Guru Rinpoche Day

The streets are so crowed it's almost a hazard. The one thing going for it is that most people, 99.9% of them are all walking in the same direction...kora...around the lake. This is a time when I would have to say it's great I've been here for a few months. Local faces stand out in the crowd and smile and greet me in whatever native dialect is theirs and invite me to sit or take chai and we both comment on how many; mangpo, mangpo; people there are and it seems like a relief for both of us to have a familiar face to chat with; whoever it is at the moment.

I can feel the strain around my eyes from a long day spent watching the Cham dancing: lama dances. And trying to get a good angle for a camera that's only good use now is to dispay the magnificent color. Talk about abstract. A few close ups come into focus but it's now a 2% chance that a given photo will take.

but it's been a long day anyway for everybody...

this morning I got up early and walked around the lake watching the sun rise: pink. Dark forms silhouetted prostrating and bare trees reflected on the mirror surface. The outside kora is lined with bags and fabric laid on the ground for offerings to the poor. this early and they aren't out yet but their spots are deffinetly allocated. my regular food stops being full already I stopped at a new chai stand and had a paper cup full. gone are the days of ceramic cups I used to hear about. however it's still only 5r.

Another round and I hear my local I.T. guy, "Hey, Joe", that's his nickname to me. I've tried to explain that I don't have any guns but it goes over his head. Imagine never having heard Jimi...so now that's my nickname for him.

He looks like he might have had a long night so coming around to the "hotels" (just another word for a restaurant) I offer him a chai. We're in Topchen upstairs just across the street from the Nyinma Gonpa G.H. watching the crowds. Everybody is in their finest chuba, blanket, wool jacket/vest or kira. We're having fun locating groups by how they're dressed. Having spent the summer travelling through most of the areas where these folks are from I'm doing pretty good, there's just one blanket style that has me stumped. It's a heavy, natural thing folded into pleats in the back and belted so the top hangs over and back down. the only color is a red stripe with some dark designs on it...the one thing giving me any clue is that they also wear a himachali cap...so they deffinitely aren't from farther north than Lahaul. Zangpo, Jimi, says they're from Kinnaur. That could be, I was moving fast through kinnaur and didn't get to as many places. It was apple season when I got there.

Later in the morning it was costumes of another sort...Cham costumes. The dancing has been going on for a couple days already but since this is the BIG day things were taking longer to get sorted out. fortunately there is usually some sort of comic relief. In this case it was young monks masked as fools making fun and pulling older people onto the stage area to make them dance with them.

Of course before it all began there was the poking and prodding and being told I was too tall before anything was even happening by the little Lahauli ladies. Space...think small...think, make yourself as small as possible. One lady was almost crushed this morning when Dudjom Rinpoche was passing by when everyone around her rushed forward to get a blessing.
People were up on every surface available but one which was impossible to get to...Later I noticed even that one was got to. Then there was no gaurantee that your location would be any good to see around the official camera men and various other obstacles that never seem like obstacles till the performance starts. It's all just a mellee but once your committed to being there that's it... I really mean it cause there is no room to make a path to get out.

Which brings me to the fact the this gonpa is where I'm residing and when the crowd is "in" there's no leaving and when the crowd is "at the gate waiting to come in" there's no leaving and when the crowd is "in" there's no getting to the room so be here where you are and when you want lunch you better just tell tenzin la that you'll take whatever she's got because she doesn't have time for special orders and that includes Thukpa! (noodle soup)

Soooo, mmmmmomo's it will have to be.