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.

being the storm

Just got back from a whirlwind excursion to the Nepal border and back to Manali via Delhi, Shimla. 5 days or rather nights on the move. 1 night bus to Delhi from Manali. 1 night train Delhi to Gurakpur. 1, 2hr ride to the border town Sunauli where the monsoon had just broken through for the first time this year and the stories I've heard of people singing and dancing are true but also at least one fight broke out over an accident and the "victim" was strangling the poor guy in the puddles. The immigration officer decided to give me a break this day so I wouldn't get stuck in the rain in Nepal...so Lumbini will have to wait till December. After my friendly interface with the immigration officials I turned around and headed back to Gorakpur by local bus. Got the next night train to Dehli. Arrived Dehli got the next bus to Shimla. Spent the afternoon with my Ani friend Palzes who I will travel to Ladakh with as she's from Leh. She sent me to the bus depot early as it looked like rain...and fortunately I got there just as the really heavy rains broke...we all had to wade out the the bus. The bus stand of course stands on one of Delhis flood plains. I did have time to make a new friend Lama Pema (who has made great effort to help me meet Rinpoche (see below)) from Shimla who is expanding a monastery in Sikkim where I will have to visit one of these days now. Once in Shimla I took a couple nights rest and spent most of my time with my Shimla family...timing being everything I was lucky because this time the head Rinpoche of the Ningmapa sect was home...so we took a morning outing to get blessings and "mo's". Caught the 9:40pm bus to Manali...where I hoped to arrive later in the morning but got here about 5am. Headed over to Vishisht for a hot bath in the sacred pools had breakfast at about 6:30 started walking to Old Manali about 8am and got to Simones house just as the sun was getting too hot to be outside and just in time for chai and chapatis. Of course in all this activity I've discovered I left my camera in Shimla, "Tsewang being the "psychic one" kept asking me if I'd left anything", and me being the lucky one his sister is headed to Dharamsala tonight so I can pick it up from her (whoever heard of someone heading to Ladakh without a camera!)...as I am also headed there to drop off a few things perhaps register with FRO if I have time and then head to the Pathankot train station by the 3rd aug.(?) to meet Ani Palzes on her way to Jammu and home in Mulbeck. Where there will be a festival and she has arranged a car to take us to various monasteries...after which I hope to find a hole to crawl into and rest for a week before the teachings with HHDL begin. Just now Lama Pema called and mentioned he will also be in Ladakh for the teachings...and like a blessing the rain has come again. Keeping me chillin on the porch instead of rushing off to buy that bus ticket.

Ohm Manali

So after a disastrous beginning on the bus from Shimla (tire issues…Ohm Mani Manali Padme Hum) I made it safely to Old Manali. Where I’ve been now for a few days exploring the hillsides, getting into small relatively unvisited villages and buying wool socks from the knitter instead of the shop-keeper, crossing wood planked footbridges over the swelling river as monsoon has come (though not in the way it does in Delhi) enjoying the views of mountains and valleys that surely would have inspired John Muir including a few water falls, finding my way to the local hot springs in Vishist after meeting up with S. from Pengrove and Z. from Indiana. Having dahl and rice for breakfast with her old landlord who has offered me a free room in winter in exchange for english lessons during which time the family also makes time for ski trips up the same valley the guy I’m going to buy my ticket to Leh from has suggested I go paragliding over…I’ll have to think about that one.
After b-fast I found my way to the Tibetan temple I saw from across the river. A small temple but there is a photo some early Tibetan arrival who used the cave for practice and they’ve built a 4 story building to house the buddha, monks, etal. in front of it.
The biggest surprise on arrival here has been how similar the women dress to Bhutan…and now after a few days I realize that even the houses are somewhat similar…
Of course the Bhutan temple where my Ladaki friend Yobar (who I met in B.G.) grew up is very much like a Bhutan home…even the river running through town reminds me of Thimpu…but there are more trees here and it’s not being winter the air is really clean and fresh and pure. Sometime the sun is shining in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon…one can’t be sure…just try to make plans around the weather… forget it.
Today was the solar eclipse and I stayed in bed. Normally I’m going out very early in the morning for walking but today…somehow it didn’t happen…only found out about it on the news which I decided to watch today…a rare event in itself. But then I think my behavior is so influenced by the locals and I’m sure none of them went out to see it either… I heard that in Nepal everyone was advised to stay home including school kids…perhaps it was the same here. Unless they were all at the bath house which is also recommended during solar eclipse to purify the “negative effects” caused by the event.
Yesterday I had lunch with a woman from SF who is on her way through the Spiti Valley and will go to Leh afterwards. Her tour is 9 days and spits her out in Shimla. A tempting consideration. She however is moving much faster than me as she has to go back and teach in the fall so Spiti may be another time for me.
I am back to wondering how my backpack could possibly be so full considering all the years I’ve been able to travel with so little. What is it that I think I need here? Oh yeah, Khenchen Rinpoche made me promise to take my sleeping bag…but still…one little sleeping bag… a few changes of clothes…a pot to cook in…an extra pair of shoes…and it adds up…not to mention the bag of tsampa the 90y.o. ama I met gave me after a total misunderstanding about me being “like” an ani. You know no husband, no children…all the bhutanese and tibetans say it, “you’re like an ani”. Now if I could just find somewhere for that 3 yr. retreat…..
p.s. more pics on facebook

Last days Shimla

Sitting on/in an old school desk in the one room class for the tibetan refugee children down the narrow passage from the apartment... it's the kind where the desk is attached to the seat... and my knees barely fit under it...trying to find the place where we are in the Tara prayer book I've brought along. Just going at my own pace since it's the prayer that matters...We've all come together at Apa-la's (Tsewangs dad) request since Ashang-la has started a week long fast/dark/no sleep retreat. Ashang is Tsewangs uncle who is an oracle. I attended one of his chanting sessions in MCG. I was warned that some people become very afraid...I, of course, was right where I wanted to be.
So I'm happy to be sitting here knowing that there is the slightest possibility that I could be supporting him and all beings...Ahhh, here we are beginning the round. At least I know where we are in the book now...but it's the most I can do to keep up by just following my finger on the page and reading much less any sounds coming out of my mouth. And before I know it, it's Guru Rinpoche prayers and Om Mani Padme Hung...and everybody is leaving the schoolroom and I'm still sitting here doing one round of Tara in english.