a land of Tibet

We're in our coracle on the Zhe chu travelling on our way to Trewo with the ruins of it's great fortress and upel flowers. Actually I'm not certain that the upel described by the Dalai Lama grows here but they might and I thought they would be beautiful among the ruins! Trewo and Drango were, as we know, two of the five Trehor states that were overcome by Nyarong Gonpo Namgyel. Simple flat roofed Tibetan houses can be seen near the ruins along with Chinese compounds. In general one of the greatest difficulties now as perceived by Tibetans themselves is not as much the destruction and violence such as occurred in the Cultural revolution but the overwhelming of Tibetans and their culture by the large influx of Chinese immigrants who obtain the better paying jobs and exploit the land in ways that destroy it's ability to sustain the Tibetans that live there. After that it's on to Drango with it's Chengdu brocade tapestries depicting the thousand Buddhas of the aeon. I remember reading of how long an aeon was but I haven't been able to find it again in the book I thought it was in. It's an incredibly long time though, 50 to 100 thousand years! Buddha lived to be about 80 so it could be closer to 100 thousand! I'm not sure what Chengdu brocade is like yet. There are actually apartments for the Dalai Lama there although he never used them. There is also a chamber for the Panchen Lama who did in fact stay there. Drango is a Geluk monastery as we can guess by it's association with the Mongols and the statue of Tsongkhapa the Gelukpa founder. At one time the Gelukpa and the Karma Kagyupa schools were involved in a civil war which resulted in the conversion of monasteries both in central Tibet and Kham. This is difficult to understand particularly when both the Dalai Lama and the Kamarpa, the tulku who is the spiritual leader of the Kagyu lineage are profoundly compassionate beings. The Kamarpa resided at Tsurphu in central Tibet and has returned to Tibetans seventeen times! There is a touching story of how a poor unlettered lama on the Chang Tang plateau came upon a family who had just lost a relative and needed a practitioner to aid in a ceremony called the Phowa. The Phowa is designed to aid the transfer of consciousness of the person after death. He told them he didn't have a great deal of skill but had a great deal of faith in the Kamarpa whom he called a living emanation of the Buddha. He spent a long time using the chants he knew including among them a plea ' Khyenno Kamarpa' , 'Kamarpa heed me!' which he repeated over and over striking the deceased with his prayer beads each time. It worked! He continued on his way later learning the Kamarpa was in southern Tibet. He hastened to an audience with the Kamarpa. Incredibly before he had spoken a word, the Kamarpa laughed and said ' That was a really difficult Phowa we did in the North wasn't it!' striking the lama lightly with his beads. Thus the lama realized the Kamarpa was truly an infinitely compassionate omniscient being! The present Kamarpa resides in India.There's a lot more to add but as usual two as one we'll add to the notes later beautiful one!


	Through My Eyes * We're in our coracle on the Zhe chu travelling on our way to Trewo with the ruins of it's great fortress and upel flowers. Actually I'm not certain that the upel described by the Dalai Lama grows here but they might and I thought they would be beautiful among the ruins! Trewo and Drango were, as we know, two of the five Trehor states that were overcome by Nyarong Gonpo Namgyel. Simple flat roofed Tibetan houses can be seen near the ruins along with Chinese compounds. In general one of the greatest difficulties now as perceived by Tibetans themselves is not as much the destruction and violence such as occurred in the Cultural revolution but the overwhelming of Tibetans and their culture by the large influx of Chinese immigrants who obtain the better paying jobs and exploit the land in ways that destroy it's ability to sustain the Tibetans that live there. After that it's on to Drango with it's Chengdu brocade tapestries depicting the thousand Buddhas of the aeon. I remember reading of how long an aeon was but I haven't been able to find it again in the book I thought it was in. It's an incredibly long time though, 50 to 100 thousand years! Buddha lived to be about 80 so it could be closer to 100 thousand! I'm not sure what Chengdu brocade is like yet. There are actually apartments for the Dalai Lama there although he never used them. There is also a chamber for the Panchen Lama who did in fact stay there. Drango is a Geluk monastery as we can guess by it's association with the Mongols and the statue of Tsongkhapa the Gelukpa founder. At one time the Gelukpa and the Karma Kagyupa schools were involved in a civil war which resulted in the conversion of monasteries both in central Tibet and Kham. This is difficult to understand particularly when both the Dalai Lama and the Kamarpa, the tulku who is the spiritual leader of the Kagyu lineage are profoundly compassionate beings. The Kamarpa resided at Tsurphu in central Tibet and has returned to Tibetans seventeen times! There is a touching story of how a poor unlettered lama on the Chang Tang plateau came upon a family who had just lost a relative and needed a practitioner to aid in a ceremony called the Phowa. The Phowa is designed to aid the transfer of consciousness of the person after death. He told them he didn't have a great deal of skill but had a great deal of faith in the Kamarpa whom he called a living emanation of the Buddha. He spent a long time using the chants he knew including among them a plea ' Khyenno Kamarpa' , 'Kamarpa heed me!' which he repeated over and over striking the deceased with his prayer beads each time. It worked! He continued on his way later learning the Kamarpa was in southern Tibet. He hastened to an audience with the Kamarpa. Incredibly before he had spoken a word, the Kamarpa laughed and said ' That was a really difficult Phowa we did in the North wasn't it!' striking the lama lightly with his beads. Thus the lama realized the Kamarpa was truly an infinitely compassionate omniscient being! The present Kamarpa resides in India.There's a lot more to add but as usual two as one we'll add to the notes later beautiful one! * courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions. The information for the sketches is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje. ( please click here to return to my spinning for you!)