A few more wanderings and wonderings from Drigung

This is a new large (12-15 feet?) image of Jikten Sumgon in the Dukhang (the Great Assembly Hall), specially built in memory of the 36th Thripon of Drigung-til, Drubwang Tenzin Nyima Rinpoche (see article on Drigung Kagyu Resource Website) who passed away in the summer of 2006.

A stupa where some of the ringsel (white, grainy, round relics) of Drubwang Tenzin Nyima are interned.

We did the lingkor at Drigung-til. On that morning, sky-burials were still going on and so we had to walk real quick pass the actual site. Some of us actually got yelled at by the corpse-breakers! But once we passed around the front of the site and got above it, it was okay to linger. That was where I decided to sit down and offer sang while our Tibetan guide, Bhuchung-la hung the prayer-flags we bought and tended the fire.

Someone decided they needed to take a picture of me after the sang was over. It was drizzling most of the time but cleared up after the sang was offered.

Our group with Balok Rinpoche and Ven. Samten Puntsok (Director of Drigung-til)

Terdrom, also known as Shoto Tidro. Many great masters have meditated here and various cycles of termas were discovered here including the Yangzab of Gyalwang Rinchen Puntsok (the 17th Throne-holder of Drigung). Today, many practitioners (especially nuns) are in retreat in this area. The current Drigung Khandro resides in a cave way over on the other side of this valley.

Self-arisen Guru Rinpoche housed in the nunnery at Terdrom.

Gyalwang Rinchen Puntsok's footprint housed in the nunnery.

Gift of Sight

The idea to bring used eyeglasses to Tibet came to Ashley Pasteka (a student on the “WorldWide Tibet” course) last year at Terdrom. Ashley had taken a nap in the Terdrom guestroom. When we woke up, one of the head nuns was wearing Ashley’s reading glasses and reading a text. That was when Ashley recognized a need among the nuns. She brought the idea to us and I decided to start a small “Gift of Sight” project to fundraise and collect used eyeglasses and sunglasses (snow blindness during the winter can be a serious problem) to bring to the nuns and other underprivileged in remote areas. Through the sales of items we bought from the Barkor last year and the efforts of various individuals, I was able to bring a few hundred pairs of glasses on this trip and monetary donations as well. Most of the eyeglasses were given to the 180 or so nuns and retreatants at Terdrom. We just left them with the two nuns we met the day we visited Terdrom since the director nun I know – Ven. Puntsok Drolma – was away in Lhasa and other nuns were over at Drigung-til attending the annual cham. We did keep some extra glasses for Namtso as Bhuchung-la knew that they would be greatly appreciated by residents there. So when we got to Namtso, we found some people who clearly needed this “gift of sight” – nuns, lay caretakers, retreatants, and pilgrims and nomads from remote areas.




If you can help with next year's "Gift of Sight," please contact me! I'm hoping to take a group of Drigung Kagyu followers to Central Tibet next June.

The Black Hat Dance

Here are some pictures I took of Balok Rinpoche leading the Black Hat Dance - one of the high-points of most cham festivals - at Drigung-til on June 14th. This dance is said to have been first performed by Lhalung Palgyi Dorje, the disciple of Guru Rinpoche who liberated the evil-king Langdarma (r. 838-841) who was persecuting Buddhism in Tibet. This legend has been interpreted in this dance as the dance for powerfully overcoming especially pernicious obstacles and negativities - all of which are understood by Buddhists to have originated from ego-clinging or self-grasping.

"These blue mountains are constantly walking."

Walking around blue mountains in Drigung...

In a scene from the movie Himalaya (a beautiful movie about salt-traders in Tibet trekking over the Himalayas to sell their salt in exchange for much needed grain to last the winter - watch it if you have not yet) Pasang was told by his grandfather that the definition of 'pilgrims' is 'religious people who walk.' Everywhere in Tibet, everyone is, by that definition, a pilgrim. Lhasa has three main circuits (Tib. kor) walked daily, hourly by countless residents, out-of-towners, Pomeranians, tourists, school-kids, mothers, Chihuahuas, little lambs, grandfathers and grand-lamas. These three concentric circles have the Jowo Shakyamuni image in the Jokhang Chapel as the center. Thus, the nangkor or inner-circuit around the main shrine of the Jokhang Chapel, the barkor, the intermediate-circuit around and outside the Jokhang Chapel filled with shops and stalls, galleries and restaurants making available all kinds of all things to all walkers and prostraters ('religious people who walk-n-prostrate) and finally the lingkor which goes around the entire older part of Lhasa - circumambulating important sites such as the Jokhang Chapel and Potala Palace, and the holy-hills of Chakpori, Barmari and Marpori. And of course, around every chapel, shrine, monastery, tree, mountain and river is a circuit to walk around.

Of course, we could say that we are all pilgrims - just 'religious' (ok, read: 'spiritual' if you like that word more or have an aversion for that 'r' word) in a different way, and perhaps walking in a different way. But this literal act of walking is more obvious here in Tibet than say in NATO-, G8-member, "most-powerful-nation," "bastion-of-freedom" (especially suburbia) America or for that matter in "developing-nation," ASEAN-member, non-aligned nation of Malaysia. Pilgrims walk from Eastern Tibet to Central Tibet - several months if just walking, several years if walking and prostrating (literally, measuring/covering the entire distance with one's body). From Central Tibet, these pilgrims often go on to Mt. Kailash (Tib. Gang Rinpoche) in Western Tibet - another 2000 kilometers or so. Measuring with one's entire body can easily take seven years, one-way. Monks and nuns measure this way. Mothers and fathers measure this way too while toddlers not too infrequently measure with their tiny paces.

"We learn a place and how to visualize spatial relationships, as children, on foot and with imagination. Place and the scale of space must be measured against our bodies and their capabilities. A 'mile' was originally a Roman measure of a thousand paces. Automobile and airplane travel teaches us little that we can easily translate into a perception of space. To know that it takes six months to walk across Turtle Island/North America walking steadily but comfortably all day every day is to get some grasp of the distance." Gary Synder in The Practice of the Wild.

We had a very full day on Thursday - the main cham day at Drigung-til. Full of faces, full of colors, filling our imaginations, feeding our stomachs. That afternoon, we rode over to Terdrom. Since all the nuns I knew were out (some were in Lhasa while most were actually at the cham over at Drigung-til), we did not stay long at Terdrom. I gave the nuns the offerings brought from Drigung-followers in the US and the used eyeglasses I had collected from many kind souls. Both offerings were much appreciated.

I was intent on receiving Guru Rinpoche's blessings at the famed hot-spring at Terdrom although some were not too sure since we were warned that some very well-trained and highly-qualified Western expert sometime ago determined that the hot-spring was "actually" unsanitary - might even carry horrifying diseases!

"In general, then, the way of seeing mountains and waters differs according to the type of being [that sees them]. In seeing water, there are beings who see it as a jeweled necklace. This does not mean, however, that they see a jeweled necklace as water. How, then, do we see what they consider water? Their jeweled necklace is what we see as water. Some see water as miraculous flowers, though it does not follow that they use flowers as water. Hungry ghosts see water as raging flames or as pus and blood. Dragons and fish see it as a palace or a tower, or as the seven treasures or the mani gem. [Others] see it as woods and walls, or as the dharma nature of immaculate liberation, or as the true human body, or as the physical form and mental nature. Humans see these as water. And these [different ways of seeing] are the conditions under which [water] is killed or given life." Dogen in Mountains and Waters Sutra.

Of course it is unsanitary. Of course it is Guru Rinpoche's blessings. I dipped myself in the warmth of the spring as I muttered under my breath the Dusum Sangye prayer: "Guru Rinpoche, Buddha of the three times, Lord of All Accomplishments who is the one of Great Bliss, Dispeller of All Obstacles, Wrathful Tamer of Demons. I supplicate you; please grant your blessings. Grant your blessings that outer, inner and secret obstacles be pacified, that my intentions be spontaneously accomplished."

We were exhausted (and refreshed) for sure when we got back to the campsite but I needed to walk the mountain-ridge I walked last year with April, Rachel, and Joe (Ryan - were you there?). And surprisingly a few others felt the urge and answered the call. So after an earlier dinner, Bill B., Eliza, Heila, Alyk and I left camp and walked towards the self-arisen (Tib. rangjung), sand-sculpture of Shakyamuni. Our walking of this particular 'blue mountain' started there. It was an easy but exhilarating hike, a 40-minute walk, an ascent of perhaps a thousand feet. We reached the top before dark. Hermitages, chapels and assembly-halls of Drigung-til can be seen to the left and our blue tents down in the valley dotted the earth next to the river. I was told later that this mountain-top was another of many in the area blessed by Kyobpa Rinpoche (founder of Drigung-til in 1179). The dwarfed rhododendron bushes growing here were especially blessed. When we finally got back to camp, dusk was in the air.

We rode the bus whenever we needed to get from place to place. But I did try to have us walk as much as we could handle, and sometimes more. The morning before we left Drigung, we walked the lingkor of Drigung-til, the circumambulation route that started in front of the main assembly-hall, circling up to the sky-burial charnel ground above the main monastery complex and finally coming back to the front of the assembly-hall. Took us maybe more than an hour. Along the lingkor some of us even ran! This is a short but uphill stretch after passing the sky-burial site. According to traditions, if one could run that distance with one-breath, then one would be able to repay the kindness of one's parents. We later walked the circumambulation path around Tashi Dor at Namtso. And daily in Lhasa, we walked the Barkor. We walked the several fleet of stairs in the Kyichu Hotel - a task that most of us noticed to be more difficult than the other walks - be it Drigung lingkor, the Barkor, or the lingkor around Tashi Dor. Maybe the stairs at Kyichu felt mundane, insignificant. Maybe not sacred enough or romantic enough...

"Dogen is not concerned with 'sacred mountains' - or pilgrimages, or spirit allies, or wilderness of some special quality. His mountains and streams are the processes of this earth, all of existence, process, essence, action, absence.... They are what we are, we are what they are. For those who see directly into essential nature, the idea of the sacred is a delusion and an obstruction: it diverts us from seeing what is before our eyes: plain thusness.... This, thusness, is the nature of the nature of the nature.... So the blue mountains walk to the kitchen and back to the shop, to the desk and to the stove. We sit on the park bench and let the rain drench us. The blue mountains walk out to put another coin in the parking meter,and go on down to the 7-Eleven. The blue mountains march out to the sea, shoulder the sky for a while, and slip back into the waters." - Gary Snyder.

I learned sometime back that Tibet, the "Roof of the World" was once an ocean. It must have walked a long, long way up. Perhaps the stairs in the Kyichu is a lingkor. I'll work on seeing that thusness.

Another post from Drigung Valley

NOTE: Continuing from "Our Second Day at Drigung-til."

Thursday, June 14, 2007
Drigung Valley

More importantly, this time I finally felt like I was no longer just a tourist who happened to come annually but that I finally know the place and people there better. In particular, I think a deeper understanding and appreciation has come to fruition between the director of the monastery – Ven. Samten Puntsok – and me. In the past years, I’ve been only polite and friendly. This year, I was still polite and all (of course!) but felt comfortable being open and direct. And it was clear that he appreciated that. Samten Puntsok is the most humble director I have ever met –secular or religious. Technically, he is in charged at the monastery. The buck stops at his table. But all the times I have visited with him, he conducts himself as the gracious and humble host. Of course this only speaks to his inner development. Amidst the difficulties and challenges of heading a monastery in Tibet today, most people think he has done very well. And from the little I am able to see, I have to agree. [Balok Rinpoche is in the center and next to him is Samten Puntsok.]

Arriving here in time for their annual cham was just an amazing experience. But I think the highlight of the day for our group was meeting with Balok Rinpoche in the Great Assembly Hall (which turned into the dress-room for the dancers) and having a Q&A session with him.
Tulku-la is a very impressive young man (in his 20’s). I first met him on my first trip to Tibet and was instantly impressed. Other than Tibetan, he is fluent in Chinese Mandarin. He is also very good in English – complete American accent and very well versed in Western culture. But at the same time, he is very traditional – like refusing to wear street-clothes no matter the circumstance and maintaining a strict vegetarian diet (actually quite uncommon for Tibetans but a legacy of the Drigung Kagyu). He has been spending his time translating Buddhist writings from Tibetan to Chinese (and to Tibetan) and is hoping to start translating from Tibetan to English. He is also a good thangka painter and as you can see in the pictures below, a superb cham dancer. When I invited Tulku-la to come visit the US and Southeast Asia, he humbly said, “I would like to do that, but first I need to improve in my learning and practice. Otherwise, it will just be a waste of time and resources.” His conversation with the group really blew away many stereotypes about monks and Buddhism.

After spending about an hour with Tulku-la, we decided to take leave as it was clear that he needed to eat his lunch since he will be performing the Black Hat after lunch. He probably needed to digest some of the food before going out to perform what is admittedly the most physically rigorous and spiritually intense dance. We went back out to watch the cham. At this point, all the deities of the “8 Pronouncements” (an important Ancient Translation [Nyingma] tantric-cycle) were dancing in the courtyard. Around 1pm, I figured that we should probably take leave – the sun in the sky was quite punishing and we needed to get down to the campsite for lunch.
But as it turned out, we were invited to stay for lunch. This was absolutely “crazy” – the last thing I imagined the monastery should have to worry about is to cook for a bunch of foreigners who came uninvited on probably the busiest day on their ritual-calendar. But Drigung-til treats its guests well – invited or otherwise. But of course, I also knew that they went all out of their way because of the respect and reverence they have for Khenchen Rinpoche. Even though I was the only person connected to Rinpoche, it was enough for the monastery. Secondly, they treated us as also guests of Balok Rinpoche. So there you have it! And where did we dine? In the famous Golden Chapel (Serkhang)! This is where the most holy image of Kyobpa Jikten Sumgon is enshrined and this is where most of the throne-holders of Drigung-til received their vows (lay, novice and full vows). We were all seated in a row in front of the Dharma Lord of the Golden Chapel (the name of the image) flanked by images of Jikten Sumgon’s two heart-disciples (Sherab Jungne and Drakpa Jungne). I tried to eat very mindfully….

When we finished lunch and was heading towards the bus, we realized that Tulku-la was dancing. So we stopped and watched and took pictures. It was quite a sight – Tulku-la leading a group of dancers. This dance can be considered the height of the cham as it is the chief Black Hat dancer liberates the obstructive forces by ritually stabbing the dough effigy (Tib. lingka) that had been lying covered on the ground from the beginning of the cham until this point. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Our second day at Drigung

NOTE: Sorry, the next few posts are not chronological.

Thursday, June 14, 2007
Drigung Valley

The weather here is quite unpredictable. When we arrived at Drigung, the sky was as clear as it can be, piercingly turquoise-blue. The night sky was filled with bright stars glowing and twinkling. Sometime during the night, the clouds came rushing in. Before long, it started to hail – albeit and thankfully, only small pea-sized hail. But it was loud enough in the tent and I was woken up. I guessed it must have been around 4 am. I dozed off to the sound of hail but was woken up again when it started to rain. We later learnt that because the area had been unseasonably dry, the locals had requested the monastery to pray for rain and so they did… despite the fact that they needed a precipitation-free day to perform the cham-dances! It was coming down quite strong. I noticed that the edges of the tent were starting to form tiny pools of water. I love ziplock bags – my iBook fitted nicely into a 2-gallon bag, protected from any potential threats from the rainwater. But luckily, the downpour did not last for long. I finally stuck my head out of the tent around 6:30 when the rain stopped. There were still signs of hail on the ground. Photo op….

I got out of the tent around 7 and after the usual morning routine (well… as usual and routine as camping in Tibet allows), decided to do a sang-offering. The two nomad families across the river have already started their sang. We had purchased 3 large bags of sang at the Lhasa Bridge, on our way here to Drigung. The cook – Dawa – got me a cup and a saucer with some tea for tea-offering. Several other group-members were already up and Bill (Bauman) noticed that I was preparing to start the sang and so he joined me. Dan and Sarah were already up and around too. After some effort lighting the sang, I started: “Kye sang so! Lama yi-dam khan-dro sang….” My mind turned to all the friends who have joined me in this simple ritual-offering – in Tibet, in the US, in Malaysia. As the citrus-scent of the palu (Tibetan dwarfed rhododendron) rose in the air, I imagined all the local deities rejoicing in our offering. I imagined them gathering, knowing, hopefully, that this particular group of inji (foreigners) come with goodwill and a recognition that we are guests of the valley, beneficiaries of the kindness and indulgence of the community – the nomads tending their flock, the kids who visited us and told me their names were Konchok Benzar and Konchok Namdrol, the sadak (“earth-lords”) whose earth we have temporarily set-up camp on, the dogs who were barking in a distance last night, the naga-spirits of “The River that Never Freezes,” the wildflowers, the yak-dung, the dung-beetles and all native beings whose imprints and footprints are forever part of the mountains and rivers.

Following breakfast we headed up to the monastery. The bus took us all the way up to the monastery – something that private vehicles were not able to do that day since the monastery did not want too many vehicles up there as there was very little space at the top for parking vehicles. But because the guard below had been notified that we were guests of the monastery, our bus was able to ascend. It would have taken us about 90 minutes or longer if we had to walk/hike up. Already throngs of people were gathered at the monastery. The cham dances had already gone on for a couple of hours when we arrived close to 10 am. When we finally got through to the crowds, Samten Puntsok (director of the monastery) appeared and invited us to some prime-seats along the retaining wall. They rolled out beautiful rugs for us to sit on and later came with bottles of mineral water and tea. It was a bit embarrassing – a group of foreigners treated like royalty. But I have to confess that we enjoyed every second of it. And we were probably too weak to tough it out like the locals.

Here are some of the highlights of the cham dances that morning.

"This meditation-rock of Drigung..."

NOTE: The next few entries are back-dated (is this what I am trying to say??). I just got back from Drigung-til where there was no Internet access (thankfully).

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
10:39 pm, Drigung Valley

Earlier this afternoon, we arrived at Drigung and our tents were already all set-up. The Windhorse folks are amazing. I'm happy to be back. The mere sight of the Drigung-til when we passed the turn-off to Terdrom brought a deep joy and gratitude.

After a couple of hours at the campsite, getting ourselves into tents, checking out the site (lots and lots of wild-flowers blooming this year) and enjoying tea, we went up to the monastery. It was packed with people as this is the annual cham (monastic dance) festival. Samten Puntsok, the director of the monastery – a tall, stately but also kind and soft-spoken monk, probably in his forties, received us. While the rest of the group looked around, Bhuchung-la and I went up to the smaller guest room and were served butter-tea by Samten Puntsok. Within a few minutes, Balok Rinpoche came from his retreat-house above the monastery. It was really good seeing Balok Rinpoche again. He has been up here at Drigung-til teaching the monks basic Tibetan grammar and Mandarin Chinese and of course, he will be dancing one of the major parts in the cham that will take place tomorrow. Rinpoche looked good – he has put on some weight, in a good way. He had with him a monk who’s learning English as well as two other young Tibetans who are currently helping with his and his father’s projects. He introduced me to them and we had a nice time chatting. I didn’t stay too long since it was getting late and the group was tired and some were suffering from altitude sickness – the monastery is around 14,000 feet.

It’s late and the barking of dogs can be heard from a distance. Perhaps they’re in the village further up the road or perhaps they might even be from the monastery way up on the ridge. Drigung Valley, where we are camping, is a little over 13,000 feet and Drigung-til Monastery sits perched on a ridge, another 800 or even a thousand feet above us. So here I am, sitting in my single-person tent, typing away.

I’ve just finished watching a DVD featuring the recent development and growth of the Drigung Kagyu Lineage under the leadership of the two co-heads of the lineage – the Drigung Kyabgons. The rest of our group had gone to bed early. But I remembered having the DVD with me and my iBook was all charged-up and I thought, why not? Huddled together in the kitchen tent with our guide, driver, cook and helpers, we watched for a little over an hour. There was lots of footage on an important lama who they cannot openly talk about and cannot have pictures of (you-know-who)… It was a bitter-sweet experience. I suddenly felt like a complete outsider in that tent as I realized that no matter how much I think I revere this person and the effect I feel he has on me every time I see his picture or video footage of him, I recognized in that tent tonight that I have no idea what he truly means to the Tibetans. May the Holder of the White Lotus, the Buddha of Compassion, live long for hundreds of kalpas!

They’ve kindly set up my tent a little away from the rest of the group (not that I needed that at all!) but most heartening is they’ve set it up so that I’m facing the monastery directly – the only tent facing that way. Kyobpa Rinpoche’s (founder of Drigung-til in 1179) words “This meditation-rock of Drigung is inseparable from me in the three times” keep coming up in my mind. And I think I experienced the reality of those words today. I think.