Travelin Tibet

The word came around that there would be a special festival at Tashilhunpo monastery and many who were visiting town decided to stay. Of course more travelers were arriving every day but instead of staying two or three days like they normally would, they wanted to see the festivities too. The system overloaded. Our kindly landlord knew there was nowhere else to go and opened some of his own rooms.

Then came the tents. Tibetans, even city ones, love tents. I wanted one: clean white with royal blue borders and the wheel of the Dharma in the center. We had tents in the courtyard, tents on the roof. Finally the owner was saying "floor sleeping - no money". We got everybody in.





Thanka! Thanka! The lady of the house was rousing us and shooing us out to the monastery.

Thanka! Thanka! I'd rather sleep. A thanka is a Buddhist religious painting and I knew the early days of the festival featured the display of huge thankas on the side of a building built for the purpose.

Thanka! Her real reason was that she had an important guest coming and she wanted all these scruffy foreigners out of the way. Guess I'll go see the thanka.


Bhaisajyaguru - the Medicine Buddha

The day's event was mostly a Tibetan picnic. There were lots of oohs and ahhs when the thanka was unveiled- maybe 40 by 60 feet. Big. A form of the celestial Buddha, the basic patterns (archetypes) of enlightenment of which the historic Buddha embodied one aspect.

This was the third and final thanka to be displayed. The next day the Panchen Lama, an embodiment of the Buddha of abundant light, gave the initiation of abundant life.

The ceremony is to release the barriers to long life such as fears and habits. Most of the work is done in private, the monks chanting for days, with periodic breaks for music and tea.


photo is of drums at a new year's festival
in Lhasa, early 1943


The last day the Panchen Lama transmitted the built up energy to the gathered people and to the world. There was no need to be solemn, the Tibetans acted as if it's yet another picnic. The Panchen Lama sat behind a golden screen (it's the God speaking through him, remember) as his electronically amplified voice alternated between speech and nonsense syllables. Periodically the horns (those long, amazing Tibetan horns) and drums played to stir the air.




I arrived for the ceremony fairly early and sat near most of the other foreigners. Despite their casual attitude this was very important to the Tibetans and we all felt a little like we were intruding. The ceremony was to start at 12 o'clock and we were anxious to begin. The man next to me said it was two minutes 'till. And that was the most curious thing: at exactly twelve o'clock it began to rain.






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Nylam
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you are visiting the Panchen Lama
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Lhasa