saga con'd.

So I had just fallen...and...well, I had to have help to get up.
It was the night after Dewali and it seems that my karma had caught up with me but who knows the workings of karma after all it's one of those mysterious things that even the Buddha said don't try to understand the workings of because you might go "mad".
It wasn't like I wasn't prepared for the "fall." I was paying attention. I was remembering last year the night after Dewali when I fell into a 4' deep concrete trench which fortunately for me had 1/2" of sludge in it which was probably why I wasn't more injured than bruised. It happened on my way home from picking up my passport from the Indian visa agency the day after Dewali...because the day before was Dewali...and when I got there they were closed which was why on the 2nd attempt I decided to ride my bike which was why it was dark when I got off the ferry because I missed the earlier one by 5 minutes which was why I was paying attention this year because I didn't want to have a repeat experience because what I took away from the first one was to pay attention to where I was walking in India in case of potholes, etc.
After all the treking around in Ladakh and Spiti and even walking on the "sidewalks" of Mcloud Ganj (which is a very noisy place, not peaceful like you'd expect the town that the Dalai Lama lives in to be), after all this hiking throughout the Himalayas, after all this, you wouldn't expect, I wouldn't expect to fall, simply going to my room after dinner on a little marlbe step.
And why you ask didn't I have my flashlight? Because I was being stubborn. I can tell you I didn't want to be bothered by a phone call I new I might get so I decided not to take my new phone with the flashlight attatched so conveniently with me.
I had come back to the Gonpa from the upper village where I was invited to stay with my friend Meenu and her family...I was there on Dewali and we lit candles and danced (at least I danced, Meenu still had a cast on). We ate sweet things. I had the thought, "I should be careful because I fell last year at this time." Her father the local priest was pretty insistent that I stay another night but I did really have to get back to my suitcase because not only did I need a change of clothes what I also needed was a tampon. So now here I was back in the main village of Rewalsar showered and clean and "stuffed" and being stubborn and somehow at the moment, the critical moment of going down a few little marble steps in the dark I missed my footing and everything went into slow motion but not slow enough for me to right myself and in the next moment it had happened. Searing pain in my foot. Pain that made me cry out. Later I would wonder that my friend Claire had sprained both her ankles at the Drukpa Kinley (the "mad/naughty monk of Bhutan") place and somehow I hadn't even noticed. How was it that I was such a baby! I mean compared to her. I was crying out, "OUCH, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!" and no one was seeming to notice. But then a kind family who had been turning the gonpas prayer wheels came over and at the same time one of the local guys who sits at the gate everyday came and he had some personal experience with sprains and so they all helped me get to my room and the "guy w/ the personal experience" came to my humble room with a tub of warm water and rubbed my foot, "OUCH!" and rubbed some sort of tumeric mixture on it and wrapped it in some toilet paper before putting my sock back on (my foot was yellow for weeks). The sweet ladies from Lahaul who had helped me up to my room also checked to help me to the toilet before they retired for the night and then came to check the next morning. At least I could sort of slide my foot across the floor as I went to toilet....I remembered helping my friend in Bhutan and how trecherous a few few feet could be but I didn't have anybody to go buy me a plastic cup thingy...and though the ladies were nice, communication with all the folks who were trying to help me was minimal at best. Fortunately for me "the Blue Cave" restaurant was just around the other side of the building (I was on the 2nd floor) and I could call down to Nyma from the balcony to deliver me some lunch. After her initial suprise of being "called from above" she came with hot water and food and her cell number so I could order without leaving my bed. Which she generously did daily till I was able to hobble downstairs and across the street. As it turned out she was the best cook in Tso Pema (Rewalsar) and I miss her everyday since she went on pilgrimage to practice in Bodhgaya for the winter. Since she left it's Veg. Thukpa (noodles) everyday for me...that or momo's. Both of which are good...but I'll just say I'm starting to miss having my own kitchen.

Saga at Tso Pema

So it's been an interesting month here in Tso Pema...the place where Guru Rinpoche eloped(?) with Princess Mansarovar and when her father found out he imprisoned her (the main road in Mandi is still called Jail rd.) and then attempted to burn Guru Rinpoche to death...which of course didn't happen as the lake formed around him the more fuel they put, the king repented that he hadn't realized what an accomplished yogi G.R. was. O.k that's the short version for all who don't know the story so I don't bore those who do. One thing about this pilgrimage is that Guru Rinpoche plays a major role...seeing how he was also in Bhutan...that big cave up on the mountain we visited called Tigers Nest...lots of Guru Rinpoche places in Ladakh as well and the whole kora around Tso Pema...and my long intention to visit Bodinath in Nepal...yep he was there too in his previous incarnation as the womans son...who helped build it...So now when the foot heals enough to get up to Lama Wangdors statue gonpa (see photo)... I have been invited to help paint the interior...I'm only just starting to shake in my shoes...can I possibly do this...well I can at least just put up the base coat...and maybe some decorations...I'm sure I'm nowhere near ready to paint a life size mural of any buddha or tara or vajrayogin...and it terrifies me that I might be asked to...but all things in time will appear as they will. ( Tashi the sculpture who invited me to help paint if I have time.)
So on arrival here back when I could still trapse about one of the local attractions is the visit the cave where G.R. and Mansarovar spent their time in meditation, etc. so I went up the mountain for a visit and met the nuns who live all round about the place...which is preserved with help from Lama Wangdor who visited SRMC during the 2 mo retreat back when I was there...anyway it was a lovely quiet place and the village on top of the hill is maybe one of the sweetest I've seen maybe ever...instead of taking the bus back to town or the direct stairs I decided to have a walk about the lake I had seen...there used to be 7 lakes here and they fit into the Hindu cosmology so there is a big statue of the monkey king Hanuman near one of them...this walk took me away from the road and behind the hill with the village...I saw no one except one sheep herder yelling at his goats...so it was the quietest place I've been in India ever...astonishingly quiet...for a sunny 3 hour walk cool in the shade, occasional bird noises and lizards hiding under bushes.
This walk turned into an adventure when I got back where the road meets the path near the 1st lake and I tried to hitch a ride on a scooter but there were already 2...so I thought I could walk or wait, so I walked a few paces down the road and discovered a stone stairway of sorts down the mountain and started to skip hop down not knowing where this path would go but knowing down was at least the right way for now...at one point through the tops of the trees I spotted a temple that looked intriguing...for the lack of much else around...I mean there are temples everywhere so why this one looked so intriguing I can't say, something about seeing it through the trees like that, I just had to try to find it...of course the thing about being in a forest is that at some point you can't see the tops anymore...so I kept my bearing and eventually found that I had skirted my destination and had to back track a bit...but finally success. As I reached the place a young woman and elderly man on a porch noticed me approaching and came around from the back of the temple when I noticed that the girl was on crutches....and she was very pretty. (theres a pic of her at the top of the page.) Meenu is her name and her father has been building the temple for as many years as she's been alive...work has slowed in the last years due to his health and the cost of materials needed to finish...but what is so astounding is that this temple that he built is to Tara of all the Hindu deities...and they told me many fascinating stories about the construction...and I became friends with Meenu who is herself a dancer...and the cast is from an unfortunate accident on a bus...hmmm...and she speaks perfect english...which in this small village suddenly surprised me. We had a lovely afternoon and they fed me lunch which I needed after all the walking and not a shop anywhere...till the late afternoon when I felt I needed to find the rest of the way back to town which turned out to be not so far away...which meant that I revisited my friends again a couple times...before...well...I fell.

NO News

Wow. What a long time it's been. One thing about using this is that I can tell when I haven't been near a puker for awhile...So after getting unstuck from Leh...I made it down to Spiti (fotos coming to a f.b. near you), kinnaur and back to Shimla...once in shimla my friends in the refugee camp wouldn't hear of me getting ripped off as high season was upon the hotels...and if you could find a room the price (by India standards) was unreasonable...so once again I stayed in the alley. Then I discovered that the Rinpoche (he is the head Ngima lama) that I had met on my way to Ladakh had just returned from travels so I was able the meet him again on my way back from Ladakh...this time he asked who I was and from where..."Ameriga ne in", I said. Ahhh he said and pushed my head closer to the floor after dropping a blessing cord in my outreached hand. So now in Tso Pema for the last few weeks for those of you with out F.B. I have been recupperating from a bad sprained ankle which is almost better now so hopefully soon I will be back on the move to Dharamsala and beyond. Pics just finished uploading so I better get back to that.

Stuck in Leh

So unless the snow melts and the sun shines I may be here for a little while...options are flying out or going back the way I came in; which was gorgeous but somehow defeating the purpose...since the idea is kora around Tsog Pema it would be like undoing my steps...One of my tibetan friends suggested flying out and then starting where I left off next year which sounds like a potential plan.
I do want to come back in March if it fits into my self-proposed schedule. One of the monks I met and stayed with in Martho village is going to be the Oracle for that monastery then. Apparently the chosen ones do 2 yrs service as oracle and this will be his 2nd and last and probably last year as a monk as well. He's been a monk since he was 8 and last year one of the elderly monks died and nobody found him for 6 days...I think it pushed the haystack over for him.
Had a good walk from Hemis to Stakna (6hrs) on a rocky plain and spent the night with one family kind enough to offer me a spot on the floor of their unfinished house. Houses here are works in progress even when there are 2 floors already...this one had 3 rooms so far. Next day I hiked up to Martho gonpa and met my friend Dorjee who suggested I stay as they were about to start a 3 day Tara puja. The monks appreciated that I was a practitioner and not just a tourist and it was interesting to have an inside view of life in a Ladakhi monastery...The monks here are not allowed to leave the gonpa for 45 days at this time. When I left they had about 15 days left to go. There are no guest houses in Martho so there are allot fewer tourists stopping by though I hear during the March festival quite a few come to see the "Oracle show".
So then after stopped at Stakna gonpa and Thiksey gonpa and spent 2 nights at Thiksey. This place was supposed to have been predicted by Lama Tsongkapa as a place where his dharma would continue. One story of the choice for the location was that one teacher and student went up the mountain with some auspicious items and a raven grabbed one of them, later they found it on the hill where Thiksey is now located. At Thiksey I met Stenzin Sherab who became a monk at 20 and is teaching the first class in the monastery school...he invited me to tea and rest in his house where I spent the night and later he told me his fathers house name is Shelly...so it seemed that I belonged to his house.
So if it seems funny that I'm staying with the monks I'll just say that here in Ladakh they all have spare rooms and live in little houses with kitchens and living rooms and a bedroom and really great views since almost all the monasteries are built on hills. Often there is no guest house near the gonpa or in Thiksey case it's on a major tourist route so every room was filled.
So now I'm back in Leh and realizing that Nubra Valley may have to wait for another time as there's snow in them there hills. Today the road to Manali is closed so the first chance I'm getting on a bus south which means also watching the weather underground to see when storms are predicted... apparently the snow storms have been coming early in Ladakh as opposed to some places where they are late or not at all.
I'm missing village life already as Leh is a proper city. It's clear many tourists who weren't effected by the Jet Air strike have left already because the taxi stand is now full of jeeps at all times of day and every Kashmiri vendor is desperately trying to get me to come in and take a look, well that was ever the case and one of the annoying parts of Leh. The festival is still going though I wasn't impressed with the first days organization and in general I'm not a festival goer...but tomorrow is Cham dances at the gonpa so perhaps I'll try to get over my preference for a couple of hours.
So that's the news...and as my friend Wesker says..."if you don't like it go out and make some of your own".

Zanskari hopsitality

Just back from Zanskar teachings. Very intimate, very special. The trip there was full of interesting twists and turns literally. After leaving Leh I went to Lechir and Alchi with Melanie a friend of Ani Palzes. We left Leh by bus and hiked up the lechir valley to the gonpa, where the monk were doing puja, and back to our guest house where I had the living room due to all the guests rooms being full. But I had the best view. Waking every morning to the sun shining on the mountains and the ama ley taking the cow for a walk or baking bread in metal bowls on coals. In the morning we walked down to the main road to catch a ride on to alchi. The gonpa here is quite old and the paintings quite wonderful but all the monks live at Licher except two who oversee the tourists. Here my room looked out at the donkey pens and anyone who knows donkeys will know I was "teased", as my host called it, in the early morning by their braying. Just as well as I had decided to try to catch a ride on to Mulbeck. After a guy on his way to work and a bus to lama yuru, where I was prepared to spend the night, I found a ride with a couple from a town near Eureka. And in Mulbeck I met a couple of teachers from Pasadena it seems that most of the Americans I'm meeting in Ladakh are from Ca. This trend continued through the Zanskar teachings as I met a couple from Palo Alto who know Rinpoche from his talks at Stanford. So from Mulbeck I got the bus to Kargyl and then a minivan from there to Rangdom where I spent the night and is the half way point into Zanskar and Padum. I was warned about how bad this road was and was expecting the road to be on hanging cliffs but ultimately what was bad about it was that it was an alpine dirt road for250 km which meant fording streams and trying to keep my head from bouncing off the roof. The next morning I hiked out to the Rangdom gonpa which is on a hill in the middle of a plain that looks like it might be a flood plain in the spring from water run off. From there I walked a couple of hours before a bus of pilgrims stopped to pick me up for the rest of the journey with one stop at Sani gonpa and its stupa with ancient buddhist menhirs in front of it.
Arriving at the teaching location I quickly realized that trying to procure space in one of the tents was going to be too much of a challenge with my limmitted zanskari so I hitched a ride up the hill with one rinpoche to look at the kampas I noticed on the way in that looked like potential home stays. Piling out of the car I met MJ from Korea and she agreed to help me find a place. The first house we stopped at she happened to know the Apa ley and he agreed to let me stay with their family even though he was expecting many relatives to arrive. This turned out to be the most integrated experience I've had in India with any family. Once the relatives arrived the women were relagated to one room where we slept all in a row with the children and the men to another and the overflow men in the unfinished room without a roof which was also hay storage for the cows. In this household I carried my own water from the well down the street for a bath and even helped bring more when it was getting low later in the week. The govt. provides drinking water to a well with a handpump which is fresh and clean which also winds up getting used for washing cloths when the irrigation ditches are dry. The morning walk to the Potang was through the barley and pea fields which rustled in the morning breezes and alive with the hum of pilgrims in their local costumes weighed down with turquoise and coral chanting their morning prayers. The first day I was surprised to find that the teaching was only in the morning but later realized that at this altitude that's enough and it also allowed the locals to get some work done. Though in my family it was mostly preparing food for relatives and not bringing in the harvest.
Nomo works very hard and the two kids are 6 and 10. Phunsok the 10 y.o. boy is in the private school and shy and Tenzin Wangzom is completely on fire and may become the first female Zanskari comedienne if it's not trained out of her by her teens. In the end it was hard to leave this little family and I can only hope that in the future I will have the chance to see them again. But I had found a ride directly to Leh so I was bound to take it and today happy about it as the teaching here has started a day earlier. I was able to visit Kalsa gonpa in Zanskar and the ani gonpa across from it as well with an Italian stupa rebuilding project (who by the way are looking for experienced western stupa builders). An Australian couple and I walked across the desert for 2 hrs to get to Kalsha so I made sure to get us a ride back which took us over to the ani gompa as they were researching which stupa to rebuild...it was a good side trip as the ani gonpa was quite special with an amazing carved Avolakiteshwara and a vajrayogini temple. The ride back to Kargyl was quite intense as we did it in one stretch about 13 hrs. This time Kargyl wasn't as intimidating and I found the locals to be friendly, helpful and generously inviting me to stay for a few days and be shown around the village. But Leh was calling and so here I am...with thousands more people than Zanskar but still a special feeling in the air to have the opportunity to recieve such beneficial teachings. Though many western tourists seem to have come just for a look, who knows what that seed will produce in the future. And on that note May all beings know happiness and the causes of happiness and may I be a benefactor for countless beings to know true freedom.

Jully, Kamzang ina ley, or Ley for a day

So I made up to Ladakh with my good friend Ani Palzes ley after suffering through the heat of Jammu and breezing through Srinigar. going over the passes to get to Kargyl was truly one of the most spectacular experiences of my life. I plan to do it again! We reached Mulbeck in the evening to Ani ley's family house and rested for a couple of days. There was a small local festival on the 2nd day so we got an eyeful of local culture. Ani is on her way to Taiwan to study for 4 yrs so this was an especially important trip for her to see her family and it's been very quick...tomorrow I will actually head back west and spend a couple nights in Alchi and back to Mulbeck on my way to Zangskar for the teachings with HHDL before returning back here to leh. So internet access is incredibly limited where I will be...so don't expect anything till I'm back in Leh...I already have a ton of pics to share with you all but that may also take some time as uploading is frowned upon here. So far I really liked Mulbecks small quiet village life, Leh is definitely the big city. Lamayuru is spectacular and I'm looking forward to getting back to the area around leh to visit Hemis etc.

Jammin in Jammu

I don't think I've been this completely wet with out jumping in the river for a long long time...The good thing is it rained early this morning and the pollution level that made Jammu look uninviting is now reduced though I suspect that by afternoon it will be back. One night here while I wait for Ani Palzes la to catch up from Delhi then we will take a car to Mulbeck in Ladakh to her house. I hope to stop at one of the monasteries I've been reading about as it's on the way...currently reading The Yogins of Ladakh..a social anthropologists look at the meditation practices of that region, a really good read integrating his outer travels as well as his inner one. Yesterday Chakki Bank one of the moments where I could have missed the train...after asking about 10 people if the train to Jammu was the one "over there" (arm waving) or would it arrive on this track (finger pointing) and the invariable shaking of the head that doesn't seem to indicate much other than possible "I don't know", I finally decided it was the train over there...jumped across the tracks and got deffinitive yesses from passengers.