January 2012
6 posts
New Year And Puja
Just before a New Year, sixteen older monk went to Riwoche for a 5 day Drubchok with lots of excitement. Intermedite classes were off for a week. Little monks were saying-“ Oh! we are having a very good foods without older monks” Fewer monks and less food but more tasty!
Namgyal and Gyatso made tormas for the Tara puja on New Year’s Eve while Nicky and I were helping Gyude...
December 2011
4 posts
Dental and Medical Camp Deupur Village, Parbat,...
Once again the start of winter heralded the annual Shenpen dental / medical camp. This year we headed off to the hills two and a half hours beyond Pokhara. Beneath the snowy gaze of Machupuchhare and Anapurna One our team of 42 medical and dental practitioners and volunteer helpers treated 1500 people in three days.
Three young monks from Mindrol Norbu Ling (Chapagaon) joined eight other monks...
November 2011
3 posts
Training the Doctors of the Future
This week our attentions turns to Tsultrim Rabsel (aged 16) and Urgen Gyatso (aged 18) who have volunteered to undertake the seven year training to become practitoners of Tibetan medicine.
This entails learning by heart the four main texts - on anatomy, physiology, medicines and philosophy as well as all the other information needed to diagnose and treat patients and collect and prepare...
October 2011
5 posts
Holidays
How can a holiday of fifteen days have passed so quickly? Tomorrow will be the last day!
More than fifteen monks went to their own homes in the Kathmandu Valley to visit family and join in the Dashain celebrations. They don’t celebrate like those who are Hindu by faith – but everyone in Nepal, regardless of their beliefs enjoys time off work with relatives and friends and the excuse to eat meat...
September 2011
6 posts
Exam time......
As the first exams of the year approach, Ratna Mangalam, shares his thoughts. Ratna is one of the group of oldest boys who have been studying philosophy for three years.
“Yesterday after meditation I entered the next room: Sangye Tenzin asked me “can you ask some questions on the ‘Thirty Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva’ – because I don’t know what questions the teacher may ask during the...
Pema Pawo - Health captain
My name is Pema Pawo and I am studying in intermediate first level. Ratna has explained what we usually do every day. So I want to write a little bit about our holidays. Saturday is our half day, which means we have class until 11:30 the same other days. And elementary learners have Tibetan text reading class at 8:00 am to 9:30am. After that they pick up some rubbish around the monastery; and they...
August 2011
7 posts
Wonderful World!
Dear Readers,
I apologize for being late in writing to you. Actually Nicky and I had planned to write on Saturday with Pema Pawo but I had to go to Kanying Shedrub Ling, our White Monastery in Boudha to meet some monks and to bring books.
As I was going to Boudha with Urgen Tendar, a woman with a little child came towards me and cried saying ‘Oh Monk, Oh Monk, please help me, I have nothing, no...
A DAY IN MY LIFE - Yeshe Thaye
My name is Yeshe Thaye. I am sixteen years old, studying at third level, intermediate class. I am junior water keeper and Urgen Gyatso is in charge. I have been doing this job since Losar and I helped to bring the sick monks to clinic, last year.
Hot summer raining days are fine, but night with mosquitos are extremely terrible. Any way, I carry on in this weather ; first I get up morning ,...
July 2011
4 posts
A DAY IN MY LIFE
My thirteenth of May 2011
The alarm clock woke me up at 5 am and there were some birds singing a song. stepped towards the bathroom to brush my teeth and to wash my face. I knocked on other monks doors to wake them as usually Tsutrim Namgyal and I do, because we both are ‘tsotrimba’(head monks) for this year.The gong was rung for morning prayer, and twenty...
February 2011
3 posts
Exams as as a spectator sport!
It was cold and wet and grey at 8am this morning when the monks maths exam began. I had to grit my teeth to cross the small courtyard to the gompa to fullfil expectations: exams here are a spectator sport and I was required to attend! Everyone is invited to observe fair play, their presence felt in the adult-size shoes augmenting the pile of small monk slippers on the steps of the exam hall (aka...
January 2011
4 posts
Winter Warmers!
Guru Rinpoche Day was especially blessed this month with the arrival of gifts from Malaysia and Singapore for the mini-monk: warm winter clothing from thermal underwear to trousers, gloves, coats and hats, socks, shoes, t-shirts and jumpers….everything you can imagine.
Besides the clothing a variety of food and medicines, along with stationery supplies for their schoolrooms, made up the...
September 2010
10 posts
Wet wet wet...
The rains haven’t stopped for the last four days - so no hot water for those of us depending on the solar heating tubes. A bit if a challenge, but at least we have no more boys in the clinic, having had 26 of them pass through with a mini epidemic of ‘flu as the weather became cold. Of course all the literature says ’ you dont catch influenza from getting cold’ - but...
