Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

We got what will probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity yesterday- to hear the Dalai Lama teach! We had heard he was coming to Dhar to present some teachings. We went and got our id badges earlier in the week and then went down at 7:30 in the morning for the teachings at 9. We ran into a student we’ve worked with at the English conversations class and he invited us to come sit with him on his mat. Tibetans don’t think its good for you to sit on the floor- they think it makes you sick, so they all offer bags, jackets, mats, cushions or anything else they have to make sure you don’t have to sit on the floor. Yet another fine example of their amazing hospitality. Another fine example happened on the temple grounds. IN the middle of the teachings monks get up and pass around Tibetan bread (kind of like big English muffins, or at least the taste) and butter tea. They literally served thousands of people that were there. The Dalai Lama drank tea and the middle and laughed and said, we have to take care of the physical body too, not just the mind. His laugh is adorable and he laughed so often. He’s so quick to laugh and also so down to earth.

The Dalai Lama teaches at his temple here. Everyone gathers all around on the different floors around the temple and they have tvs set up for everyone to watched. He usually teaches in Tibetan of course and they have translators for many different languages- English, Korean, Chinese, etc, which they broadcast on different radio stations. It is also for those that can’t make it to the temple, so they can listen to him also from their shops and what not.

As he started talking he was asking who spoke what languages. When he asked who spoke English he realized much of the group spoke English, as a huge number had come from Singapore, which speaks English. When he realized this he then said he would try to teach in English, that way more of us could understand him directly and so he could work on his English he said as he laughed playfully. Not only did we have the honor of hearing him teach, but we got to hear him teach in our own language!

His teachings were wonderful! He started the first session with some simple ideas of love and compassion. Although I could never rehearse to you his teachings in the way that he did, I do want to share a few of the things that struck me while I was listening. Two of my favorite Buddhist teachings so far have been their thoughts concerning compassion and happiness. He taught that happiness is created from our intelligence- much like the common phrase we have that attitude is everything kind of. He said that material things are important, but that our happiness comes from our emotions as well. He said that although many are wealthy, educated and good people, they are not happy because they worry so much. He said that often we take too short of a perspective, that we short sight things and then see obstacles to be much bigger than they really are, so much that they seem unbearable. He said when we step back, take the wider perspective and different angle, we can see things as they really are. Buddhists are very much about trying to see reality as it really is- and not as it “appears” or sometimes seems to be. There is a gap between “appearances” and reality- and our job is to explore these differences and try to come to reality as best we can.

Like I said, I also love their ideas on compassion. He talked about some of his early memories with his mother and how she provided the best example of love and compassion, as most mothers do for their children. Lol, it was quite funny when he said that he used to bully his mother. It’s hard to picture him as a little child bullying his mother. They are also very science oriented, and he mentioned a study that shows that children who get their mother’s touch their first few weeks of life develop so much better. Those who grow up with full affection and care are often more intelligence and are able to show compassion and care to others more easily. To Buddhists it is also very important to have both a healthy mind and body, for this leads to a freshness and self confidence, which allows us to face all the challenges that come our way, and allows us to love and show compassion to all despite how things may be.

Anyway, I’m still just learning the basics of Buddhism- and His Holiness went much deeper than that. If you have any basic questions, I might be able to try to answer them, or ask someone, so please ask if you have any questions.

To try to describe the setting and feeling of the teachings a little more, I can tell those of you of the LDS faith that it is much like the feeling of general conference- in fact very, very similar. Watching him walk though the crowd reminded me of President Hinckley so much! As he walked by smiling, and waving I saw the faces of those looking up at him, full of complete admiration, love and respect. There is something so unique in the eyes of individuals looking up at their cherished leaders... There is also something to be said about these old, spiritual leaders. There is just something about them. They are so full of love, easy to laugh, and are just so warm and happy.

Life is Beautiful

In Dharamsala they advertise for almost everything by fliers posted all over. They are quite helpful in finding things to do, places to find classes, volunteer, etc. Saturday afternoon I saw an advertisement for Talk Tibet, where they watch movies and have discussions on Saturdays and Sundays, alternating between movies and discussions. I thought hey, this could be cool! I’d love to hear some of their thoughts in discussions.

Cinema 59 is a list of international movies that show different groups struggling through freedoms. This Talk Tibet group are showing these every other Saturday now to help Tibetans to see other groups who have struggled for freedom. This time they showed “Life is Beautiful.” First, I love this movie and was excited to watch it. But more than that, the idea of these Tibetans, gathering in a classroom with pads on the floor and watching Life is Beautiful projected onto a sheet… just all the intricacies of the situation… I mean many of them don’t know English all that well, yet here they are watching and sympathizing with these Jews from more than 60 years ago. They could sympathize with them maybe not by words and language, but by feeling and circumstances. Freedom needs no translation. It was quite the experience! And I just couldn’t help but think the title of the movie was so appropriate for this evening. Life is beautiful.

Specncer, Kerri and I had gone to an organization called LHA to volunteer on Friday. They said to come back at three on Monday to help with an English class. When we got there today the teacher of the 2:00 teacher began explaining her program. I thought, this is great, they are really trying to get us involved. As the conversation continued she said she was leaving for a hike. I asked when and she said tomorrow. As the conversation and instruction continued I realized she was leaving, and we were taking over the class. They weren’t having us help, but having us teach the class! I made sure they realized we had no teaching experience whatsoever… they said, oh you’ll be great! You are a native English speaker and as long as you can talk to them it will be so helpful. So, starting today we are teaching an English class to intermediate level students. Lol we’ll see what tales I can tell in the next few weeks on that…

After being introduced to that we went to the advanced English class. What they do for this is just have English speakers come in. Everyone grabs a cushion and forms little groups on the floor, one native English speaker with any where from about 3-5 students. We just talk together and practice their English. It was a ball! They are all so energetic and excited! I’ve never had so much fun trying to understand English with a thick accent. And their English is very good! Most of them have only been learning for a few months. Besides a few words where the accent is extremely thick, I understand them really well. It was an absolute ball! These Tibetans are so happy, energetic and excited to learn English.

The first few days in Dharamsala were a little tough, but now it seems like things are falling into place nicely. Most mornings are gorgeous, the sun shinning brightly. Then the clouds move in and it gets windy and rains for a bit most afternoons, at least so far. They say the rainy season is almost over though. Then we hope to go on a day hike. I cannot begin to describe the beauty here! It is absolutely gorgeous. I ran into a lady from Scotland and said she must feel at home her then, at least scenery wise. She laughed and said this area is called the “Scotland of India.”

Oh, and a funny thing that came across in a conversation the other day! With talking with an Indian man who runs a shop here he told me that India is famous for three things: PPCG- pollution, people, corruption, and garbage. I laughed full heartedly because we have seen each of these as problems in this country. It’s always funny to hear locals express thoughts you have had.

The Weary Traveler

It was about 6:30 as the sun was rising over the mountains. I’d been trying to sleep for hours on the bus, but finally gave up. When I opened my eyes the picture I saw almost made the last 12 hours of the worst bus ride of my life worth it. The bright orange sun began putting off it’s orange glaze over the most lushus green covered mountains. As the sun rose further it drifted over more green until it hit the river just below. It was a true masterpiece.

So to be quite honest, our journey from Kushalnagar to Dharamsala was long, completely tiring, and really not that pleasant. We left last Friday and took what should have been a 5 ½ hour bus ride up to Bangalore. The bus got a flat tire though… and my impression after waiting for an hour and a half for them to change it was that they really didn't know how to change the tire. I’m no expert, but there was a lot of banging… I didnt think that was typical of changing a tire… But eventually we did make it Bangalore.

IN Bangalore we stayed one night while waiting for our train to leave Saturday night. Banglore guys… it felt just like any big city in the US. I’m putting a few pictures on. For those of you from Vegas, it felt a lot like the strip shopping ways, maybe a lot like down by the M&M factory. It serious is just like downtowns in America, full of shops, etc. We even caved and bought ice cream sundaes at the McDonald’s. It felt like home- and there were quite a few other white people too. Remember, we only saw two in Kushalnagar for the week and a half we were there.
Saturday night we went to board our train. The train left at 7:20 Saturday night was was suppose to arrive in Dehli on Monday morning at 10. It was quite the experience! We went pretty much over almost all the country, seeing all the green. There were some beautiful places we passed to be certain! But there were also some destitute places along the way. It’s interesting because here I’ve noticed that poverty is not hidden away. In the states, we have the ghettos, where most of the “poor” congregate. Then as you get to other parts you have nice houses, etc. Here, they have the most beautiful buildings… right next to run down shacks. The most beautiful next to the complete destitute… It's interesting to see. Startling in many ways.

But back to the train ride, we met some interesting people. Lots of people just see the white kids and want to know where they are from, what they are doing, etc. Lol although I think the funniest thing to watch was the last night we cracked out the cards and started playing hearts. By the end we had a small crowd gathered around watching… Lol Americans playing cards, go figure right? Oh, but that reminds me. One, these trains are cheap- so they are dirty to be certain. The bathrooms… you def try to avoid. But also on these sleeper trains you have 6 in each compartment. When its night time you put the seats up and it forms 6 beds. Perfect number right? 6 for 6. But the problem is they also let people get tickets to board the train without sleeping places. So at night you end up having a lot of extra people without beds… It just made me think because we would never do that in the states. But here they crowd as many people as possible…

After the train ride we stayed in Delhi that night and then boarded the overnight bus ride that I mentioned at the beginning. 13 hours, from 630pm-8am up to Dharamsala. The experience is so hard to describe… I think the closest thing I could compare to in my mind is what I thought a bus ride in Africa would be like. Now what that means, I don’t know because I’ve never been to Africa nor ridden a bus there. But its what I pictured it would be like. Now don’t get me wrong- I never feared for my life. But we went on some crazy roads where I thought we’d lose a tire. It was overnight… but not a one of us sleep a wink. At one point we even forded a river… yes, we drove over a small river in a bus… I literally laughed outloud and said where are we? But we made it up to Dharamsala.

It is beautiful up here guys! It's just tucked away at the foothills of the Himilayas and it is astoundingly beautiful. The most shocking thing though is just how many westerners there are here…. They are everywhere! There are Italain, French, American, Israeli, etc food everywhere. You can’t walk down the street without running into more westerners. It was a huge shock since for the first 3 weeks we hardly saw any…

Anyway, I think that is all for now. It was a long journey up here… But we are finally here in this beautiful place.

Food and questions

So I've had a lot ofquestions about food. So far we have mostly had Indian food, so I'll share a bit about that for now. For breakfast we usually just have fruit, usually bananas because they are very sweet, and they have them still on the stalks, they just rip them off right there when you buy them; but we also have oranges and pomegranates sometimes too. Grapes, apples, etc are around, but we are discouraged from eating them because they were probably washed with the water, which would thus give us the bacteria anyway. We were given a piece of guava from our train mates yesterday too. Fresh guava is great! So we eat things with a peel. Sometimes we get rolls at the bakery, or eat biscuits (kind of like cookies, the only similar thing I can think of are they are kidn of like graham crackers?). We’ve had eggs and this bread thing, kind of like a pancake only way greasy- hence we only had it once, too much for our stomachs. So that’s breakfast.

For lunch and dinner we usually have similar things. In Indian restaurants we eat rice or various breads (paraotta, roti, nan, etc- parota is my favorite) with the different gravies, which are just like things from the Bombay House. They all have different things in them, such as potatoes, cauliflower, peas, carrots, spinach, meats (which we try to stay away from because meats often aren’t cooked well enough), coconut, and other similar things. My favorite so far was this coconut (kurma here) dish- it was wonderful! Some are great, some WAY too spicy (even when we ask for no spice, its still way hot). Tibetan food though, is a lot like Chinese food- lots of fried rices and chow mein type dishes. My favorite thing is the momos- Kind of like a pasta type shell thing with either meat or vegs in them (Tibetans love beef- so that’s usually what they make). They are wonderful! I’m going to try to learn how to make them I think… That is something I would really miss. We filter our water and drink that- never drinking water from anything but our bottles or bottles we buy. Filtering water makes it safe, but doesn't help the taste. We drink usually a soda a day too- because its one of the only cold things we drink ever. They also have these drinks called lassi- a milk/curd type drink. It is sweet and actually really good. For the malaria pills everyone else is drinking they have to eat curd every day, so we usually get those b/c they are WAY better than curd by itself (which they often eat with rice- and unless you add sugar, the curd really isn’t that enjoyable… at least not to our mouths). They actually do have chocolate, although it is different. Actually, sodas are slightly different too. They are the same "brands" but they must be slightly different mixtures because they do taste different. But we all love the munch bars- which are a lot like kit kats, just not quite as good of chocolate. But they def hit the spot. And many of the baked goods are pretty good too. One cookie thing tastes a lot like a lemon cookie from the states.

So there is food for you. Also I've been asked questions about Tibet. I'll give brief answers fior now. The situation is so complex from all angles... so bare with me here. Did Tibet start out as part of China? Well that depends on who you talk to. As a historian we always joke about how history is only the story of the winners- the losers' stories are usually destroyed or tainted by the victor. With the current China/Tibet situation there is no winner yet, hence the "history" is not completely decided yet. Culturally, religiously, and by language, the Tibetans were their own people before Mao came to power. He went into Tibet and claimed it as part of the "old CHina" that he was trying to restore right after taking over in 1949. He made an agreement with the Dalai Lama (who was a child then, and is still the cuurent Dalai Lama), called the seventeen point agreement (I'm sure you can look this up on wikipedia, though I haven't tried). IN it he claimed Tibet would stay religiously free and be autonomous essential. But in 1959 things were bad enough that the Dalia Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans fled for their lives. They fled to India, and since then have been in various settlements INdia set up for them here. We were in Bylakuppe in the south and now will be in Dharamasala, the capitol of the Tibetan government in exile. So in the end, CHina claims Tibet has always been a part of China and Tibet says no we have not.

As for the Dalai Lama, he is only important to Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism has so many different sects... which at the end of this trip we are visiting Bodh Gaya (sp?), where all the major sects are. ONce there I will share some of the differences. But the Dalai Lama is only big in Tibetan Buddhism, at least a sfar as I understand right now. But he is an amazing man! HE's doing all kinds of things and is huge all over the world.

Sorry all of this is scatter-brained and not completely helpful. At the end of this I will have a big paper to write... and then I'll be able to answer all of your questions completely accurately :) THanks for reading guys and thanks for the questions! Keep firing away!

September 11th, 2008

So here I am again, in much less than a week. We actually aren’t leaving until tomorrow… and I’ve had a few cool experiences since then I wanted to share before our take off to the north.
For our Buddhist studies course we have been talking with the monks about the basic ideas of Buddhism. IT has been quite the experience! There are many, many good things about Buddhism that I think everyone should learn. I am a big advocate of the world’s religions. Any religion that teaches people to do good and be better people is a great asset to mankind. I love all religions that preach to be good, regardless of anything else. Buddhism encourages this to the max. The Dalai Lama has said if you are a Muslim be the best Muslim you can, if you are Christian be the best Christian you can. They only hope that you can take whatever good you can find in Buddhism and use it to make your worship and beliefs stronger. Their techniques of meditation and the encouragement of learning to control your thoughts and mind are awesome. Any human being, religious or not can benefit from it.

It was also great discussing our different religions together. Although I don’t think any of us are going to “convert” each other to the other’s ideas, there was a mutual respect during the sharing of ideas. Just because in the end we don’t’ leave the conversation thinking and feeling exactly the same doesn’t mean that one of us is wrong. It doesn’t mean we can’t respect each other’s beliefs. What an experience it is to have two people share their differing beliefs and leave the conversation with a deep respect for them and what they are trying to do.

They are also just good people, trying to hard to do good in the world. These people have hooked us up in so many ways. When we told them we were heading up to Dharamsala they got out their contacts, told us of places to stay, looked up numbers and addresses… all because that is what they do. They help people in any way they can. We had mentioned to a friend who works in a shop. He asked how we are getting the tickets for the train and said there is a Tibetan travel agency he knows, called them and set everything up with them. Can you believe that? They are constantly looking out for how they can help others, and completely without return. Every time we have tried to buy someone lunch or done something to try to show them reciprocity they tell us no, please. We do this because we want to, not because we want something in return. Marc told us he’d experienced this before in India in his previous trip. They tried to pay someone for all the help he gave- which was days. But he refused, saying you are my friend, I do this because you are my friend. I am not doing this for pay, but because you are my friend. How I wish we could all learn to do this! What a better place the world would be… They not only say it, but mean it as well.

Also, today is September 11th, and as an American how can writing that day down not stir some thoughts. Particulalry for those of us out of the country. I won’t get to watch the news and hear some of the remembrance specials going on today (and if any of you want to share what you hear, see, etc. about those, please do ). But being away from the States makes any American grateful for their homeland. That is not to say that America does not have its problems- for it surely does. And being out here makes you realize some of the materialistic, selfish things of American society, as I jsut stated in the previous paragraph.

But at the same time, how can you not be grateful for some things? For a land advanced in many ways much further than much of the world. This is not a cocky statement in the least- travel to a third world country and you will realize just how much we have. INdia is beautiful in many ways, but also way dirty and disgusting in others. I've seen more garbage and disgusting things in the streets... For a land of order and relative peace. An example, the police system. Ok, American cops are far from perfect- but for the most part you can count on them to do their job. Here… not even close. Lol corruption is rampant. I’ll elaborate later… We have it, but not at all like this… For a land where we do feel safe (at least as much as one can in this crazy world). There are bombings in India all the time... For a land where we are free to make what we want of our lives. A young child in the ghetto can rise up and make something great of his life. Here, it really is virtually impossible with the class system. Honest and truthfully, it really is. SO although America is not perfect, we really are a blessed people, and leaving the country makes you realize that more than I think anything else will. But we have so much to be grateful for, so much to live for. So my Sept. 11th wish is not that we see America without her faults- see her with her faults and be grateful we have what we have. Here’s to hoping we take advantage of that!

September 8th, 2008

Today we went up to Sera, the monasteries area, I went into the library there for a while. Most of it is in Tibetan of course, but after fishing around I found some things in English. Lots of basics on Buddhism, which will be totally helpful. But the word that caught my eye the most was Rangzen- the word that for Tibetan youth means independence. It’s a magazine/newsletter done by the Tibetan Youth Congress, the young adults/teenagers magazine for those wanting independence. Actually, I wrote down what their main motive is, “TYC has, since its inception endeavored to cherish and preserve this sacred gift of identity in its highest and most pristine form- a completely free and independent Tibet.” This magazine is written by the young adults I hope to start talking to and interviewing. Reading this made me completely excited to get to start talking to these individuals.

Also, I realize that I am ahead of myself some what here. I know there must be at least a few of you who don’t’ even know really what Tibet is. Tibet is currently a province of China. Tibetans are a minority of Chinese. Hopefully you’ll start seeing pictures on here soon. It is a province of China, but China has violated human rights in Tibet, and Tibetans want to gain some level of better independence from China. Some are calling for a complete break-off, some just for Tibet to become an autonoumous region of China. Those are the very basics… And I’ll gladly explain in more depth to whatever questions you guys send my way.

We are officially heading up north now, so the real action will begin in about a week when we get there and situated :) Take care this next week my faithful friends, and the adventures will be bigger and better soon ;)

The Karuna House

September 4th, 2008

“And you find this kind of rootless existence appealing?” So said the rich, first class mother on the movie Titanic, to which Jack, the third class vagabond told her that he did, for when he woke up he didn’t know where we’d end up or who he’d met that day. This is conversation ran through my head as we pulled away in a rickshaw yesterday afternoon as we left the Karuna House after a few hours.

We’re kind of in a limbo state right now, waiting for a few things to work out so we don’t have a lot planned each day. Our only plan on Thursday was to met a contact’s brother. We showed up to his store and he greeted us and then took us to a rickshaw, haggled the price with the driver and welcomed us to get in. He said the driver would take us to his brother, but nothing else. We all got in and kind of laughed. Well, this will be an adventure. The driver drove us somewhere between Kushalnagar (where we are staying) and Bylakuppe (the Tibetan village), somewhere kind of the middle of no where except this gated area. “Here” he said. We all kind of looked at each other. Here? Marc confirmed with the guy, this is it? He said yes. We got out and walked toward the gate. What do we do, knock? So we knocked and waited. Nothing. The Indian rickshaw driver then smiled and came over and knocked harder and insistently. Well, its an adventure right?

A Tibetan man came out and waved us in. We were seated outside one of the buildings on some beautiful benches next to a built pond, surrounded by sleek tiles. In the pond were some beautiful plants and some of those Japanese fish (sorry, I don’t know the real name). A little black dog with long, shaggy fur greeted us calmly and happily. The place was clearly very well taken care of, which contrasts greatly with the buildings we are used to seeing. I don’t know how else to explain the place except serene. Completely serene.

A Tibetan man came out and greeted us. He told us he was the founder of the house, a home for disabled children and young adults. He told us about how he had started the place, what goes on, about some of the children, how the place is run. Honestly, I don’t think I could have been more impressed. He took us on a tour of the place and the whole place was beautiful. But it was so much more than just the beauty of the buildings or the quietness of being away from everything. The place itself was just serene.

The Karuna Home (Karuna is the sanscript word for compassion- completely fitting, no?) was built in 2004 by this man, Lama Khube Rinpoche. He was educated at the monastery and finished his studies (20 years of study at the monastery, yes 20) and then began traveling and teaching. He decided on this project and finally got it working in 2004. He now has 22 students living and learning there. He is hoping to take in 5 more students a year until they reach capacity. Some of the children cannot walk, some cannot see, some cannot hear, some have mental disabilities, some cannot speak. But all are treated the same and all are taken care of, go to classes to learn and improve, get the medicine and therapy they need. All at the expense of the home.

He explained to us that since Tibetans cannot have a refugee status ( because that would be admitting that Tibet is a free nation, which India cannot with the pressure from China), the government cannot grant them a lot of things, including homes for the disabled. They cannot go to Indian homes either. SO, there is no place in Tibetan society for these children, that is until this Rinpoche build this home.

There are so many things I could say about this home… but none of them would do justice. But we met some of the kids and as he talked about them, tossled their hair lovingly, you could tell how much he loved these kids, and you could see in their eyes how happy they were. All of the children were happy, vibrant. They were quite a site. A beautiful site indeed. I’ve never seen a happier bunch of children. HE said they have a set structure, they treat the children as people and they have seen much improvement in the discipline, learning, and happiness of the children. I completely believed it.

The Rinpoche took us into an office/sitting room after the tour and just chatted with us for a while about what we were studying, what we were doing, about his life, his work, about the Tibetan community, Buddhism, and many other things. It was fantastic. And to think we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we showed up…

If you want to know more about the place, check out http://www.karunahome.org/. There are pictures and better explanations. Ask questions though too, if you have them.

Oh, and just for fun, here are some pictures of the gorgeous fields that surround Bylakuppe, which we get to drive by every day we go to Bylakuppe.

Gomo the lama and the Golden Temple

Monday was by far the most interesting day yet! The beginning of the day was fairly normal, and a nice heavyrain in the afternoon. We then met up with Chongi, the American monk we met Sunday. He wanted to take us to meet a friend of his, Gomo, that he said would be a good connection for us to have. He had told us that his mom lived in Utah, and that he had lived in Utah for a while as well. He said his English was fantastic and that he was a fantastic guy with a good heart. But what he said was definitely not enough to prepare us for this meeting.

We went to Gomo’s house and were immediately sat down and served water, juice, fruit and cookies. We had been told that hospitality is huge to Tibetans so we weren’t too surprised with that, but so so grateful and we loved it. It had been a long day. Then in came Gomo. He was way younger than I had expected, and as we later found out, he was only 20! Gomo is a reincarnated Lama, meaning he is very high up. For those of you that are LDS, an equivalent would probably be like a member of the Quorum of the 12 (only there are a lot more than 12 lamas- but the position is about the same I think).

Gomo was just a fun, interesting guy to talk to. He’s traveled all over the world and has connections in all kinds of places. Just while we were there we met a bunch of Italians he is friends with. His English was absolutely fantastic and even his slang was totally up to date. He loves all kinds of music, and especially hip hop (Beyonce, Jay-Z, Dub, etc). He was so down to earth and so much like us in so many ways. He actually went his senior year to high school in Bountiful. He said he really wanted to experience being around kids his age and learn from those experiences. He said it changed him a lot.

He was quite the progressive. He has all kinds of projects he’s working on to try to help the community in Sera and Bylakuppe (and the local Indian places as well) and also Buddhism as a whole. He wants to reach out to people and be down to earth with them and then help them.
But he is also very Tibetan. His title is of course very high up, but Chongi told us some stories about him. He has followers across the globe and has lifted and inspired many, many people. We talked with him for hours, talking about his life and travels, discussing Buddhism and also Christianity and Mormonism, our tastes of music, snowboarding, sports, dogs, and all kinds of things. I don’t know how many times during our conversation I was just blown away that we were talking to a Tibetan Buddhist Lama just like we would someone our own age.
While we were there I learned what true hospitality is. We were seriously offered almost everything, and many things were just brought to us. We ended up having a wonderful Tibetan meal with him. Anything under the sun is yours in a Tibetan’s home. When we were leaving he also wanted to say goodbye the American way, grabbing the guys’ hand and doing the half hug/pat thing, and giving us girls a hug. He was so about making us comfortable and showing us he wanted to help. Later he even called to make sure we got back safe. Gomo was incredible to us and really blew our minds!

We also visited the Golden Temple. I cannot begin to describe the beauty, an sheer ornate temples these Tibetan Buddhist monks have built. It was an incredible experience. I’ll post a few pictures here of it… but you’ll have to have me show you the rest when I get back. Every detail is incredible… and symbols are everywhere. We got to listen to hundreds of monks come in and chant for a while as well. The long tables with the colored books- those are the places they sat at to chant.

Hope you enjoyed this delve and the pictures! And don't make fun of me too much... its so hot and humid that my hair is crazy.