Hello again,

Here are some more pictures of the Enthronement of Tulku Urgyen Yangsi Rinpoche, the major event which I mentioned in my previous post below.

I have been thinking about this quite a bit since last week’s events: Some journeys are outwards I’ve realized, some are inwards and some both. For me, coming to Nepal has so far been the best of both. Encountering Tibetan culture within Nepali culture and studying Buddhism every week-day has already been very interesting and beneficial for me. Here we are studying in the monastery grounds and we have the Stupa and other encouragements to be inspired by.

And then encountering an event like this, the Enthronement of Tulku Urgyen Yangsi, as I said in the previous post – a once in a lifetime thing, enables me to learn from other people how to behave, how to be, and this is quite something else. Just looking at my few simple pictures, despite the busyness of the day, I can read in the people’s faces how important it is for them and their love and devotion. As I said, people came from all over the world and from all over the valley to be there. And as a tentative explanation I would say my reaction seems infused with a different quality to how I might have reacted even a few scant months ago. I feel extremely lucky to have been here.  This is not to say that I understand that much more or have advanced more, just that I feel different. Which is the purpose of travel after all…

There is definitely something different about Tibetan Lamas (Rinpoches, teachers). A certain quality that I could not possibly define, but which many other foreign folks have noted as well. Perhaps it is the years of meditation, perhaps the practices or both. Either way, it seems from their clear insight, compassion, calmness and way of being, that Tibetan Buddhism (as other forms I am sure), does work, can change our lives.

I’ll keep you posted (to the best of my limited ability! )

Anyway, the above images are from the first two days of the Enthronement, which were held at the White Gompa, Ka Nying Shedrub Ling, here in Boudha. I was volunteering on the back gate, so my pictures here are mainly from there and are therefore quite ‘behind the scenes’.

See

www.shedrub.org

for a gallery of pictures by the professional photographers inside the Gompa, and

http://blazing-splendor.blogspot.com/

for more pictures and also information about Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche) .

On that amazing first day of the four, Yangsi Rinpoche arrived by car from where he was staying at about 8.30 am. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people had lined the route, or gathered at the main gate of the Gompa (Monastery) to great him. From my place on the back gate I didn’t see hm arrive, or the crowds, until everyone came streaming up the road to the back gate for a seat under the large canopies behind the Gompa.

As part of the preparations for his arrival, the monastery had put up several greeting arches at different points along the route with a greeting in Tibetan and English for him and what must have been hundreds of metres of bunting. The entire Gompa had been painted and spruced up and was covered in fairy lights (of which more in a future post).

I knew when Rinpoche had arrived because the accompanying motorcycles with Buddhist 5-colour flags on them raced past us on the back gate (too fast for me to get a picture), and also because the uniquely Tibetan sacred sound of crashing cymbals, vast trumpets and drums started up. It must have been quite some greeting and even from the distance of the back gate, it was very moving to think that this was Rinpoche returning to his monastery after a gap of some 12 years, and in a new body, as a new person, but also somehow the same. Despite being relatively comfortable with the idea of re-incarnation, this still gives me shivers to think about. Very powerful stuff indeed.

[Perhaps I will know enough one day to write a post here about how the Tibetan Lamas are recognised in their new lives, but for now I know that the film 'Kundun', which is about H.H. The Dalai Lama, shows this process for His Holiness quite well.]

And then the Enthronement ceremony began. The many Rinpoches inside the Gompa were chanting, led by Trulshik Rinpoche, a very highly respected master. There was also what I can only call a Eulogy to Rinpoche of apparently 40 A4 pages, written and delivered from a single roll of paper, by the Khenpo (teacher-monk) who teaches us our Philosophy class.

One of the things which also happens when an Enthronement or other major event like this takes place, is that people come from all over the world to make Mandala Offerings to the Rinpoche concerned. In the case of Tulku Urgyen Yangsi, this meant vast amounts of offerings in the form of Buddhist texts, stacks of rice (called Mandalas I think), statues of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and other symbols of Tibetan Buddhism. You can see some pictures of these being carried into the Gompa in the gallery.

From my place on the gate I watched what I believe to be one whole set of Tibetan Buddhist texts, called the Kanjur (100 volumes) and the Tenjur (some 250 volumes), arriving in the arms of monks from an affiliated monastery as an offering. Sacred Tibetan texts are called Pecha and are printed on loose leaf paper, which is horizontal, oblong. These texts are then carefully bound in yellow or red cloth. You will see some pictures of the monks carrying these oblong Pecha texts in the gallery above too.

This group alone consisted of I would guess about 40 – 60 monks all dressed in their best robes. It is difficult to convey the scale of this in pictures, especially as my main purpose was to be one of the folks on the gate greeting visitors, but still… hopefully you get the idea.

The ceremony itself was broadcast on several large (and smaller) screens. So I have also included some pictures of people craning to get a view of events. As said above, people’s devotion to Rinpoche is very strong and I hope this comes across from the attentive way they are listening to and watching the screens (while sipping their tea!).

Finally, on a more prosaic level, you will find some pictures of the massive catering efforts which went on behind the scenes, which fed everyone lunch and gave them hot salty Tibetan butter tea! This includes the largest saucepans I have ever seen, boiling tea over wood-fires.

There was even the equivalent of the W.I. there, in the form of tea-ladies , delivering food and tea to the crowds. Some of these people had apparently traveled all the way from Nagchen in Tibet to help out.

Quite some event then…

And I still feel different in ways I can’t explain, except to say that I am now doing Khora, practice walks, around the Boudhanath Stupa more often and with more conviction (or perhaps less self-conscious embarrassment) than before. This is just one little thing but still, it marks a different approach to life here and ongoing.

There is more to say, but this will probably have to wait until after my exams and next essay in the next couple of weeks.

I will however share some pictures of the Gompa lit up at night for the event as soon as possible. The most fairy lights I have ever seen in one place, I think. Magnificent!

Namaste & Tashi Delek!