Losar celebrations and our trip to Bir

It has been more than a week since my last post, and this is for various reasons. Last week was the Losar, literally “new year,” celebrations and vacation. Technically it was meant to take place from the 14^th to the 16^th, but was extended to the 17^th due to necessary adjustments because of the Tibetan calendar being based on the lunar cycle. However, in actuality it is much longer than just 3 or 4 days and students began to prepare the Monday before, receiving a few days free of class, as well as Monday through Wednesday of last week. To continue these addendums, in Tibet it’s the largest holiday and represents probably more like a week or two of celebrations, if not more in some cases. All together, the point is, it’s a big deal, and usually a big celebration. Pausing on that for a second, after Losar we went on a trip to Bir where we did quite a lot, meaning this post will be long. To whoever is currently tuned in to this blog, firstly I’m glad you’re reading and hope that this post doesn’t prove too drawn out because of the lack of recent updates. I believe it has become somewhat of a surrogate blog for some of my friends, having referred their parents to it, likely because of the pictures (some of which currently only I have because photography is limited at some of our meetings) and the excessive recounting. Thus, this means I have not only my own relatives but also those of several friends to appease so I shall try to keep it steady (and interesting) in the future. It is the 24^th while I write this and we’ve been experiencing wonderfully warm weather this past week, except for today which brought a torrential storm of hail and rain—quite the sight—that proved harmless except for its entry in the gap at the bottom of one of my room doors which I subsequently stuffed with my towel to prevent the hail from getting in. Anyhow, back to the Losar celebrations.

-Visiting Pasang-la in his room on the first day of Losar, we were offered food and drinks.-

The New Year holiday tends to consist of huge celebrations with large feasts, musical and cultural performances, serving of much alcohol, and the lifting of the gender segregation rule within dorms during the day. It’s comparable to carnivale in Brazil where typical social norms get turned upside down for a few days and things that would normally be totally unacceptable become expectations. The alcohol was of particular surprise to me, not only because Buddhism discourages the use of intoxicants, but because Sarha school has a rule forbidding it on campus, citing it as “the root of all evil.” Yet, during Losar, chang, or traditional homemade Tibetan barley beer is typically served at all times of the day, even breakfast where it makes an appearance in the porridge called changbu. I say typically because this year and last year, Losar was a very different experience from previous years. Due to the uprisings in Tibet in 2008, the Chinese government tightened restrictions on Tibetans in Tibet as well as clamping down on the borders to prevent Tibetan refugees from leaving. This is something I have alluded to previously, but as I have found, the politics of the Tibetan situation affect essentially all aspects of life in exile.

As a sign of protest, the Tibetans in Tibet (or the PRC if you prefer) refused to celebrate Losar, signifying their dissatisfaction with the PRC’s government and that they are not existing happily or prosperously in their own land because of their policies. It was also in cooperation with the 2008 March uprisings, which were of course a literal protest in themselves. It is important to contextualize this historically. On 10 March, 1959 the Tibetan people rose up against the Chinese rule in Tibet, causing a violent backlash and signaling to the Dalai Lama that he must flee to India. Subsequently, every year following the Tibetans have celebrated 10 March as “uprising day” and it has often been a rallying point for many renewed protest efforts, such as those in the late 80s and more recently in 2008. In modern Tibet, the PRC government attempts to pay Tibetans to celebrate Losar in order to encourage the belief that Tibetans are living happily in China, continuing in their religious and cultural traditions. Of course, this is not and has not been the case for many years. Monasteries are sites of intense governmental monitoring and as I mentioned before, monks have to sign documents affirming their loyalty to the PRC and denouncing His Holiness the Dalai Lama (an intensely difficult act, especially for someone deeply religious).

Thus, last year in Dharamsala the CTA government stated that there would be no Losarcelebrations, to signify the exile community’s solidarity with those Tibetans still inside Tibet. Let me submit at this point that the vast majority of ethnic Tibetans remain inside the Tibetan region, and only a small percentage exists in Dharamsala, though Tibetans in exile are the ones you are much more likely to hear of or see speaking out, for the obvious reason that anyone inside the PRC would risk severe repercussions and at this time likely imprisonment for several years. It is also typical that if you are a prominent activist in exile with family remaining in Tibet that they will be imprisoned and suffer instead.

This year there was to be Losar, but in somewhat of a last minute announcement the government called for again a limited celebration, hoping to keep it more religious than celebratory. Many people, including our group, had been anticipating an exciting festival of activity, including the sight of our Tibetan schoolmates inebriated around campus for several days. Naturally, it was quite a disappointment to many when the school too decided that there would be neither performances nor any serving of alcohol this year. This was prompted by a group of students more recently from Tibet who called for this to be enacted, as the original plan was to tone it down a little but continue as planned.

There is, however, a counter to this position in the exile community that calls for Losar, saying that the people should not let the Chinese government take it away from them, but I don’t align with that view as much. I see it as more of a public act of social consciousness that the majority of their people remain in the PRC, repressed religiously, certainly politically, and socio-economically marginalized by the masses of Han Chinese that have immigrated into the Tibetan region, speaking Chinese, creating Chinese jobs and serving Chinese needs.

One author, Robbie Barnett, that we have been reading astutely describes that way in which the Tibetan community has created somewhat of a false representation of their people and culture in order to appeal to Western concerns and thereby gather support—the politics of a resistance movement. It is popularly mentioned that in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and site of the sacred Potala Palace, the streets are now filled with karaoke bars and brothels for the tourists and Chinese soldiers. While it is admittedly an exaggerated image, it is nonetheless based in truth and it is regrettable that such an important Tibetan religious and cultural center has turned into a theme park for Chinese tourists by day and a destination for debauchery by night.

-Looking at Elizabeth Ura's (our philosophy TA and friend) Losar altar. Those two little girls are terribly cute, though they look a little forlorn here.-

Hmm, so far I’ve failed to get through Losar even and I’ve got all of the Bir trip remaining. Okay, now back to what went down this year at Sarha. The first morning of Losar on Sunday, there were special morning prayers in which everyone places a white katak (the traditional scarf, remember?) on the altar of the Dalai Lama, as well as doing cherma, the tossing of tsampa (ground barley flour) and barley seeds. One takes a little of the substance and offers it three times with a flick of the wrist, finally releasing on the third. Actually at the end of the ceremony it turned into a bit of a tsampa fight, with students throwing it at the back of each other’s head and over the crowd to rain down on everyone. This is also done with alcohol (the offering not the throwing), and often people lick it off their finger as done with the tsampa after offering. Alcohol is an important part of Losar as you are maybe noticing and is part of the offering on each room’s altar.

-Case and point, this is Pasang-la's daughter acting silly while we were in Elizabeth's room.-

Each person that wants to constructs an altar for Losar, consisting of food as an offering to the gods/Gods/deities, whatever you like, builds it in their room out of khapse, a kind of fried dough not so different from funnel cake, minus the powdered sugar (unfortunately). However they make interesting designs with them and they tend to represent animal body parts. Now, the best part of Losar, at least as I experienced it, is during the visits to teachers’ and friends’ rooms in which they happily invite you inside and offer food and drink to everyone without hesitation and without end until one fervently insists. It’s similar to Thanksgiving in that you catch up with friends and family (students who can go to their families and the rest stay at Sarha) and eat an egregious amount.

-a Losar altar, with Buddha's picture at the top, the altar is made of khapse, the big ones are donkey ears, and the little ones are like rib cages and intestines. Gross names, but delicious!-

Now, we had been told that alcohol was forbidden and that the disciplinarian, Warden Pa-la (“father”), would be severe if he caught anyone. I hadn’t been worried about this because I gave up alcohol but we were curious what the realities of this ban would be amongst the student population. It proved to be loosely followed, but we were first confronted with some contradiction when visiting the room of Pa-la who promptly offered us all his homemade rice chang.

-Here Alex is excitedly reciting the blessing that is supposed to be said while doing cherma (offering). It's in Tibetan so we were having difficulty. Elizabeth is holding the container of tsampa and barley grain, separated by butter (which never seemed to melt) in the middle.-

Needless to say, this was humorous and typical of the contradictory messages we often receive about social interactions. Apparently it was interesting but the changbu that I mentioned earlier was not favored amongst the American students on the first morning and they subsequently avoided it the rest of the time. Something about the idea of beer porridge in the morning didn’t have me terribly reassured, but of course many of the Tibetans-but not all-enjoy it as they have grown up with it. None of the monastics ever drink alcohol of course, and many students do not drink even during these times. Anyhow, these visits went on the whole day, greeting teachers and doing cherma at their altars.

-This is Karma-la while we visited him in his room, playing the guitar of Tibetan music, called a dramnyen. That's Francisco in the background, expressing his approval.-

On Tuesday I believe, almost our whole group went to visit Kangra Fort on a picnic. It’s on a high ridge so the view all around is quite stunning and beautiful. The weather was great and we had a small run in with a monkey that I fed some bread so I could take a picture of it, but when it had finished it made an agressive move toward me so I ran, but unlike with the cow, there was probably some risk involved.

-Alex perched precariously on a stone ledge at Kangra Fort. -

-the monkey that went rogue shortly after finishing the bread I gave him-

-Some of the stone carvings, several decades old and still there.-

Wednesday was the end of Losar, which culminates with the sangsol (incense burning) ceremony. Juniper branches are placed on a stoked fire while the students and most faculty chanted prayers. I woke up late so I watched it from afar, but I experienced a similar ceremony on my own on our trip to Bir, so it turned out okay

-Dema Lochoe Rinpoche in his home in Mcleod Ganj at the Green Hotel.-

We also paid a visit to Dema Lochoe Rinpoche in Mcleod Ganj during the Losar weekend to receive a teaching from him. It was surprisingly short, though well translated by Ani Kelsang Wangmo-la. He repeated the motif that effort and enthusiasm are important in one’s studies, and that if one doesn’t find oneself to be very smart, dumb even, that effort can change that and they can be as smart as they wish.

-Again, Rinpoche, while speaking to us.-

Overall it was a positive message, and while he didn’t talk with us for very long he had a very caring, positive sense about him that led me to seek him out again recently for some guidance concerning my practice, with which he was happy to help me. He seemed glad to receive me again, providing me with a prayer string to replace the one he had given to each of us in our visit but which had come untied from my neck and lost somewhere in the streets.

After the ceremony we travelled to Bir and stayed until the 20^th. Our trip consisted of four main events: a talk from Tai Situ Rinpoche, visiting the local Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) school, receiving another talk from Ani Tenzin Palmo-la and touring her nunnery, and finally visiting the Tashi Jong temple and settlement where a renowned yogi is embalmed and on display for those who wish to venerate him.

We stayed at Palpung Sherabling monastery, in the new institute building that hasn’t been opened officially yet and that reminded us all of a hotel because of its hot showers and long hollow corridors. Truthfully if I had seen two creepy girls in identical blue dresses waiting at the end of the hall I wouldn’t have been that surprised.

-The institute where we stayed at Sherabling. The architecture and colors were gorgeous.-

Actually the site was acquired by Tai Situ Rinpoche because Indian developers didn’t want it because it was the site of an past battle, somewhat of a massacre I’m told, so there was the belief that the site was inhabited by ghosts. Anyhow, Sherabling was established and it now primarily acts as a monastery for many monks of Himalayan origin. The majority are not Tibetan by birth, but are from the fringe areas that one might consider ethnographic Tibet and they are receiving education in Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which serves to both continue Tibetan religious tradition and provide those children with an education that would otherwise be unavailable to them. This is often a reason for young children being sent to monasteries, as well, of course, as the merit that it brings them and their family.

-This is the Sherabling temple. That tent-like roof was built recently in order to make it more hospitable during all seasons, particularly summer, as well as rain-proof during the monsoons.

One of the more memorable and exciting moments of our trip to Bir and in general was that first night at Sherabling. It was the last day of Losar, and the general store at the school had been selling small fireworks. The little monks would combine what money they had and got as many of these small firecrackers. Though they were small in size, they sounded like small bombs, and some of them sounded like real bombs. As we came out of the large tent where all the monks eat, darkness had fallen and brought on an onslaught of fireworks. We came upon a scene of dozens of young boys, dressed in their robes and lighting firecrackers that they would then throw at each other. At first perception it was horrifying, then it became clear that it was hilarious and full of joy. They knew to wait until the fuse had burned just enough so that it would blow up as it flew through the air. To dissuade any concerns, these were all noise, not a real explosion, so I don’t think there was any real risk. We had seen a bottle rocket shot off into the air as they should be, but we were full of shock when we saw one zoom by parallel to the ground spiraling over the boys’ heads. Thankfully, that only happened once, at least to our knowledge.

-This is a statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha, inside of the Sherabling temple. It was two stories high and shines brilliantly in the sunlight coming through the windows. His Holiness the Dalai Lama's throne is in front.-

The whole place became an unlikely scene of screaming and explosions, filled with the laughter and excitement of all the young monks, as well as our own. They were quick to include us in their fun by tossing the small firecrackers behind our feet to scare us. When it worked, they found that it brought them a lot more entertainment than when done to their friends. That was when we became the focus of many young, firework-wielding monks and every five seconds had to jump away from a lit cracker tossed behind or in front of us. We were very much surrounded, with firecrackers being tossed from a dark window in which the glow of a lighter silhouetted the shadow of two small monks lighting firecrackers in preparation to toss them at those below.

-These were some elderly women doing prostrations in front of the temple. They may have been visiting on pilgrimage or live near by. One practice of acquiring merit is to do 100,000 prostrations, but that is just one of 4 similar acts. One can try to do it continuously over several days or weeks, or over the course of their lifetime. Truly not an easy task, especially to keep track of them.-

Everyone loved the noise and the excitement, but after about fifteen minutes we had to retreat to our rooms to escape the attacks of our small friends. While there was never again as much commotion as that first night, throughout the rest of our stay every now and then we would hear one of the big booms echo in the distance from a monk who had saved his for postponed satisfaction.

-Where the monks sit inside of the temple-

Our visit to Tai Situ Rinpoche was very interesting and fortunate, as he is often not at Sherabling so it can be hard to get an audience with him. I was able to film his talk as well, and would like to post it to the Internet, which is why that YouTube bar is on the page currently. However, the camera will not load the video to my computer so currently I cannot do that. We’ve also been able to record audio for many of our meetings with important figures, although for some like Samdhong Rinpoche, unfortunately, we were not able to. Situ Rinpoche is of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and was very amiable during our time with him, often making jokes and smiling broadly.

-Tai Situ Rinpoche in his room, while giving us a talk.-

He did seem to enjoy giving us quite complex responses to our questions, leaving some wanting for more clarity. Yet in this way he made it clear that concepts like emptiness of the self, which I asked about, are really, quite complex, so it is foolish to expect a simple answer to a complex question. Hopefully, I can get the video uploaded and then those who wish can experience more clearly what I’m talking about. I’m afraid if I were to try to explain his talk, most of it would not come out so well, so it’s best to listen and perhaps watch.

-A long line of stupas, there were around 8 large ones like the one you can see peaking up toward the back, and in between each there were many smaller ones. Practitioners circumambulate the big ones individually and all of them as a whole. Inside each of the big ones is one of those large prayer wheels I showed before from the cora at Namgyal temple.-

-Prayer flags hung in the trees, some new from Losar and some that remained from previously.

-There were some puppies at Sherabling. It was hard not to take them with us.-

-Leo and I came upon some people performing the sangsol ceremony and hanging up new prayer flags in the woods.

-Some young monks passing time-

It was actually earlier that day that we visited the Suja TCV School in Bir. The walk there was beautiful, winding through fields of the yellow flower mustard fields. The school is one of the largest of 8 established in India. Our professor Tara Doyle describes the TCV schools as “one of the biggest success stories of the Tibetans in exile.” This is because they’ve had tremendous success in establishing schools and managing to provide a free education for the majority of Tibetan children that come into exile seeking education. Not all Tibetan children are in TCV schools, as a proportion also goes into schools established by the Indian government for Tibetan refugees, and some may be sent to Indian schools of their parents’ volition.

-I really like this photo. This is Venerable Pempe-Tsering-la before crossing this creek, which he did much more easily than I.-

-On the way to TCV-

One of the most illustrative facts of the situation in Tibet is that so many children are being sent out of Tibet by their parents to receive a Tibetan education, free of Chinese influence. The Suja school typically has 2000 students, but due to the recent tightening of the border by the Chinese government, this number has dwindled to around half that. Thus, many children come into exile quite young and will possibly never see their parents again, and if they do it will most likely be when they are much older. TCV takes a student from the beginning of their education to around a high school graduate, after which they may attend a college like Sarha, and indeed many of the students here are past TCV students.

-This is one of the houses where the children live as a family with their surrogate mother.-

So while the children are at TCV they live in houses with many of the other students, and each house as a surrogate mother who takes care of the kids, making them meals and watching over them, etc. However there’s also a lot of kids taking care of kids amongst the adult supervision, older ones helping the younger ones to wash, leading to a strong growth of responsibility and maturity. While they enjoy themselves here it is inarguably sad to be separated from home and family for so many years. TCV also provides a lot of scholarships to its graduates to attend schools like Sarha for free, as long as they keep their grades up. If one is looking for an organization to donate to within the Tibetan community in exile, the Tibetan Children’s Village is certainly one of the best.

-Practicing outside of class-

The next day we travelled to Ani Tenzin Palmo-la’s nunnery to talk with her. She didn’t have anything she particularly wanted to say so we were able to just ask questions and then she would elaborate on them. I knew nothing of her before this trip so I’ll explain to you some of what I know. She is from London and became a nun when she was near my age, but is now in her 60s I believe, though I could be mistaken by a few years. She is known for the 12 year retreat she took in a cave on the side of a mountain. More recently she has come out of retreat to establish a nunnery for Himalayan and Tibetan women, acting as their teacher (one of the few female teachers in Tibetan Buddhism in existence). She has been out of retreat for a good many years, however, and has written several works, one of which we read portions of, titled Reflections on a Mountain Lake.

When explaining Buddhist ideas she tends to be very pragmatic, using examples and metaphors that are much more easily understood by Westerners. Thus, some of the questions we asked to Situ Rinpoche we asked again to Ani-la and got very different and interesting answers. This talk was recorded as well and I would particularly like to post it because we all found it to be terribly intriguing and beneficial to hear. She spoke calmly but was very animated and extremely engaged with whomever she was addressing. As I experienced when asking her a question about equanimity in the development of bodhicitta, she can have a piercing gaze or a smile that stretches wide across her face, and she was very happy to receive us and answer our questions.

The main temple being constructed at the nunnery is still under construction but it already looks gorgeous. She was very excited to show us everything and particularly wanted us to see the dragons

The rest of the nunnery is pretty much established, with some artwork still in progress in another temple—the artist very fervently and excitedly explained what was to be painted in each area and really the work she was doing was very impressive. Once I can post the audio recording of her teaching, courtesy of Ani Kelsang Wangmo-la (our teacher), I really encourage everyone to listen to it.

The last day we left early for home but stopped at the Tashi Jong settlement on the way. There we went to the home of the late dogchen yogi, a group of Buddhist practitioners who go into retreat for long periods developing and stabilizing meditative realizations before coming back into society. It is often the case that when a renowned religious figure dies, he or she will be burned and relics found in the ashes of their body will be saved as objects of veneration for their still living students as well as any practitioners who wish to receive some benefit by experiencing them. Sometimes it is the case, as it was here, that the body of the teacher will be made into that relic. In this case it was done traditionally in which the body is embalmed with salt to dry it out, and over a long period it shrinks and dries until it is properly preserved. He died four years ago and so far there have been no complications with the process.

-This is the shrine with his body inside. You can see it there inside the opening, wrapped in cloth. Below are the kataks that people have brought and placed on the shrine to honor him.

The interesting part of the discussion was concerning his death. It is believed that when the body dies there is still an energy inside for some time, varying from case to case. Usually advanced teachers know when they are going to die and it is said they manifest a disease to bring it forth. While this may sound problematic for some to believe, what you can is that they meditate for the time leading up to their death, and practice what is called a clear-light meditation. Then when they die, it is believed that their subtle consciousness remains although their coarse consciousness—consisting of sense consciousness and physical faculties—has passed.

-The monk on the right was explaining all of this to us as Ani-la translated.-

It is important for them not to cremate or start any post-mortem process until this clear-light meditation has ended. This is typically signified by the presence of the odor of decay with the body. The yogi was put into the meditative posture after his coarse consciousness passed, and this is often done with people after death until it is time to deal with the body. While some of this can be difficult to believe for many, what they describe is that during the clear-light meditation, there is no decay, that the heart center remains warm inside the body, and the skin maintains its color and elasticity, as well as the person remains upright in their meditative posture. All of this occurs, although they are medically deceased. Now this does not occur for several hours, but often several days, and in some cases more than a week. I believe for him it was about 9. Once the clear-light is over, they tend to slump, their skin loses its glow and becomes tight, and the smell of decay will appear.

Sonam, my roommate, described to me that his teacher sat for 11 days following his death. It is hard to imagine that a body could not begin to smell within a day if there was not something preventing it, let alone 4, or 9, or 11! Needless to say, we found this interesting visit and immediately after we walked down to hill to the Tashi Jong temple. There is a stupa next to the temple, belonging to a different teacher that passed several years ago, I believe it was our Ani-la’s teacher. Apparently, a plant started to grow next to this stupa, and so they cut it back again and again, not wanting it to disturb the structure. A stupa, by the way, is a structure that usually holds a relic of a deceased teacher inside, thereby allowing people to come visit it; they can be small or very large and don’t always have to hold anything.

-His picture-

Anyway, so eventually they asked a lama about this problem, not knowing what the plant was, only that it refused to die, and he suggested that they just let it grow. It grew next to the stupa but then went inside of the cement and through the opening allowing people to have a small window in, and finally straight through the top—really a very precarious path. As it turned out, it was a bodhi tree, named so because the Buddha became enlightened under such a tree. Obviously this was seen as very auspicious and so it has been left to grow as it pleases, though it is now still young. I was able to pick up one of its fallen leaves and press it in a book. The leaves are shaped like hearts and the seeds like small brains, so it has provided some obvious metaphorical correlations with these characteristics.

-A snow lion statue outside of the Tashi Jong temple.-

So it was a good trip and left us with a lot to think about and me with a lot to write about. This past weekend we all went down with the Sarha students to the Gaggal airport to welcome His Holiness back to Dharamsala from his talks with Obama in America. Then on Sunday we went to his teaching at the Namgyal temple on the Jataka tales. That’s another post, as this has been enough.