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.