land on the north slope of the Dun valley. The land is very large with some existing cottages and many fruit trees. A single Bon monk lives there as caretaker. I am eating way to much and not doing enough exercise. Tomorrow and Wednesday I will be in the Tibetan settlement of Dekyiling during the day sitting for hours and hours. Sakya Trizin is giving a two day initiation on the practice of Kalachakra which I will attend. I need to find a cushion to take in case there are none in Dekyiling. The initiation is part of the ceremonies accompanying the official opening of the new temple at the Sakya Nunnery. There will probably be several thousand people in attendance. I don't usually like to do scenes but his way I will be able to see a lot more friends and acquaintances in a relatively short period of time.
I have accumulated so many images of paintings that I need to spend more time cataloguing them into custom folders. I am concentrating on collecting images of tangkas and murals from known artists who claim to paint in well-known styles. Yes, this is a kind of a set up. The key phrase is well-known.
I am already starting to think about which day to leave Dehradun and return to Delhi. My flight is next Tuesday night. I have some business in Delhi to attend to prior to leaving. Probably I will leave Dehradun Saturday or Sunday and on Monday and Tuesday finish everything that is outstanding in Delhi.
The image above is of Jake Dalton, Paldor and me in a small seminar discussion during the conference. The photo was taken by David Kittlestrom of Wisdom Publications. I have also added more images to the previous blog entries.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Clement Town & The New Mindroling Monastery
I spent the day at Mindroling Monastery photographing the paintings and murals of the famous Karshodpa artist Pema Konchog. His photograph and a photograph of JL's elder brother Tsedor appear in David Jackson's first book on Tangka painting. It is JL and Tsedor's home that I am staying in at Manduwala. Everybody in the family is an artist although they have all given up art as a profession. Only JL still does some painting. He was the personal artist to a Gelug lama in Taiwan for nearly ten years. Although a Gelug Tulku the lama maintained that Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro was his principal teacher.
I have added images to some of the previous entries where images were lacking such as the group photo of all the conference participants and the group photo with the Dalai Lama. The kids that randomly appear with me on various entries all belong to JL. The youngest boy is missing from the photos because he goes to a private school in Mussorie. We will try to visit him in the next week or so.
I have added images to some of the previous entries where images were lacking such as the group photo of all the conference participants and the group photo with the Dalai Lama. The kids that randomly appear with me on various entries all belong to JL. The youngest boy is missing from the photos because he goes to a private school in Mussorie. We will try to visit him in the next week or so.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Manduwalla, Ling Tsang Settlement, Dehradun
We awoke to a beautiful sunny day in Dolanji, ate a simple breakfast and then proceeded to see Menri Trizin. There were many people, both monks and lay, along with hordes of small school children all massed in the temple courtyard awaiting Menri Trizin's entry into into the main shrine hall to bestow the initiation of Mawe Sengge, a Bon wisdom deity. We were able to see Rinpoche before the ceremony. It was quite a surprise because none of the monks had told him of our arrival. It really was a surprise. We talked for about 40 minutes and then said our goodbyes and watched Rinpoche as he made his way towards the temple wearing his traditional lotus hat and led by two gyaling playing monks dressed in their best and wearing ceremonial hats. Geshe Samdrub showed us the completed library which was still under construction the last time Tenzin D. and I were at Dolanji. It is now completed and officially opened during a large ceremony in 2007 headed by the Dalai Lama and retinue who stayed in Dolanji for several days. The most interesting thing about the library was the addition of a Bon museum. I took many photos and walked slowly past each exhibit taking note of things that I had only heard about but never seen before. The most interesting was probably the display of the 'jutig' (knot) divination system along with a rare text of explanation. I took photos. There were also several large thread-cross (namkha) exhibits.
We left Dolanji at approximately 12:00 noon and made our way via the short cut and back roads to Ponta Sahab, the place where Guru Gobind Singh's three sons were killed in battle some hundreds of years ago sparking the militarization of the Sikh religion. This is also the place were I used to swim; always mindful to avoid the poisonous water snakes. It was a beautiful drive through the pine forests. We stopped for a light lunch at a roadside restaurant and had some spicy Indian food. Finally at 5:00 we turned into the driveway of JL's family home and were greeted by his elder brother, wife and mother. Two other brothers arrived later along with numerous other family members that I knew from India years ago, Lhasa, or Chengdu. Of the two younger brothers, both Nyingma Lamas now in Taiwan, I had met up with one in Majnujkatilla, Delhi, on his way back to Taiwan. He was very generous and paid for my hotel stay in Delhi prior to my journey to Bir for the Translator's Conference.
So far I have managed to remain vegetarian but that is likely to end here in the Tibetan settlement of Ling Tsang. Today is a rest day. I have also strained my back which I do about every 4 or 5 years. It is quite painful but should be fine in a day or so. While here I will be photographing some rare paintings and documenting the artists who created them. I may not have mentioned that JL and his family are all tangka painters, or rather used to be. Their uncle was a famous Karshodpa painter from Ling Tsang, Kham, Tibet. Photos of many of these people I have mentioned are in David Jackson's first book that discusses the techniques and materials of tangka painting.
Tomorrow I will pay my respects to the Ngor Lamas at Ngor Magon which is directly across the street from my bedroom; strangely enough so is the local Bon monastery which I will also visit and photograph. The head lama of this temple visited New York during the Bon exhibition.
I spent many hours removing viruses and updating the various software in this computer to make it usable. Hopefully I will be able to add some images to the Blog. This I will try later today.
By the way, it says Thursday at the top of the entry for this post. In fact the blog is set to New York time, or maybe even Chicago time, the location where the blog was first created. For the correct date as of where I am - add a day to that date. It is currently Friday at 12:20 and rapidly approaching the time for lunch.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
On the Road to Mandi, Riwalser, Solan and Dolanji
It sounds a little like one of the "on the road" pictures of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Am I dating myself or am I dating all of you? It was an early start this morning from Bir after a night of thunder claps and heavy rain both of which woke me at different times of the night. It continued to rain on and off throughout the day. We left at about 8:00 in the morning and headed for Mandi with the goal reaching Riwalser and the lake miraculously formed by Padmasambhava and Mandarava (Tso Pema). We arrived around 11:00 and proceeded to the nearest tea shop. That is what you do in India. From there we ascended the highest mountain over-looking the lake of 'Tso Pema' to the cave of Guru Dragpo and visited the shrine and the two main caves. We stopped to look down on the lake and take photos. It was cold and wet.
Returning to the town we circumambulated the lake in the car. Yes, a little lazy, but it was raining even heavier. Instead of renting a room in a guest house we decided to head directly towards Dolanji and figured we would arrive there arong 7:00 at night. We arrived closer to 8:00 and had some anxiety negotiating the difficult road in the dark that runs sixteen miles outside of Solan. There are many twists and turns as the road transformed from a nice two lane thourogh fare into a one lane paved road into a dirt track with mud and rock slides at regular intervals.
We arrived safely and promptly found my friend Geshe Sonam (he was one of two Bon monks that were present for two months during the RMA Bon exhibition) who whisked us away to get a hot meal and a quick catch up on all of the news. He also helped us get or bags into a vacant room at the guest house which was completely booked two days earlier and will be again in two days. Tenzin will be the only one to appreciate that the only rooms available were on the ground floor, or bottom, of the Bon Guest House. It could have been a sad story of 'no room in the inn' but then we're not Christians and there isn't a good Buddhist story that corresponds to that phrase, not even concerning Bon Guest Houses.
After visiting the Menri Tizin in the morning we will likely leave Dolanj around mid day tomorrow and travel to Manduwalla in the Dun Valley.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Drugpa Kagyu & Back at Deer Park for the Night
JL and I left Dharamsala a little after nine this morning. It was a pleasant drive along the road heading east back to Palampur. We turned off the road north heading into a forested area and then wound our way around some low hills and then on to the top of the hill where Dorzang Rinpoche is building a retreat center. Actually it seems that Drugu Chogyal Rinpoche is the one really building it but one must remember protocol and hierarchy.The forest retreat comp[lex of many buildings and monks quarters is unfinished but magnificent. It is very clean with few people other than an occasional monk and then the Indian workers finishing the construction. It is in the middle of a pine forest with grass underfoot and clean dust free air. Drugu Chogyal met us out front of his residence. We spent two hours talking and then adjourned for lunch. None of us ate very much as the conversation continued over the formally prepared lunch table. We looked at an amazing assortment of paintings both actual and photographs. I managed to copy all of the important images and will return to New York with them and add them to the HAR website. Most are from the late 17th, early 18th century and painted by the great Drugpa Kagyu painter Cho Tashi. I took numerous pictures of the retreat center and surroundings.
Leaving Drugu Chogyal we proceeded directly to Tashi Jong and spent some time in the main temple again photographing paintings of the former Khamtrul Rinpoches. Again, these paintings were in the style of Cho Tashi if not by his very hand. After that we traveled the short distance to Bir and took a room at the Deer Park Institute for the night. This time JK and I were able to meet with his eldest son at the local TCV school and take some photos. On the return to Deer Park we stopped and visited Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche at his house that I call a palace. Many of you will remember him from the movie "The Cup" where he played the disciplinarian - the very stern head monk.
Darkness sets in very quickly in India; it could also be that there is a lack of street lighting. I will quickly finish this and then go and get something light to eat. The plan is to get up relatively early and head off towards Tso Pema. If we can get there in a reasonable time and see what we need to see then we will head south-east down to Simla. If that isn't reasonable then we will spend the night in Tso Pema and leave the next morning.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Leaving Dharamsala
It is 20 to 8 and and we just finished breakfast in this very good Kongpo restaurant. After a short walk JL is now going for a massage and I am again at the internet. Since arriving in India I have pretty much remained vegetarian. It is very easy to be vegetarian here and probably the best protection against stomach sickness. I don't know that it is so much that the meat is bad. It is more likely the case that the food preparation for the meat is not as clean as it should be and that is why some people end up with problems. I am not being overly cautious nor am I taking any chances. With health concerns in third world environments it is best to keep to a middle course rather than being extreme on one side or the other.
It is a beautiful morning here with bright sunshine and a clear sky. The mountains are a shimmering white with all the snow that arrived last Wednesday. The mountains rise straight up behind Dharamsala making for a magnificent sight. Anybody that has seen the Canadian Rockies in Banff or Jasper National Park will know what I mean. The snow is not likely to melt soon since it is still March and the really warm weather is yet to come.
Today is important for me as I will be meeting the Drugpa Kagyu Lama Drugu Chogyal Rinpoche at his monastery this side of Palampur. He and I have always met breifly over the past ten years in New York but I have never been to his monastery. I have been researching Latog and Khampa Gar style paintings for the last few years and he is the most knowledgeable expert in the world on these subjects. (See an example of this painting style - Namkha Palzang). I have a series of questions that I want to ask him and several theories that I want to present to him. With luck and enough time I also hope to see some of the art treasures in his monastery as well as in the settlement of Tashi Jong a few miles away. Tashi Jong is famous for the many tokdens that live in the hills above the settlement. Tokdens are Buddhist yogis and sadhus that keep their hair long and live an ascetic lifestyle.
It is a beautiful morning here with bright sunshine and a clear sky. The mountains are a shimmering white with all the snow that arrived last Wednesday. The mountains rise straight up behind Dharamsala making for a magnificent sight. Anybody that has seen the Canadian Rockies in Banff or Jasper National Park will know what I mean. The snow is not likely to melt soon since it is still March and the really warm weather is yet to come.
Today is important for me as I will be meeting the Drugpa Kagyu Lama Drugu Chogyal Rinpoche at his monastery this side of Palampur. He and I have always met breifly over the past ten years in New York but I have never been to his monastery. I have been researching Latog and Khampa Gar style paintings for the last few years and he is the most knowledgeable expert in the world on these subjects. (See an example of this painting style - Namkha Palzang). I have a series of questions that I want to ask him and several theories that I want to present to him. With luck and enough time I also hope to see some of the art treasures in his monastery as well as in the settlement of Tashi Jong a few miles away. Tashi Jong is famous for the many tokdens that live in the hills above the settlement. Tokdens are Buddhist yogis and sadhus that keep their hair long and live an ascetic lifestyle.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
This was my favorite book growing up as a kid. OFF THE HOOK! Now they're making it a movie.HYPED! See more pics HERE.
Dharamsala, Last Night
The meeting with Tashi Tsering went better than I had hoped. I have so much information and he pointed me in so many positive directions for more research on the subjects we discussed. I also came away with some valuable texts and rare images. He now has ownership of my first born.The LTWA went very well also. We have opened a channel of communications and will hopefully move slowly forward towards their participation on the HAR website.
I met up with Maura M. in the main bazaar of Dharamsala. She has been here for two weeks and leaves in five more days. I don't think I could handle that. JL and I had a nice dinner at the Kailash Hotel (Chu Shi Gang Drug). We leave early in the morning heading back to Palampur so as to meet Drugu Chogyal Rinpoche for lunch at his monastery.
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