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Published: March 15th 2008
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Apologies for the delay in getting to this blog entry. And why is the road to China so slow? Because I'm still not there yet.
About a week before my scheduled return to Tibet, my plans changed and I wound up here in Varanasi, India. Actually, it's Sarnath to be exact - which is the site of the Buddha's very first teachings on the dharma. The teachings were given at a place called Deer Park, and there are still deer there - very cute and with Bambi spots even though they are full grown. Their one oddity is their enormous, fuzzy antlers - so big it's a wonder those poor creatures can move at all.
It's a big change - from the freezing cold altitudes of Tibet to the beating down heat of India. I had just bought new winter clothes in the States including a fantastic floor-length down coat. Now I can't get cool enough! Indian hustle and bustle is noisy and hectic, but fun in small doses. Shopkeepers and rickshaw drivers constantly call out, "Madam! One look, please? Madam, you need? Madam, where going?" India is quite polite compared to China. Smiling faces and proper British English are the norm; lots of "please" and "thank you" and "Madam, you are looking very beautiful today." I appreciate this cultural change and don't miss Chinese gruffness, yelling or shoving.
I'm living with Lama Tanzin's family (some of you know him) and his home is peaceful, clean and dharma-oriented. People practice every day and we have group practice on two Buddhist auspicious days each month.
I'm here for two primary purposes. The first is for study and I'm now a research student at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan studies, an educational haven founded by the Dalai Lama in 1967. I'm studying courses in Tibetan language and Nyingma Buddhist philosophy. Once again, I have to learn a brand new language since the Tibetan dialect spoken here is nothing like that of Amdo. That is going along.... slowly.
My second purpose here in India is to help facilitate some of the educational and cultural preservation projects of Vision Builders - the American non-profit I've written about before - (see it here:
Vision Builders)
You may recall that Vision Builders runs a school and medical center in a Tibetan area of the Arunachel Pradesh region - an extremely remote jungle area of Northeast of India. The area is known as Pemakö - meaning "Array of Lotuses" - and is an important site for Vajrayana Buddhists. It is what was historically known as "Shangri-La" - a paradise on earth where prosperity and spiritual abundance prevailed. Pemakö is a "hidden land" - one of 108 sacred places that the eighth century yogi Guru Rinpoche concealed from the outer world. The great Guru said that Pemakö could not be accessed openly until the outer and inner circumstances were in accord. Many explorers attempted to find this land based on instruction in ancient texts and prophecies of visionary Lamas, but the land remained hidden for centuries and was only "opened" to the world in 1998. Most westerners credit Ian Baker, a western practitioner and scholar, with discovering the sacred land. After five years of expeditions, Baker and his National Geographic team found the waterfall which is considered the secret entry in Pemakö. To read a nice description of Pemakö, please visit
this link. Baker's own book, "The Heart of the World," describes his compelling quest to find the sacred Array of Lotuses.
Next week, I'll be making my first trip to Pemakö. Access is extremely difficult and entails about five days of arduous travel from Varanasi. The final two days are done on foot, walking up a mountain to the village of Payindem. Three monkey bridges are traversed; the longest is suspended over the raging Brahmaputra River and takes about 15 minutes to cross. I'll spend nine weeks there - meeting the local people, working with the students in our school, and looking for villages in which to establish nine new nurseries. Nurseries are key to the education of young girls, since it is usually their duty to stay home with younger siblings while their parents work. Nine new nurseries throughout the region means many, many, many little girls will be freed up for learning.
I'll return from Pemakö at the end of May, and at that point we'll begin the serious considerations of a new project - a girl's school right here in Sarnath. More on that as it happens.
I'm sorry I have only a single picture to post. It's a Buddha statue from the local Thai temple. On my way over, my camera was stolen in Delhi, but efforts are underway to get a new one and I plan to have it before my excursion to Pemakö. I'll have lots of pictures by my next posting at the end of May.
One last word for all of you joggers and non-joggers (this should include all of you): Vision Builders is holding its annual 5K on May 10 to raise funds for all of our charitable efforts here in the Himalayas. Run, walk, watch or help us with a donation. Please take a moment and check out the site
here. Our goal is 500 participants and $50,000.
Best wishes for spring to all of you.
With love,
Wangmo
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