Leaving Dehradun & Manduwalla

I had a wonderful time today with Sakya Trizin and the two Dungsay Rinpoches. We spent a lot of time talking about art and some other subjects. After that I left Rajpur and went back to Manduwalla to meet with Luding Khenchen Rinpoche. This meeting also went very well but it was a social call to meet one of my old teachers. We did not talk about art, only of the past and when we would meet again. He is basically retired now and travels very little.

We are up at 5:00 tomorrow morning to be on the road for 6:00 to try and beat the traffic, heat and dust, so that we can be in New Delhi early to enjoy the heat and mosquitoes. Apparently the temperature has been hovering around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Jamyang Lekdrub's mother insists that I get up early enough to go to the local stupa (see earlier blog about Gega Lama) and say prayers to the Padmasambhava statue inside before leaving. Tsedor, JL's older brother, has already booked rooms for us at the Tara Guest House in Majnukatilla. He is there now attending an annual Chu Shi Gang Drug meeting (Four Rivers Six Mountains). I have mentioned Tsedor before, he used to be a well known painter and his photograph along with his teacher (uncle) are in David Jackson's publication on Tibetan Tangka Painting, or some such title.

After two days of Delhi I may be desperate to get onto an air conditioned airplane. I have two appointments to keep and people to see. Delhi is a big place and I may not be able to do both in the same day but I will try and do as much as possible. There are also some bookstores worth checking out.

The image above is of the family dog named Jangsem. We became good friends during my stay in Manduwalla. During the day he is chained up so that he won't bite the Nepalese workers that make the vajras and bells, etc., and at night he is allowed to run free in the compound.

Looking at Art

My meeting with Sakya Trizin was postponed until tomorrow morning because of the lengthy preparations for the seven day Vajra Nairatmya ritual at Sakya Center, Rajpur. That however didn't postpone my lecture this afternoon. It was strange to be lecturing to over 120 monks in a place that I used to call home. I have lectured to monks before but not that many. Their ages ranged from kids to adults. I had to vary the lecture so as to include everybody equally as the targeted audience.

The first image above is of Avalokliteshvara belonging to the RMA. The second image below is from a set of nine paintings sometimes thought to have been originally created or commissioned by Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne. The painting is in a Chinese style although almost any painting associated with Situ Panchen is incorrectly said to be in a Karma Gadri style. There are many reasons for this, too many to discuss at this time. This second painting is a recent Tibetan copy of an older painting located at a monastery in Eastern Tibet. The only other known painting (photographed) like this is in the Rubin Museum of Art (see first image). Don and I purchased it specifically for the Situ Panchen exhibition which is currently showing. It will be interesting to carefully compare the two images.

The lower painting is of the 5th Khamtrul Rinpoche and done in a Cho Tashi style from Khampa Gar in Eastern Tibet. (Cho Tashi was a famous Drugpa Kagyu artist from the 17th/18th century). The colours are rich, thick, applied heavily and the composition makes full use of the entire canvas unlike the paintings from Palpung that are called Karma Gadri style.

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.

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.

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.

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.