The 22 members of the Indian part of the tour flew from Kathmandu to
Calcutta to Bubaneshwar and then bussed it down to the Rigon Thupten Mindrolling
Monastery in Orissa. His Eminence as well as Jigme Rinpoche and monk Tenzin
Phuntsok flew on Indian Airlines with us all the way to Bubaneshwar. The
following morning, Rinpoche and retinue departed in an air conditioned
taxi and the rest of us followed in a nice air conditioned bus. We had
box lunches and bottles of water with us from the Oberoi Hotel where we
had stayed the previous night in Bubaneshwar. The trip took longer than
normal - about 9 or 10 hours - because a cyclone had come through a few
days earlier, creating some minor water and tree obstacles that the bus
had to circumnavigate. It was an interesting experience for Westerners
to have to just take bathroom breaks alongside the road in India, as there
really aren't any reststops in that part of Orissa, a quite remote region.
About halfway to the Monastery, there was a sudden shattering of glass
near the rear of our bus. We had to stop immediately. Several students,
and one in particular, were covered in thousands of pieces of shattered
glass. One of the bus windows had broken due to a thrown object. All of
the glass had to be removed from their skin, water poured over arms and
legs, clothing removed and shaken out, and people rearranged in the bus
to avoid the messy area. It turned out that many busses traveling through
that town had been stoned by angry residents because their area had been
neglected by the authorities after the small cyclone when funds were distributed
to assist with repairs and food. We just happened to be on the receiving
end of their general frustration and rage.
Orissa monastery site, upgraded
and rebuilt Office/Kitchen Building.
At one point, not far from the Monastery, we stopped to eat our box lunches
and to join His Eminence for a short road break. From that point forward
we following Rinpoche's taxi very closely, at his request, so that we
would actually arrive at the Monastery together. We did not know why he
had suggested this, but we estimated he felt we might get lost if we tried
to find it on our own (we didn't realize the special greeting he had in
mind for us). When we arrived at Rigon Thupten Mindrolling Monastery in
Orissa, it was already dark. When we exited the bus, we were immediately
rushed through the gate to the monastery, along the path lined with smiling
monks holding silk katas, and taken right into the monastery where other
monks were performing welcoming ceremonies. We were seated on carpets
on the floor in front of the thrones where His Eminence and Jigme Rinpoche
sat. And we had a chance to directly experience what it means when is
spoken of "Rinpoche's seat"(!!) The power, the light, the energy,
the radiance, the overwhelming aura of his true nature poured from him
as he sat on "his seat" and covered all of us in its glory and everlasting
timeless luminosity. The people of the community came up to Rinpoche,
one by one, bringing their katas, welcoming him home to India. The monks
also went up for his blessing, although the little monks had to really
stretch and he patted their sweet little ears and heads, beaming smiles
at them.
The Tibetan Camps
Children and teacher in Tibetan
school, visited by pilgrimage group in Orissa, India.
We were taken on a tour of the area and the important facilities by Jigme
Rinpoche. We visited the home for the elderly and the students made a
generous offering to the home to help the residents there. These elderly
people were the original Tibetans who escaped across the Himalayas, many
of them bringing no personal item with them, only carrying strapped to
their backs the sacred Buddhist texts to be sure they survived. We also
visited the Hospital where again the students made a generous offering
to help them out as they operate on a bootstrap budget. One of the students
also generously donated to the hospital a piece of computer software he
had developed which would help them to operate more efficiently. The doctors
showed us all of their facilities and services. We also toured the water
purification projects that Jigme Rinpoche has developed in the Tibetan
camps to develop good water and eliminate water-borne illnesses. We also
visited sample houses that are being built for the people there, including
a visit to the brick manufacturing facility. And of course we visited
the local Tibetan carpet plant where carpetmakers are still making beautiful
carpets by hand. Our group had also brought a couple dozen suitcases filled
with new and used clothing and shoes for the children and adults, which
no doubt made a real difference in their lives.
Teachings at the Monastery
Gesar Lingdro dancers at Orissa
Monastery.
Rinpoche provided a special blessing to our pilgrimage group in that
he actually gave us a Guru Rinpoche teaching in the Monastery itself.
He permitted us to sit in the monastery and he gave us more detailed teachings
on Guru Rinpoche than he had given us in the U.S. when he was there. And
in the evening before we departed India, he arranged for the local Gesar
Lingdro dancers to perform major parts of the Lingdro for us. It was a
very spectacular dance event and we hated to see it end. So many of us
feel such strong connections to the Gesar cycle of warrior teachings and
we were thrilled to see a real performance of this mystical dance.
