Too Many Places to See!

The top image is looking across at the back of Sakya Center in Rajpur. The photo is taken from the road that leads to the Sakya Nunnery in the Dekyiling community. It is not more than an hour walk from Rajpur and 10 minute drive. The image in the middle is of the new Ngor Tantric College built in Manduwalla under the supervision of Luding Khen Rinpoche. And the bottom image is of the famous Drigung Songtsen Library. Tenzin D. and I visited the library when we were in India in 2005. I will not have an opportunity to visit this time, nor will I be able to visit Sakya College and Khenpo Gyatso, Gongkar Chode, Sa-Magon Puruwalla, and a host of other sites. It would take at least a month in Dehradun with a serious schedule prepared to be able to see most of the sites. For the Sakya alone there are twelve or thirteen monasteries, colleges and retreat centres in the Dehradun area. The Hindu holy places of Rishikesh and Haradwar are also a short drive down the road. On Wednesday the Dalai Lama flew into the local airport and then spent the day in Haradwar with a famous Indian Sadhu. He then flew back to Dharamsala in the afternoon. One of my hosts had to be at the airport to officially welcome the Dalai Lama and give a formal greeting representing the Lingtsang community.

The Twenty-One Taras of Jowo Atisha

Some say there were 10,000 people but I think that is exaggerated. There were easily 5 to 7,000, but my number could be off as well. Today was the day of the Tara initiation at the Sakya Nunnery which turned out to be a shortened version of the Twenty-one Taras of Atisha. We arrived at 8:00 in the morning and finally left the Nunnery at 2:00. It was another long day and it was only half over. I returned to Manduwalla and napped. The weather has gotten a lot warmer in the last couple of days.

I will be busy tonight preparing CDs of images to present to Sakya Trizin tomorrow morning. I have also been asked to lecture tomorrow afternoon at Sakya Center. The topic will be Sakya History and Art.

The painting above is from a set of Tangkas depicting all twenty-one Taras in groups of three. This is the only known painting from this set of approximately nine paintings. I only know of one other set in this configuration and again it is only a single painting in the Rubin personal collection.

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.

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.