Back at the New Tibetan Colony in Delhi

To avoid traffic, we drove all night on the bus, leaving the retreat center in Derhadun about 11:30 PM and arriving here at the New Tibetan Colony in Delhi at about 7:30 AM. There were stops at little way stations where we had snacks, tea, bottled drinks and got a little exercise. The bus is somewhat cramped for a tall person like me, but everyone was certainly feeling the aches and pains from the very bumpy ride. Getting out each time to stretch felt good. Khenpo would lead us around a kora to get the blood flowing. Other than the brief stops, I was able to sleep most of the the trip by using earplugs and wrapping my head in a scarf.

The bathrooms in these kinds of way stations are not nearly as nice as at the hotels. They are unlit, with overpowering odors, and little more than a hole in the middle of the floor. Some have no running water. At one stop, a cell phone being used as a flashlight slipped out of a sleepy pilgrim's hand into a hole-in-the-floor toilet. It was thought to be lost, but Tenzin Dakpa, a Tibetan who has been with us on the whole tour, and who has truly been our Dharma protector, jumped to the rescue and reached into the sump and got the phone. He washed it off and retrieved the battery and SIM card.

Here in Delhi, we arrived at dawn at the New Tibetan Colony, with its tiny alley streets lined with vendors and little store fronts, including the Internet Cafe with broadband service from which I'm writing this post. Kunchok Lama took us to a private residence of his friend Yeshi Gyatso where they allowed us to use their bathrooms to brush teeth and let us use a store room to lock up some unneeded bags during the next leg of the journey. They fed us some Amdo-style flat breads and sweet tea. The thick soft breads were like giant English muffins and very tasty with some butter.

I'm researching where to recover my hard drive while in India. I really don't want to loose all my photos. I also have photos on that drive of some other cameras including Khenpo's camera, so there's a strong need my part to make an effort at data recovery. I'm guessing the price will be considerably lower here than in the states, but finding a specialist in Mac data recovery in India will be a challenge. Anyone who can help me with some leads would be profusely thanked.

Yesterday in Derhadun we visited a local shop that makes nice bells and dorjes. They also had some phurbas that were high quality. Then last night a Tibetan man from the Lingtsang Colony Manduwala nick-named Tse Dor (Tsering Dorje) came to the retreat center with some very nice 9-pointed bells and dorjes as well as the nicest phurbas we had seen. A number of us bought these at prices that were much better than in the States.

Around 5PM yesterday, Khenpo gave a reading transmission in Tibetan from the Chöying Dzöd: The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena by Longchen Rabjam. The Shrine room at the retreat center was packed with the pilgrims and Tibetans including the little tulku and his family, and the Princess Ling Tsong. I don't understand the Tibetan language, so I just sat and drank in the phenomena. The building is very "live" with all of the hard concrete and terazzo surfaces, so Khenpo's voice reverberated through the building, reinforced by the little battery powered PA system Tracey has been carrying around for Khenpo to use. The retreat center is really close to the village, so all kinds of other sounds drifted in, from the Tibetans who remained downstairs to prepare dinner, all the little kids playing in the yard, workmen hammering (on Sunday afternoon!) just outside the compound to break up large river cobblestones to make gravel for a road improvement project, dogs barking, car horns honking, monkeys and birds calling. I especially remember the group of crows cawing on the roof. It was quite a symphony of sounds and Khenpo just read through the whole text unperturbed by all of the noise, reciting some parts, singing others. Amazing. It certainly increased my desire to learn to understand Tibetan.

At the end of the "lung" we had Dharmapala and Concluding practices. Since this was the end of a retreat, we did the Concluding Song of the Buddha Path and instead of throwing rice, we threw a type of flower seed that has a large flat wing attached, allowing it to spin gently to the floor. Everyone offered Katak's to Khenpo at the end, creating a big pile of them on the table in front of him.

After dinner outside under the big tent, all the pilgrims offered kataks to the princess. Khenpo, Chris, and I all gave public thanks to her for everything she did to create the retreat center, and also make Khenpo's first visit there very special. We spent yesterday evening packing and cleaning and loading the bus. There was quite a big clean up job remaining after we left I'm sure, but Justin used some of his time to go around and help clean up the place a bit so that it was not so messy. Justin is always thinking of others welfare. We finally boarded the bus by 11:30 PM, drove out of the yard (though the tent!) and that brings me full circle in my non-linear recounting of the the past day.