Today is filled with small things …requests for sponsors addresses, photos to give sponsors, detailed descriptions of old ladies ailments etc etc Ani Thupten Palmo arrives to boss us around for a while. Sonam reads her letter from Jo to her several times & she marches off to find a new address for Jo to write to. I pity the monk who was meant to be collecting them before … he is in big trouble.
Sonam takes the faulty heater back to the shop & returns with another one …. the plug is so big it doesn’t fit in any socket! We laugh & laugh, perhaps I am meant to be cold. No he says & takes this one back to the shop demanding they chop the plug off & fit a smaller one. When he returns & plugs it in hot air comes out… a small miracle …
Day 8 21st Feb
Monks are scrubbing the courtyard of the Nyingma Gonpa, flags are being hoisted and auspicious symbols painted on the road. Are they getting ready for Guru Rinpoche day (24th Feb) already??? A car full of monks pulls out of the gonpa, gets stuck & does a 20 point turn before revving wildly & taking off. A nun nudges me & says they are off to meet Yangsi Dudjom Rinpoche who is coming to Tso Pema today. All day people, often complete strangers, come up to me & tell me he is coming … “the greatest man on earth today” “He is Guru Rinpoche in person” “Only 20 years old & the essence of wisdom” … it seems impossible that anyone could live up to all this hype.
When I go down for some evening koras the roadside is packed, we wait & wait. Guess he will be on the right side of the road as is 4 deep on that side, I opt for the left & hope I wont be elbowed out of the way! Police walk up & down demanding everyone stay inside the lines painted on the road. At last can hear a procession coming … Indian men appear playing instruments & in the distance see Indian men carrying a throne … how odd … suddenly they too are ordered off to the side & a cavalcade of cars & 4 wheel drives slowly drive past. So many monks in the cars its impossible to tell which one he is … someone leans out of a car & pushes a bunch of plastic flowers in my face, hope that wasn’t him. Must be looking bewildered as the young woman next to me says “Not yet not yet” I turn back & look straight at a beautiful young man dressed in white who nods & laughs at me … I forget I am waiting for the Yangsi & cant help but watch him continue up the road. The young woman next to me starts jumping up & down “Yes yes yes him in white, him in white” Wow … He was worth the wait!
Follow the swarm of people up the road to play with Samdrup (Dr Dorjee’s son) again. He is grumpy, tired & hungry but thrives on the attention & we are soon playing, much to his mum’s relief.
Day 9 22nd Feb
This is the 8th day of the Tibetan month … Medicine Buddha day … practice
Day 10 23rd Feb
Spend today saying goodbye to all the children who will have left for boarding school by the time I return to Tso Pema. Sad but happy to have seen them all again after so long. It is raining lightly … more & more people arrive … can only go clockwise anywhere … the throng of people doing koras insists all go with the flow.
Happy to be heading to Bir tomorrow
This is such a terrific idea Panthala.
ReplyDeleteI really am enjoying keeping up, and having a sense of the wondrous chaos that is India for me, and some of the daily rounds.
I wish you a most fanthabulous Bir with DKR!
Annapurna