Fire Puja

Super quick post. Fire puja tonight in a new brick-lined fire pit that was dug and built this week. Khenpo lead the puja assisted by his brothers Rigzin Tarchin Rinpoche and Arik Rinpoche. Also helping were Dzogchen Geydak Rinpoche and Lama Lagya and all the monks from the retreat center. Kunchok Lama was also assisting. His mom is still here. His mom's sister (Geydak's mom) is here too. The monks were playing dunchen, gyaling, drums, cymbals, thighbone trumpets. The sounds were amazing.

Chris, Sveta, Susie and I left before the end since three of us were not feeling well. Susie in particular seemed to have gotten food poisoning and was in bed all afternoon.

Today was a festival where they throw water balloons and smear yellow and red powder. We had a multi-hour water balloon fight at the retreat center that was a lot of fun. Khenpo painted my face entirely red along with a few other pilgrims.

Back in Thamil for the night. Tomorrow we may visit Namo Buddha, where in an earlier lifetime the Buddha fed himself to a tigress in order to save her starving cubs.