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.