chauntra

Chetsang Rinpoche who is the head of the Drikung kagyu lineage came to bless the new gonpa and spend a few days. The area around the gonpa was strewn with hanging flowers, strands of yellow and green marigolds while arrangements of gerber daisies and (the long stemmed ones we use for weddings and funerals) hung in bunches throughout the center. The mornings were filled with prayers while the afternoons were festive with entertainment provided by some of the local schools and a few performers from TIPA.
The day I decided to stay in Bir. I found myself at the small Drikung gonpa behind the guest house I was staying at where lots of local tibetans were waiting for Chetsang Rinpoche to arrive. So...nowhere to go I hung around. The nice thing was that compared with Chauntra the group assembled to get blessing from him was quite small at about 150 people compared to about 1,500 or more. Once he arrived and the prayers were said and the tea drunk we all lined up and as I bent my head to receive blessing to my surprise he asked me in perfect english where I was from. From that I couldn't help mentioning that we had been at Lamayuru in Ladakh on the same day he departing as I arrived.
The next day he gave Phowa instructions in the morning and blessing to every person who stood in that line in the afternoon. Even though I'd received blessings the day before I found it worth it to stay. I waited till closer to the end and I think that was about 2 hrs. before I got into it. So impressive and beautiful to see.
Many of the sponsors for this new gonpa were from Taiwan. May they be happy and continue to have the good fortune to support the dharma.