At Khenpo's Retreat Center in Dehradun

We have arrived safely in Dehradun and are staying at the Dzogchen Shri Singha Thakchen DoNgag Choling Buddhist Retreat Center. This is a new retreat center that was built at Khenpo's direction by a Tibetan princess who lives in Deradun and who managed the entire development a few years ago. The land was given to Khenpo by Dodrupchen Rinpoche, who received it from HH Dalai Lama. I traveled with Khenpo to Los Angeles the first week that I met him in May 2002 and he took me to HH Dodrupchen's residence there. We met His Holiness and the princess and she showed us photos of the retreat center in progress. It was almost completed then. For the past six years a Russian student of Khenpo named Sveta has been the primary retreatant at the center. The land is about 2 acres total, in a long rectangular plot and is surrounded by a 5-foot high brick wall, plastered white. It's a 2-story building with a wide open roof patio. There are 16 bedrooms, about 6 bathrooms, and a separate building for the kitchen. On the second floor at one end is the temple, with enough room to hold about 30 practitioners and a very nice custom shrine cabinet. The floors in the temple and hallways are a beautiful terrazo utilizing multicolor stones. In the typical modern Indian style of construction it is built upon a reinforced concrete frame, with brick in-fill, reinforced concrete floors/ceilings, and cement plaster over the brick walls. Plumbing and electrical are all in the local style. The finishing has a Tibetan flavor. Lumber for framing is rarely used in India, probably because it is scarce and expensive compared to concrete, rebar and bricks. I'm writing from an Internet cafe that is only a few blocks walk from the Retreat Center, so I'll be able to write more while we are staying here about everything that has transpired over the past four days when I couldn't blog. We'll probably be here for at least three days which will be the longest we've stayed in one place since the pilgrimage started. So much has happened and we are trying to take a breather to recuperate and relax. I'm feeling much better now, but am still recuperating. Others have gotten cold symptoms, but everyone seems to be holding up pretty well. I'll write more soon!