Fujisan's Kyareng

Monday, December 24, 2012

Tibetan Youth Congress Executives in San Francisco

December 23, 2012, Sunday

རང་བཙན་ནི་བོད་མིའི་ཐོབ་ཐང་ཡིན།

དབུས་བོད་ཀྱི་གཞོན་ནུ་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་གཞོན་དོན་གྲུབ་ལྷ་དར་ལགས་དང་དྲུང་ཆེ་ཚེ་རིང་ཆོས་སྐྱིད་ལགས་འདི་ཟླའི་ཚེས་ ༢༤  ཉིན་ཨ་རི་ཀེ་ལི་ཕོ་ནིཡའི་མངའ་སྡེ་སེན་ཕེན་རན་སི་ཀོ་གནས་སྡོད་བོད་མི་ཁག་དང་མཇལ་འཕྲད་ཞུས་ཡོད། ཚོགས་གཞོན་དང་དྲུང་ཆེ་གཉིས་ནས་བོད་ཀྱི་གནས་དོན་དང་རང་དབང་འཐབ་རྩོད་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་གྱི་གནས་འབབ་སྐོར་འགྲེལ་བཤད་གང་ལེགས་གནང་ཡོད། ཚོགས་གཞོན་གྱི་གསུང་གསལ། བོད་མི་ཚོ་ལ་ལས་འགན་གལ་ཆེ་གསུམ་ཡོད། དང་པོ་དེ་བོད་རང་བཙན་སླར་གསོ་ཡིན། གཉིས་པ་དེ་བོད་མིའི་ངོ་བོ་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་བྱ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། གསུམ་པ་མ་འོངས་བོད་ཀྱི་ཆེད་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཡིན་གསུངས་ཏེ་དོན་མཚན་དེ་གསུམ་ཐོག་འགྲེལ་བཤད་རྒྱས་པོ་ཁུངས་འཕེར་གནང་ཡོད།  

ཁོང་གིས་བོད་རང་བཙན་དགོས་གལ་གྱི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་དོན་མཚན་གསུམ་ཐོག་གནང་ཡོད། དང་པོ་བོད་རང་བཙན་ནི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཀྱི་ཐོག་ནས་བོད་མིའི་ཐོབ་ཐང་ཡིན། གཉིས་པ་དེ་རྒྱ་དམར་འོག་མི་ལོ་དྲུག་བཅུ་ལྷག་བསྡད་ནས་བོད་མི་ཚོས་ཁྲག་དང་མིག་ཆུ་མ་གཏོགས་གང་ཡང་མཐོང་མེད། གསུམ་པ་དེ་རྒྱ་མི་མཉམ་དུ་སྡད་ནས་བོད་མི་ཚོ་ལ་ཕན་ཐོག་བྱུང་བ་གང་ཡང་བསྟན་རྒྱུ་མེད་ལ་མ་འོངས་ལའང་གང་ཡང་ཡོང་རེ་མེད། དེ་ཡིན་དུས་ང་ཚོས་རང་བཙན་རང་ལ་འབད་བརྩོན་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་དེ་གལ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡིན་གསུངས།  

ཁོང་གིས་གསུངས་བཤད་ཀྱིས་མི་མང་ལ་སེམས་འགུལ་ཤུགས་ཆེ་ཐེབས་ཡོད་པ་དང་། མི་མང་ནས་སེམས་ཤུགས་དང་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་ཤུགས་ཆེ་མངོན་གསལ་བསྟོན་བ་དང་། རང་བཙན་དང་རང་དབང་། མ་འོངས་འཐབ་རྩོད། ད་ལྟ་བོད་ནང་འགྲོ་བཞིན་སྐུ་ལུས་མེར་བསྲེགས་བཏང་མཁན་རྒྱལ་གཅེས་དཔའ་བོ་དཔའ་མོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་དྲི་བ་དྲི་ལན་དང་བགྲོ་གླེང་གཏིང་གཟབ་གནང་ཡོད།


San Francisco: Dhondup Lhadar, Vice President and Tenzin Chokyi, General Secretary of Tibetan Youth Congress [Centrex] met with the Tibetans in San Francisco Bay Area at Tibetan community hall in Richmond Anex on the day.  The two activists updated the Tibetans in the area on Tibetan issue and on the on-going self immolation acts in Tibet. Mr Lhadar reminded the Tibetans of three important duties that each Tibetan must fulfill, i.e. 1) Revival of Tibetan independence, 2) Preservation of Tibetan identity, and 3) Preparation for the future Tibet.

Mr. Lhadar talked about why Tibet needs independence, he stressed on three points: Tibet's independence is Tibetans' birth right due to the historical facts. Secondly, the sufferings that Tibetans have under gone since the Chinese occupation has clearly shown that Tibetans will never enjoy freedom under Chinese government. Thirdly, Tibetans have gained nothing by associating with the Chinese till date. “All these three points are clear indicaton of the fact that only solution to our problem is independence.” Said Mr. Lhadar.

Tibetan audience listened to the speeches of the two activists with great interest and attention. The talk was followed with vibrant question and answer session. The audiences were greatly inspired and thanked the Tibetan Youth Congress for all their effort in promoting the Tibetan issue and assured the visiting activists that the Tibetan people are behind them.   

 

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving Day


ཐུགས་རྗེ་ལེགས་འབུལ་ཉིན་མོ།
November 22, 2012 Thursday

Thanksgiving Day is one of the major holidays in the United States. With Thursday and Friday as holiday, combining this with the weekends, people plan for a great holiday with the friends and family. Origin of Thanksgiving Day has a long history dating back to ancient harvest festival in Europe. Harvest festival is popular in many countries, where people thank the gods and nature for good and healthy bountiful harvest.
Thanksgiving Day in the United States is believed to have started in 1621, when some 50 Plymouth Pilgrims had a feast with native Indians at Plymouth to thank the natives for their help and in granting corn seeds. The two communities got into peace accord and lived peacefully around that time. It was then observed impromptu annually after the harvest. It was during President Lincoln time that the day was made public holiday and celebrated widely.
Today, the Thanksgiving Day is celebrated by the people to thank their respective gods, family and friends for all the help and guidance they had received during the year. It is also an important occasion for the family members to gather at their country home and celebrate.  

Most importantly, it is a day for all to thank and to remember the native Indians for their sincere help in accommodating and allowing the early Plymouth Pilgrim settlers in the land. Today the United States accommodates people from all the continents with freedom, democracy and equality as its guiding principle. The Day also reminds us to be thankful and grateful for all the help and blessing we have received from our friends and neighbors during the course of our journey in this life.

It would have been a nice tradition still relevant in this modern busy material century to allow the people to have a peaceful and joyful family time if only the turkeys are spared of their lives.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Flame of Truth

བདེན་པའི་མེ་ལྕེ།
San Francisco: November 10, 2-012 Saturday
བོད་མིའི་བདེན་པའི་མེ་ལྕེའི་ལས་འགུལ་ ༢༠༡༢ ཟླ་ ༡༡ ཚེས་ ༡༠ ཉིན་བྱང་ཨ་རིའི་ཀེ་ལོ་ཕོར་ནིཡ་མངའ་སྡེའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་སེན་ཕེརན་སི་ཀོ་ལ་མཇུག་སྒྲིལ་ཞུས། བོད་མི་དང་བོད་དོན་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཚོགས་པ་མི་གྲངས་ལྔ་བརྒྱ་ལྷག་མཉམ་བཞུག་གིས་རྔམ་སྟོན་ཁྲོམ་སྐོར་དང་གོམ་འགྲོས། རྒྱ་ནག་གཞུང་ཚབ་ལས་ཁུངས་མདུན་དུ་སྐད་འབོད་ངོ་རྒོལ་བྱས་ཡོད།
Photo: Lhamo Tso, the wife of "Leaving the Fear Behind" documentary maker Dhondup Wangchen carrying the Flame of Truth, TANC President Kunjo Tashi standing beside her.
Flame of Truth North America chapter concluded on November 10, 2012 at San Francisco city. More than five hundred Tibetans and Tibet supporters gathered to show solidarity to the Tibetan cause and marched to Chinese embassy in the city to protest and urged the Chinese government to resolve Tibet issue, and stop repression in Tibet. 
 Tibetans and Tibet supporters protestng before the Chinese Cosulate office in San Francisco on the day.

Friday, November 2, 2012

What is Halloween?

October 31, 2012

San Francisco: The eve of October 31 is a great evening of excitement and fun for the children here. The children dress themselves up in their favorite ghostly characters and move around the neighborhood knocking doors and chanting, "Trick or Treat". Meaning either they should be given something to eat, or the owner face a trick or mischief. Usually, the children were given sweets, chocolates and other eatable things. Many of the houses are decorated in a ghostly style; very scarring and frightening. People have a big yellow pumpkin hollowed and curved to a demonic face with a light inside. It is called Jack-o-lantern. It gives a very scary sight in the night. Originally, a carrot was used; later an apple and when it came to the States, pumpkin came in.

 Halloween is widely celebrated in the Western world. It is said that it came to United States along with the Irish immigrant [after the potato famine in the region] in 19th century. It is an age old festival of Celtic Irish tribes dating back to BC era. In early days, October 31st is the end of the summer and the harvest season, and is celebrated as festival of Samhain [summer-end]. It is also to thank the Sun for the good summer, and pray for its early return from the harsh winter. Samhain is sometime referred to as the lord of death. From November 1st, it is the start of the New Year, and the long harsh winter. At the end of the year, the lord of death Samhain let the spirit of the people died during the year to visit their home, and sometime cause harm and possess the living people. In order to ward off the spirits and the ghosts, tradition came up that the people dressed themselves up in ghostly styles to avoid, confuse and to scare the real ghosts away.

It is also sometime referred as Roman festival of the dead, when the dead returns to their home for feast and treat on the eve. People leave some eatable things outside so that the dead could pick it up and go away. If the dead are not treated to a feast, they tend to harm the people living in the house. This is construed as the origin of “trick or treat” chanting.

Later the Roman amalgamated this festival with one of theirs to propitiate the Roman goddess of fruits and trees, Pomona. Christian culture worked further on to turn this festival to celebrate the "all saints eve". November 1st was celebrated “all saint day” to honor all martyrs and saints. The Etymology of the word Halloween became "all hallow evening". Much of the ancient meaning and purpose of the event is lost, but today it is celebrated as one the most awaited children festivals. Above is an iceberg information on Halloween, the festival is very old, and many explanation can be found about its origin and the purpose by many scholars and folklorists.

Now, many Asian immigrants have also taken to enjoy the festivals. It was heartening yet at the same time frightening to see many Tibetan kids also in ghostly attires going around chanting "trick or treat".

Above is a picture of candy, sweets, chocolates and other eatables what one child gathered  during the 'trick or treat' visits.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Jekdel; Leaving the Fear Behind

འཇིགས་འབྲལ། དོན་གྲུབ་དབང་ཆེན།
 October 15, 2012 Monday

San Francisco: Jekdal, Leaving the Fear Behind, a documentary that exposed the gaudy and happy picture of Tibet painted by the Chinese government prior to the 2008 Olympic to fool the world has received wide attention and acclaims of interanatonal community. The documentary is seen as the real opinion of the people in Tibet. This documentary was screened in San Francisco today before some forty young computer and technology professionals. Heidi Minx, a human rights activist organized the event at Causes.com in the heart of the city. She gave a brief introduction of situation in Tibet, and introduced Lhamo Tso, the young wife of the film maker Dhondup Wangchen, who was present at the event.
 
People watched the 25 minutes documentary film with great interest and some were moved to tears, and many were seen showing their support for the young director. After the screening of the film, Lhamo Tso, answered and clarified questions from the audiences.

Lhamo Tso with the organizers Heidi and Rocky
Following is the summary of what Lhamo Tso said in the question-answer session. She said that despite the Chinese promise, situation is Tibet did not change and in fact became worse after the Olympic. Opinion of Tibetan people as reflected in the film is same even today, i.e. freedom of culture and religion, and return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since 2008 Olympic, Chinese government became very repressive, and intolerant. Situation became so critical that the Tibetans were left with no choice than to commit self-immolation to protest the Chinese occupation, and to draw the international community's attention.

 When asked if her husband received facility of lawyer and trail, Lhamo Tso said that her husband was arrested on March 27, 2008 for making this documentary film. This documentary is collection of public opinion on 2008 Olympic in China, and it also talks about coexistence with Chinese under Middle Path approach adopted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. But the Chinese police arrested him and sentenced him for six years of imprisonment without any trail. The two Chinese lawyers who represented Dhondup were not allowed to file case. It is not only my husband; there are many Tibetan languishing in prison for speaking up for freedom and justice in our land.

 My husband when he went into prison, he was a healthy man. Today he is in very poor health suffering from hepatitis. I am campaigning for his early release so that we could take care of his health properly.

 Lhamo Tso expressed gratitude to all the supporters, and said that her European and American tour to campaign for Tibet's cause and her husband's release was very effective. Governments, lawmakers, NGOs, and supporters have raised the issue at different platform, and this has had good direct as well as indirect effect in warning the China that the world is watching.

 Lastly, Lhamo Tso thanked the audience for their time, and requested them to use their professional knowledge to spread the injustice going on in Tibet, and to speak for freedom and justice in Tibet.  


Saturday, September 29, 2012

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in San Francisco

Sept 29, 2012 Saturday




San Francisco: Burmese freedom fighter and Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the crowd of some three thousand at San Francisco University today. San Francisco city is known for supporting the Burmese movement for freedom and democracy. The city also has the largest Burmese community in the United States. San Francisco Mayor welcomed the Nobel Laureate, and handed her the San Francisco Golden Key award. He said that the city is honored to have the lady, who has become a symbol of Burmese freedom and democracy. Senator Nancy Palosi addressed the crowd and expressed her support to the Suu Kyi and democracy movement in Burma. She said the United States have always been with the freedom seeking people in Burma.
 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi greeted the crowd, spoke first in English for sometimes and later spoke in Burmese language. She said she want to communicate in Burmese with the Burmese community to see that they have not forgotten their root. She said the innovative, multicultural democracy and courage to welcome change and difference here in this country should be a good lesson for all Burmese people. We should learn but without giving away your value.
Our society need to open our heart as well as mind. We must thank the people here for putting us firmly on the path of human rights, freedom and democracy. She thanked the Americans for their support, and said that Burmese will work hard to repay the generosity. Burma is on the path of democracy and national development. Although our party has 43 seats in 600 plus parliament, we are all working hard to establish rule of law. The speakers are very supportive, things are moving in a positive direction.

We need to reflect in ourselves. Think about what we are lacking, don’t think about what others are lacking. See what you have done or not done to promote peace and freedom in your homeland. Important ingredient for peace and development is humility. If you want to come back to contribute, you should be willing to work with the people in homeland. Feeling that you are helping and superiority feeling will not work. We all need to work together to build our homeland.
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Friday, September 28, 2012

Geshe Chapur Rinpoche's Teaching


Dhondupling dZogchen Community Center, Berkeley
Sept 23 – 24, 2012, Saturday and Suday

Berkeley: Geshe Chapur Rinpoche gave teaching for two days on Zhang Zhung Ngondro, preliminary teaching to the profound teaching of dZogchen, the great perfection at Dhondupling dZogchen Community Center in Berkeley. The teaching consisted of foundation practices that form a gateway to Bön dzogchen (great perfection) teaching. Rinpoche taught on preliminary instruction system, ngondro allows the student to approach properly the different levels of teachings passed down through the ages from Dzogchen masters of the revered ancient Zhang Zhung lineages of Bön.
 
Geshe Chaphur Rinpoche gave detail instructions and teaching on the Zhang Zhung Ngondro based on oral teaching transmission and the text Nyam rGyu rGyal wa’ Phyag Khrid. He gave historical background of the lineage of the teaching, and how the teaching was passed through mind, and then orally and finally in written form.
 
At later dates Rinpoche will continue teachings on the different levels of practice related to Dzogchen Oral Transmission.

The teaching was organized by Gyalshen Institute, a non-profit organization [501(c) (3) ] dedicated to the preservation and revival of Zhang Zhung and Tibetan culture and traditions. Geshe Chaphur Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of the institute.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Teaching on Bon Religion



Geshe Chaphur's Teaching at Dondrup Ling

Organized by Gyalshen Institute [June 16, 2012 Saturday]

 Berkeley, CA: Geshe Chapur Rinpoche of Gyalshen Institute gave a one-day teaching at Dondrup Ling center in Berkeley on historical aspect of the Bon teaching, its development, and about the unique status of the doctrine, and the current situation. Following is the summary of the Geshe la's teaching and the clarifications he gave to the questions asked by the participants. Tsewang Gyalpo Arya translated the teachings.
The word Bon is as old as history of Zhangshung and Tibet. It can mean many things. We have Bon, Yungdrung Bon, Bon nyingma, Bon sarma, Bon Buddhist etc. The word or the sound "Bon" is also said to be the origin of word "Tibet". From Bon came Bod; from Bod came Bhote; from Bhote came Tibet.
 But generally Bon is understood as the native religion of Tibet. Sometime people say Bon is similar or same as Shamanism, this is wrong. When we say Bon, we have to think of what Bon we are talking about.
The Bon teaching that we are talking about and practicing is the Yungdrung Bon, propagated or founded by Tonpa Shenrab Miwo. Before Tonpa Shenrab, there was a native religious practice in Zhangshung and Tibet, which were also known by the name of Bon. It involved the practice of propitiating gods or deities through animal sacrifices. This primitive Bon may have similarity with Shamanism. Tonpa Shenrab later reformed this and instead of actual animal sacrifice, a ritual symbolizing animal sacrifice without having to take the lives of real animals was introduced.

Tonpa Shenrab was born a common man in Olmolungring. The religious doctrine that he taught was Yungdrung Bon. Yung means kyeme, unborn and primordial. It represents "Conventional truth". Drung mean gagme, uninterrupted or no obstruction. It represents "Ultimate truth". It is said that 18,027 years have passed since the birth of Tonpa Shenrab. During Tonpa Shenrab's time, shenlo system is used to count the years. One shenlo was equal to our 100 years. So, when we say that Tonpa Shenrab lived for 82 years, it means he lived for 820 years.
It was possible around that time that people lived long, and were very big in size. Our fortune and moral came diminishing since then. Tonpa Shenrab's footprint, which could be seen in Kongpo is the proof of his size.

Tonpa Shenrab has a Yungdrung Chagshing in his hand. Two swastikas at the end of a feet-long wood, swastikas represent the Sutra and Tantra teaching. Chag means breaking or destruction, therefore the destruction of all mental afflictions, and shing, the wood which is straight represent Dzogchen teaching, leading us straight to enlightenment.
Tibetans have a word "Nangpa" which literally means insider, and sometime people relate this to Buddhist follower only. Question comes whether Bon follower are nangpa or not. Nangpa is defined as those who believe in realizing the inner self through proper study of Sutra and Tantra to achieve understanding of the Two Truth.  As Bon teaching also believe in the same thing, we can very much say that Bonpos are "nangpa".

Since the assassination of Zhangshung king by Trisong Deutsen's army, Bon follower in Tibet fled Tibet. Many Bonpos fled Tibet, many Sutra masters or monks fled to Mongolia, and many Tanra practitioners fled to Nepal and India. The Bonpo master Nangchenlopa, although a highly accomplished Dzogchen master, was very angry that he retaliated with his magical power. His anger was so great at that time that it was pacified only after his meeting with Tapiritsa.
Both Bon and Buddhism suffered great downfall since 9th century to early 13th century. This period was termed as dark period of Tibetan history.

The religious situation deteriorated to such an extent that there was no one to give monks' vow, Gelong dhompa. Lachen Gongpa Rabsel, a Buddhist monk from Amdo received the Dhompa from Sogton Trimpar Tsultrim, a Mongolian Bonpo. Sogton advised Gonpa Rabsel that this is a Bonpo Dhompa, so you should use a blue color in your rob. That is why today we see blue lining in Buddhist monks rob.
Now, why blue color. Tonpa shenrab has adopted blue as sacred color. It was said that when he came to Tibet, he was in blue dress. Blue represent sky, bodily it symbolizes eternal and unchanging; in speech, it symbolizes uninterrupted; in mind, it symbolizes vastness and emptiness. Generally, in Tibetan society it is said "Bonpo ngonpo togo ngonpo jyon" meaning Bonpo in blue attire came. In this Tibetan sentence there are nine naro [o vowel of Tibetan language]. And this is said to represent the "Nine ways of Bon" taught by Tonpa Shenrab.

Tonpa Shenrab taught the teaching through "Nine ways of Bon", known as thegpa rimgui Bon. He did not teach Sutra, Tantra, and Dzongchen from the beginning. Considering the different intellectual capacity of the people, Tonpa Shenrab adopted this nine ways of Bon to transmit the teaching. First thing that Tonpa Shenrab taught was mo, the art of divination, followed by tsi, astrology; to, ritual; and men, medicine. When a person is sick, divination and astrological readings are done to know the cause of the sickness, accordingly rituals and medicines are prescribed to cure the sick person. This is something understandable to any person, and appreciated by all. What happens when all these fails to cure the person, then comes the importance of mind. How to deal with this sickness, and understanding its cause? This will convince the people and lead them to study and practice Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen.
In Sutra, we come to see the vision as mind. In Tantra, through chorim, generating stage; and zogrim, completion stage, deities are created by mind. Dzogchen is the amalgamation of Sutra and Tantra. Do-ngag zung drel.

About Guru Padma Sambhawa: Tibetan name for Padmasambava is Pema Jungne, which means lotus born. And the Tibetan says that the Guru was born out of a lotus flower. This may be alright when talking at the level of belief and reverence to ones belief, but scholars or researcher cannot take this as true for someone to be born out of lotus. And the Tunhuang manuscript, the oldest written record found on Tibet does not mention anything about the existence of a great influential teacher like Guru Rinpoche from India.
According to Bonpo scholars, Padmasambava is Padmathongdrol. He was one of the twin sons of Drenpa Namkha and Woden Barma of Zahor, other son being Tsewang Rigzin. Padmathongdrol played great role in amalgamating the teaching of Bon and Buddhism. He was revered highly; Bonpos who strictly followed his teaching came to be known as Bon-sarma, the New Bon.

Jerinpoche, [Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen] was born in Gyarong in 1356. He revived Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen teaching of Yungdrung Bon from the verge of extinction. Therefore, he is revered greatly as the second Buddha or the Tonpa.
Yeru monastery was a large Bon monastery from where Jerinpoche graduated. This monastery was so big that it is said that there were four gongs in four different directions to call the monks for assembly. Some says, monks come riding horse to attend the assembly. But unfortunately, when Jerinpoche was away to his home town Gyarong, this great monastery was destroyed in a day by a great flood. Sidpai Gyalmo, the protector deity of Bon is said to have visited Jerinpoche, and informed that, the moral and spiritual fortune of the people have fallen so low that she could not save the monastery from this natural calamity. She further advised Jerinpoche to return to Central Tibet and start teaching. This Jerinphoche did and he established Menri monastery, later Yungdrungling monastery came up near Lhasa.

Today, there are some 360 Bonpo monasteries in Tibet. In terms of followers in Tibet, Bonpos are ranked third. First being Geluk; second Nyingma; fourth Kagyu; and fifth Sakyapa.
How the Dzogchen teaching spread to Europe and the West. It was first in UK, when Yongzin Rinpoche built a small stupa and taught few Englishmen. Later, in 1987 or 88, Yongzin Rinpoche visited LA, and did the teaching. It is said the Yongzin Rinpoche faced great difficulty initially, it had been a difficult start; people are not aware and not ready for the teaching. Some teachings ended up talking only about Yak and other Tibetan things. But Rinpoche's visit did produced result later on.

In 1991 or 1992, young master like Tenzin Wangyal came and spread the teaching in America. Nyima woser and Chongtrul followed thereafter. Today, we are here discussing the brief history of evolution of Bon, its development and the current situation.  

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Geshe Palden Gyatso in San Francisco

September 14, 2012 Friday


San Francisco: A renowned former political prisoners and Tibet activist, Ven Palden Gyatso visited San Francisco East bay area today, and gave talk to the Tibetans in the area at the community hall. The regional Tibetan Youth Congress organized the meeting. The veteran Palden despite being in his 80s was full of energy and humor. He spoke on his life, how the communist Chinese invaded Tibet; how he was imprisoned; and how his unrelenting attitude to bend before the dictates of the foreign rulers got him into trouble and how his prison term accumulated to 33 years. He spoke about the prison life and incident involving many patriots who gave their lives for Tibet. Many in the audience were drawn to tears, and yet the Geshe was full of energy and dynamism.

Palden Gyatso, born in 1932, was imprisoned during 1959 uprising against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He underwent numerous hardship and torture in the prison. He was forced to claim loyalty to the Chinese regime and condemn the Tibetan society, but the monk stood firm that Tibet is an independent nation. His book “Fire under the snow” has been translated in more than 28 languages. Palden Gyatso is the symbol of Tibetan equanimity, yet resilient and firm in our conviction that Tibetans will fight to the last man to regain our rightful freedom and justice. He is the living testimony to the fact that so called "Socialist Paradise" in Tibet is just a blatent lie the Chinese communist leadership concocted to justify their occupation of Tibet. 
More……

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Tenshug for His Holiness the Dalai Lama

༄༅།།  །།༧གོང་ས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ལ་བོད་མི་ཡོངས་ནས་བརྟན་བཞུགས་འབུལ་འཆར།
 

འདི་ལོའི་སྤྱི་ཟླ་ ༩ ཚེས་ ༢༥ ནས་ ༢༨ བར་བཞུགས་སྒར་རྡ་རམ་ས་ལར་རྒྱལ་བཅེས་བོད་མི་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་དམིགས་བསལ་ཚོགས་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཚུགས་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། ཚོགས་ཆེན་འདི་ནི་ད་ལྟ་བོད་ནང་ཛ་དྲག་གནས་ཚུལ་གང་མང་འགྲོ་གི་ཡོད་ནའང་། རྒྱ་ནག་སྲིད་གཞུང་ནས་མུ་མཐུད་སྡུག་རྩུབ་མནར་གཅོད་ཁོ་ན་ལས་དཀའ་རྙོག་སེལ་ཐབས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་མེད་ན། དེ་ལ་བོད་མི་ཡོངས་ནས་མདོང་ལེན་ག་འདྲ་བྱས་དགོས་མིན་བགྲོས་བསྡུར་བྱ་རྒྱུ་དེ་གཙོ་བོ་ཡིན་འདུག ཚོགས་ཆེན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བོད་མི་ཡོངས་ནས་༧སྐྱབས་མགོན་རིན་པོ་མཆོག་ལ་བརྟན་བཞུགས་འབུལ་འཆར་ཡིན་འདུག་ན། བརྟན་བཞུགས་སྨོན་ལམ་ཞལ་འདོན་འདི་བཞིན་བོད་མི་ཡོད་དོ་ཅོག་ནས་གང་མང་བཟླས་ནས་ས་གནས་བོད་མི་ལས་ཁུངས་སམ་ཚོགས་པ་ལ་འདི་ཟླའི་ཚེས་ ༢༠ ནང་ཚུད་སྙན་སེང་ཞུ་དགོས་པ་གསལ་བརྡ་མ་སྐུལ་དྭང་བླངས་སོ།། །།



A Special General Meeting of Tibetan Community in exile will be held in Dharamsala from 25th to 28th September 2012. This special meeting is to discuss the critical situation in Tibet, and the total disdainful and continued Chinese repression in Tibet, and to come up with a concrete plan to address the situation. The community will also offer a Tenshug [long life] prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Uploaded here is the Tenshug prayers, Tibetan in and outside Tibet, and the supporters are requested to recite this prayer and report the number of recitations to the nearest Tibetan community office or association.


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Tibetan Language Teachers' Conference

བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་བདག་གཅེས།
བྱང་ཨ་རིའི་བོད་རིགས་སློབ་གྲྭའི་བོད་དགེ་ལྷན་འཛོམས་ཚོགས་འདུ་ཐེངས་དང་པོ། ༢༠༡༢ སྤྱི་ཟླ་ ༨ ཚེས་གྲངས་ ༢༥ དང་ ༢༥ ཉིན་གཉིས་རིང་བསྐྱངས།

Tibetan Language Teachers' Conference cum Workshop Held in San Francisco Bay Area, California. August 26, 2012 Sunday


San Francisco Bay Area: The First North American Tibetan Language Teachers' Conference organized by Tibetan Association of North California (TANC) from August 25 to 26, 2012 at the community hall concluded successfully with a great sense of unity and fulfillment among the participants. The conference was organized with a view to discuss the hope and challenges of imparting Tibetan language and culture to the youngsters, and to find a central unified system of teaching Tibetan language in the region. The conference was made possible through the sponsorship of Walter & Elise Hass Fund.

Chief guests of the conference were Mr. Tashi Namgyal, Tibetan Parliament member of the reigon; Mr. Tsewang Phuntsok, Representative from the Office of Tibet, New York; and Mr. Tenzin Namgyal Tethong, Ex Kalon Tripa of Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala. Frances from the Walter & Elise Hass Fund also attended the opening ceremony. There were Professors and lecturers from American universities, and educators and teachers from Tibetan schools in North America. Many observers and parents also participated in the conference. Mr. Tenzin Tsedup, Chairman of the Tibetan Association greeted and welcomed the guests and the participants. In his opening speech he spoke on the importance of preserving and promoting Tibetan language, and to discuss ways and means to practically teach the language to our youngsters in this new environment.

The Chief guests Kazur Tethong la and Chitue Tashi Namgyal la welcomed the initiative, and requested the participants to take full use of this platform to establish a practical and effective curriculum to benefit our youngsters to enable them to bloom in American society with strong solid Tibetan root and background. Gen Ugyen la of Tibetan School in Bay Area coordinated and moderated the proceedings.
On the first day, Tibetan professors and lecturers in American universities made presentations and spoke on the effective way of teaching ones native language along with the mainstream language. They are: Nangsel Tenzin Norbu la from Columbia University, Tseten Chojor la from Virginia University, Tsering Wangchuk la from San Francisco University, and Tenzin Dorjee la from Fullerton University. Leslie Hite from Immersion; and Myrna Shadley from First-Five spoke on the importance of educating the child in bilingual atmosphere, and how most of the immigrants have been coping and making success in this multi-lingual, multi-cultural nation.


On the second day, Karma Ngodup la of Chicago University gave an extensive presentation on school curriculum, and how best to adopt modern technology in teaching the language to the children. Phurbu Thakchoe la of Tibetan school in Bay Area talked on the current situation and challenges of teaching the language in foreign environment. Teacher participants from some eight regions talked of their experience of teaching the language, and interacted with the resource persons and sought their guidance.  Later, the participants discussed the language teaching issue in two groups and submitted their respective resolutions to the committee.
Essence of the discussion and the workshop have made the participants realize that it is not the teaching of the language that is important, more than the teaching, it is how we could arouse the interest of our youngsters in learning the language. One of the resource persons remarked, "It is not teach, teach, teach, it is care, care, and care". It is only through proper care that we could get our children learn our culture, and the most important factor is the parents' participation and their enthusiasm. We cannot ignite the interest of our children in our culture if the parent themselves are not interested in it. One of the teachers said, "Sad thing is there are Tibetans who take pride in not being good in Tibetan language, and for forgetting the language. These parents should think twice before they make such remark."

The participants were unanimous in the decision that interest of the child should be taken priority, language should be taught interestingly using play method, storytelling, Tibetan folk stories, fun reading, song and dance etc. A ten-point resolution was drafted and read before the participants and the audience at the end by Tsewang Phuntsok la of Office of Tibet.
Gist of the resolution is: Establishment of uniform curriculum for each language class or grades and the committee responsible for creating the text books; Use of Uchen in early stage to make it more contextual learning; Central language teaching guidance website and annual language teacher workshop by Office of Tibet, New York; Implementation of resolutions made at Michigan conference in 2008; Next language conference to be organized by New York and New Jersey Tibetan Association. For detail resolution, please visit here http://tancconference2012.weebly.com


The conference was a great success, and many expressed satisfaction for being able to participate and get guidance in this important task of preserving and promoting our language and culture. Some participant suggested that there should be language class for adult Tibetans also. Participants have come from New York, New Jersey, Ithaca, Washington, Boston, Seattle, Oregon, New Mexico and San Francisco. Tibetan Association's hall remained fully packed for two days during the conference cum workshop, it gave the Tibetan scholars, teachers, and the general public a strong sense of oneness and renewed energy and fervor to preserve and promote this sacred ancient bond of our unity and strength, Tibetan language and culture. 

Monday, August 20, 2012

བོད་རང་བཙན་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་ལས་འགུལ།

༢༠༡༢ ཟླ་ ༨ ཚེས་ ༡༧ རེས་གཟའ་པ་སངས།
བོད་རང་བཙན་གྱི་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་ཡིག་ཆ་ངོ་བཤུས།
སེན་ཕེ་རན་སིས་ཀོ་མཚོ་ཁའི་ས་ཁུལ། (San Francisco Bay area) བོད་རང་བཙན་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་འགན་འཛིན་བསྟན་རྡོར་ལགས་དང་། བོད་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་ལྟེ་གནས་ཁང་གི་འགན་འཛིན་ལྷག་སྒྲོན་ལགས། ལས་བྱེད་བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་འཕེལ་ལགས་བཅས་བྱང་ཀེ་ལི་ཕོར་ནི་ཡར་བོད་དོན་གཏམ་བཤད་ཆེད་དུ་ཕེབས་ཡོད། ཁོང་རྣམས་པས་བོད་མི་དང་བོད་མི་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་བ་མི་གྲངས་བརྒྱ་ལྷག་ལ་ས་གནས་བོད་མིའི་སྤྱི་ཁང་ནང་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་སེམས་འགུལ་དང་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ཐེབ་རྒྱུའི་གཏམ་བཤད་གཏིང་ཟབ་གནང་ཡོད།
ཚོགས་གཙོ་བསྟན་རྡོར་ལགས་ནས་བརྗོད་གཞི་གལ་ཆེ་གཉིས་ཐོག་ཞུ་གི་ཡིན་གསུངས། དེ་ཡང་དང་པོ་ང་ཚོའི་འཐབ་རྩོད་ཀྱི་ཁ་ཕྱོགས་དེ་ག་འདྲ་ཞིག་ལ་འགྲོ་གི་ཡོད་མེད་དང་། ལྷག་དཀར་ལས་འགུལ་དེ་གལ་ཆེ་ཡིན་ལུགས་སྐོར་དེ་ཡིན་གསུངས། ཁོང་གི་གསུངས་བཤད་ཀྱི་ནང་དོན། ད་ལྟ་བོད་ནང་རྒྱལ་གཅེས་དཔའ་བོ་དཔའ་མོ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་རང་གི་སྐུ་ལུས་མེར་བསྲེགས་གནང་གི་ཡོད་པ་ནི། ཁོང་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དགོས་འདུན་ནི་རང་གིས་ལས་འགུལ་འདིའི་བརྒྱུད་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་ནང་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་དོ་སྣང་ཡོང་ཐབས་དང་རྒྱ་ནག་སྲིད་གཞུང་ལ་བོད་མིར་རང་དབང་སྤྲོད་དགོས་ཞེས་དྲན་སྐུལ་བྱ་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཡིན། ང་ཚོས་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་དཔོན་རིགས་ཁག་ལ་བོད་ལ་འགྲོ་བ་མིའི་ཐོབ་ཐང་དགོས་པ་དང་རྒྱ་ནག་སྲིད་གཞུང་ནས་༧སྐྱབས་མགོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་བཀའ་མོལ་བྱེད་དགོས་ཀྱི་འབོད་སྐུལ་ཞུས་པ་བཞིན། ཁོང་རྣམས་ནས་དེ་ལྟར་རྒྱ་ནག་དཔོན་རིགས་ལ་གསུངས་ཡོད་ནའང་། དོན་དངོས་ཁ་ཡོད་ལག་ཡོད་ཀྱི་གྲུབ་འབྲས་ཤིག་ཐོན་ཐུབ་པ་བྱུང་མེད་པ་གསལ་པོ་ཡིན། ཉེ་འཆར་ལས་འགུལ་གསར་པ་ཞིག་སྤེལ་མུས་ཡོད་པ་ནི་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་སྲིད་གཞུང་ཁག་ལ་བོད་དོན་གླེང་རྒྱུ་གཅིག་པུ་མ་ཡིན་པར་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་རྒྱུན་སྐྱོང་ལས་འགུལ་སྤེལ་ཐུབ་རྒྱུའི་ལྟེ་གནས་ཁང་ངམ་ཚོགས་ཆུང་ཞིག་གསར་འཛུགས་དགོས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་ལུགས་ཞུས་ཡོད། དེ་ཡང་ཨ་རིའི་གྲོས་ཚོགས་འཐུས་མི་སྐུ་ཞབས་ཕེརནཀི་ཝུལཕུ་དང་སྐུ་ཞབས་ཇིམ་གཉིས་ནས་ཨ་རིའི་བློན་ཆེན་ཧི་ལ་རི་ཀིལིན་ཀྲོན་ལ་ཡིག་ཐོག་བཀའ་མོལ་བྱུང་ཡོད། ཚོགས་ཆུང་འདིའི་བརྒྱུད་ང་ཚོས་རྒྱ་གཞུང་ལ་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་བཀའ་མོལ་གནང་དགོས་ཀྱི་གནོན་ཤུགས་བྱེད་ཐུབ་རྒྱུའི་སྡིངས་ཆ་ས་གཏན་ཞིག་ཆགས་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།
དོན་གནད་གལ་ཆེ་གཉིས་པ་དེ་ཚང་མས་མཁྱེན་གསལ་ལྟར་ལྷག་དཀར་གྱི་ལས་འགུལ་དེ་ཡིན། ལྷག་དཀར་གྱི་ལས་འགུལ་དེ་ནི་བོད་ནང་གི་མི་མང་གི་མ་སྐུལ་དྭང་བླངས་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་ཞིག་ཡིན། འདི་ནི་མི་རིགས་ཤིག་གིས་རང་གི་རིགས་གཞུང་དང་སྐད་ཡིག དེའི་གཟི་བརྫིད་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱོད་རྒྱུའི་ལས་འགུལ་ཞིག་ཡིན། འདི་ནི་འཚེ་བ་མེད་པའི་ལས་འགུལ་ཞིག་དང་། རྒྱ་གཞུང་གིས་བོད་མི་རྩ་མེད་བཟོ་རྒྱུའི་སྡུག་རྩུབ་གྱི་འཆར་ནག་དེ་ལ་མོས་མཐུན་མེད་པའི་རྣམ་འགྱུར་ཞིག་ཀྱང་ཡིན། ༢༠༠༨ ནས་འགོ་བཙུགས་ནས་ལྷག་དཀར་ལས་འགུལ་དེ་བོད་དང་བཙན་བྱོལ་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཁག་ལ་སྲུང་རྩིས་དོན་མཚུངས་ཡག་པོ་བྱས་ཡོད། ཚང་མས་ད་རུང་ཡིན་ནའང་མུ་མཐུད་འབད་རྩོན་ལྷག་བློ་སྐྱེད་དེ་སྲུང་རྩིས་གནང་གལ་ཆེ། དེ་མི་མང་ཉུང་གི་སྐད་ཆ་མ་ཡིན་པར། ཡུན་རིང་རྒྱུན་སྐྱོང་མུ་མཐུད་བྱེད་དགོས་པ་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་ནས་གལ་ཆེ་ཡིན་གསུངས།
བོད་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་ལྟེ་གནས་ཁང་གི་འགན་འཛིན་ལྷག་སྒྲོན་བཀྲས་མཐོང་ལགས་ནས་གསུངས་གསལ། དེང་དུས་ཀྱི་འཕྲུལ་ཆས་ནི་གསར་བརྗེ་ཡི་ལྡེ་མིག་ཡིན། རྒྱ་ནག་སྲིད་གཞུང་ནས་རྒྱ་ནག་མི་མང་དྲག་གནོན་བྱ་རྒྱུ་དང་བོད་མུ་མཐུད་དབང་བསྒྱུར་བྱ་རྒྱུར་གསར་འགྱུར་གནས་ཚུལ་ཁག་གང་འགོག་ཐབས་བྱས་ཡོད་ནའང་། འཕྲུལ་ཆས་ཡར་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་གནས་ཚུལ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་ཕྱི་ལ་གྱར་འགྲོ་ཡི་ཡོད། དེང་སང་གི་དུས་ལ་གལ་ཏེ་མི་མང་ནས་རང་དབང་དགོས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་པ་ཐག་གཅོད་བྱས། དེའི་ཆེད་དུ་ལས་འགུལ་སྤེལ་ན། རིང་མིན་སྡུག་རྩུབ་ཅན་གྱི་སྲིད་གཞུང་དེ་མགོ་རྟིང་བསློག་ཐུབ་རྒྱུ་ཉག་གཅིག་རེད། རྒྱ་ནག་སྲིད་གཞུང་ནི་རང་གི་མི་མང་ལས་ཕམ་འགྲོ་ཡི་ཡོད། བོད་མི་ཚོའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་དང་ལྷག་བསམ་ཆེ་རུ་འགྲོ་ཡི་ཡོད། བོད་མི་ཚོ་ནི་འཇིག་སྣང་ལས་འགལ་ཏེ་འཐབ་རྩོད་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད། དེ་ཡིན་དུས་རྒྱ་དམར་པོའི་སྲིད་གཞུང་ནི་གང་མྱུར་འགྱེལ་འགྲོ་རྒྱུའི་དུས་ཚོད་དེ་བསླེབས་ཡོད།
བོད་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པས་ ༡༩༡༣ ལ་༧གོང་ས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་སྐུ་འཕྲེང་བཅུ་སུམ་པ་ཆེན་པོས་མཛད་པའི་བོད་རང་བཙན་གྱི་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བཤུས་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་དཔར་བསྐྲུན་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་དེ་འགྲེལ་བཤད་གནང་། ལྷག་སྒྲོན་ལགས་ཀྱིས་གསུངས་གསལ། རང་བཙན་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་ཀྱི་ཡིག་ཆ་འདི་ནི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཀྱི་ཡིག་ཆ་གཅིག་པོ་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཡིག་ཆ་གསོན་པོ་ང་ཚོའི་མ་འོངས་ཀྱི་མདུན་ལམ་ཡིན། ཡིག་ཆ་འདིའི་ནང་བོད་ནི་ཆོལ་ཁ་གསུམ། མདོ་སྟོད། མདོ་སྨད་དང་དབུས་གཙང་ལས་གྲུབ་པའི་ས་ཁུལ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་གསལ་པོ་འཁོད་ཡོད། ད་ལྟ་བོད་ནང་གནས་ཚུལ་ཛ་དྲག་པོ་ཆགས་བསྡད་ཡོད། ང་ཚོ་ལ་བོད་དོན་ལས་འགུལ་སྤེལ་རྒྱུའི་གོ་སྐབས་ཡང་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་ཛ་དྲག་ཆགས་ཡོད། གོ་སྐབས་འདི་ང་ཚོས་ཡག་པོ་བཟུང་ནས་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་དོ་སྣང་ཐོབ་རྒྱུ་དང་། རྒྱ་ནག་དཔོན་རིགས་ཁག་བགྲོས་མོལ་གྱི་སྡིངས་ཅོག་ཏུ་འབོད་ཐུབ་པ་བྱེད་དགོས།
བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་འཕེལ་ལགས་ནི་འགན་འཛིན་བསྟན་རྡོར་ལགས་ཀྱི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་ལ་ལྟར་ན་མི་སེམས་ཤུགས་ཆེན་པོ་དང་ད་ལྟ་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་མ་དངུལ་བསྡུ་རུབ་ཀྱི་འགན་འཁྱེར་གྱི་ཡོད་གསུངས། བློ་བཟང་ལགས་ནས་ཁོ་རང་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་ལས་འགུལ་དུ་ཇི་ལྟར་བཞུགས་པ་དང་། བོད་མི་མི་རེ་ངོ་རེ་ནས་སེམས་ཤུགས་ཀྱི་ནུས་པ་དེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་སྒྲིལ་དགོས་པ་གལ་ཆེ་ཡིན་ལུགས། ཚོགས་པའི་ལས་གཞིས་བོད་དོན་ཐོག་འབྲས་བུ་ཡག་པོ་དང་དོན་ལྡན་ཡོང་རྒྱུར་དཔལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ནུས་པ་དེ་གལ་ཆེ་ཡིན་གསུངས། འཆར་གསལ་བོད་ཆིག་སྟོང་ནས་ལོ་རེ་ཨ་སྒོར་ ༥༠༠ ཞལ་འདེབས་གནང་ཐུབ་ན་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་སྡོན་རྩིས་ལ་ཐུགས་ཕན་ཆེན་པོ་གསོས་ངེས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བརྗོད་གནང་། ཞལ་འདེབས་གནང་མཁན་ལ་ཚོགས་པ་ནས་ཕྱག་འཁྱེར་ཞིག་ཀྱང་གྲ་སྒྲིག་གནང་ཡོད་པ་གསལ་བཤད་གནང་།
ཁོང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གཏམ་བཤད་དག་མང་ཚོགས་ལ་སེམས་འགུལ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་ཚང་མས་དགའ་མོས་བློ་མཐུན་ཞེ་དྲག་གནང་ཡོད། བསྟན་རྡོར་ལགས་ནས་ནང་མི་རེར་བོད་རང་བཙན་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བཤུས་རེ་གནང་། བྱང་ཀེ་ལི་ཕོར་ནི་ཡའི་བོད་མི་ཚོགས་པའི་ཚོགས་གཙོ་ཚེ་གྲུབ་ལགས་ནས་ཁོང་རྣམས་པར་མི་མང་གི་ཚབ་ཞུས་ཏེ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ཞུས་པ་དང་། སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་འགན་འཛིན་དང་ཚོགས་མི་རྣམས་ལ་མཇལ་དར་ཕུལ།
མི་མང་མང་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་གཞོན་སྐྱེས་གསུངས་བཤད་པ་ཚོའི་སེམས་ཤུགས་དང་ཤེས་ཚད་ལ་དགའ་སྤོབས་དང་ཁོང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཧུར་བརྩོན་ལ་རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རངས་ཡོད་པ་ནང་ཁུལ་བཤད་རེ་གནང་སོང་། བསྟན་རྡོར་ལགས་དང་ལྷག་སྒྲོན་ལགས། བློ་བཟང་ལགས་གསུམ་ནས་གཞོན་སྐྱེས་ཚོ་རང་གི་རྒྱབ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་རང་དབང་གི་ལམ་ལ་འཇུག་རྒྱུའི་སེམས་འགུལ་ཐེབ་པ་བྱུང་སོང་བ་དང་། དེ་གར་ཕེབས་ཡོད་པའི་རྒན་གྲས་ཁག་གཅིག་གཞོན་སྐྱེས་ཚོའི་སེམས་ཤུགས་ལ་དགའ་མོས་ཆེན་པོས་ཐོག་གསུང་གསལ། གཞོན་སྐྱེས་ཚོས་རང་བཙན་གྱི་ཆེད་དུ་དཀའ་ངལ་ལ་ཞུམ་པ་མེད་པའི་སྤོབས་ཉམས་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་ཧུར་བརྩོན་འབད་བཞིན་པ་དེ་ཧ་ལས་པ་རེད། ཁོང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བྱ་བྱེད་དང་བྱས་རྗེས་ལ་བལྟས་ན། བོད་དོན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་དར་དེ་ལག་པ་གཏན་པོ་ཞིག་གི་ནང་ཡོད་པ་དང་རྒྱ་དམར་པོའི་སྲིད་གཞུང་གི་དུས་ཚོད་རྗོགས་མཚམས་སུ་ཡོད་པ་ཤེས་ཐུབ་ཅེས་ནང་ཁུལ་བཀའ་མོལ་གནང་རེ་གནང་བ་བྱུང་སོང་བའི་རྙན་ཐོ་མདོར་བསྡུས་སུ།། །།

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Students for Free Tibet Events in SF Bay Area

August 17, 2012 Friday



Tendor, Executive Director of SFT Speaking before the gathering
Richmond: Executive Director of Students for Free Tibet, Mr. Tendor, and Lhakdon la of Tibet Action Institute visited San Francisco Bay Area today, and delivered very inspiring and educative talks on Tibet issue to more than hundred Tibetans and Tibet supporters gathered at the Tibetan community hall in Richmond. Lobsang Choephel, a dedicated volunteer [as introduced by Tendor la] of SFT was also with them video recording the event.
Tendor la briefed and updated the gathering on two things: the direction of our struggle, and the importance of Lhakar movement. He said that the Tibetans in Tibet are giving up their lives in a hope that their act of sacrifice through self-immolation would ignite the attention of international community, and coerce Chinese government to free Tibet. Till now, we've requested the world leaders to urge the Chinese leader to respect human rights in Tibet, and talk with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Many of international leaders have done this. We have received lot of sympathy, but nothing concrete has been achieved. Now, we have adopted a new way - formation of "Multilateral Forum" to pressure Chinese government into action. "Good news is that Senator Frank Wolf and Senator M. Jim have already written to Hilary Clinton to this effect. If we could succeed in making this Forum work, our struggle is bound to achieve concrete result. So, we need to work on a way to ask the world leaders not only to speak on Tibet, but to take action also." He said.
Regarding Lhakar, Mr. Tendor said this is a grass-root movement that emitted from general populace of Tibet. It is a cultural movement by individuals and society to practice and to uphold the dignity of their cultural and language; It is non-violent, non-cooperation movement by the Tibetans against the Chinese government's insidious scheme to assimilate the Tibetans. Since its beginning in 2008, Lhakar movement has gained popularity and is being practiced throughout Tibet and Tibetan community in exile. We all must take this movement seriously, and participate accordingly. It is not a matter of numbers; it is to sustain the movement to achieve our common objectives.
Lhadon Tethong of Tibet Action Institute spoke on how best and effectively to bring the modern technology to support our struggle, and to protect our people in Tibet. Technology is a key to modern revolution. There is information blackout in China to keep the Chinese people repressed, and Tibet occupied. How much the Chinese government try to suppress the information, because of modern technology, information are soon out. When the people have decided to be free, and organize themselves and fight, it is a matter of time only. Chinese government is losing battle with its people, Tibetans are getting stronger. Our people have gone a way beyond fear. Chinese communist regime is bound to collapse soon.
SFT members have also brought a copy of the "Declaration of Independence" edict issued by His Holiness the !3th Dalai Lama in 1913. Lhadon Tethong said this is not just a historical document; this is a living document for our future. The document clearly shows that Tibet that we are talking about is the Tibet covering the three provinces: U-tsang, Amdo, and Kham regions. Situation is difficult right now, but at the same opportunity is also great, we must seize the opportunity to make our demand heard and bring the Chinese government to the negotiating table.
Lobsang Choephel, who was video recording the event was introduced by Tendor la as a very dedicated and sincere member. Lobsang la spoke about how he was inspired to work for SFT, and how each and every individual could make difference in our struggle. He explained about the fund raising activities of the SFT, and said how US$500/- per annum by 1000 individual could mitigate the financial burden of the SFT. "A certificate of acknowledgement will also be issued to the donor." He said.
The talks was well received by the audience, the assembly hall of the Tibetan community was packed with people. Some western supporters have also come to attend the gathering. Later Tendor la distributed a copy of the "Declaration of Independence" to each family in the region.
Mr. Tsedup, Chairman of Tibetan Association of North California thanked the speakers on behalf of the Tibetans in North California, and presented traditional scarves to the speakers and members of Student of Free Tibet.
Many people commented that it was indeed great to see the dedication of the young speakers, and their tireless effort in keeping our struggle alive. Tendor, Lhadon and Lobsang did a great job in inspiring the youngsters to follow their footstep to Tibet movement; elderly people were impressed and happy, and some commented "the banner of our struggle is in the right hand, these youngsters are really doing a great job. The days of the Chinese regime are limited."   


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Avatar's Pandora is Tibet


ཨ་ཝ་ཊར་གློག་བརྙན་ནང་གི་པན་ཌོ་ར་ལུང་པའི་བྱུར་ཉེས་དེ་བོད་ཀྱི་དངོས་ཡོད་གནས་ཚུལ་ཡིན།
Avatar's Pandora is Tibet, once a peaceful nation on the high plateau of Himalayan mountains. It was also destroyed by time and greed.

Seeing Avatar movie, I can't help thinking this is the exact replica of what has happened and is happening in Tibet. Pandora is Tibet, Na'Vi -- Tibetans, and Colonel Quaritch and his team- the People Liberation Army (PLA) of Communist China.

Tibet was a peaceful land situated to the West of China and North of India. A God-king [Dalai Lama] who abides by the Buddhist principle of non-violence and compassion ruled the land. The region was rich in nature, minerals and water resources. These resources were left almost unexploited by the natives because they lived by the needs not by greed. Prosperity and inner joy pervaded the land. When the world was busy with industrial revolutions, World Wars, and external material developments, Tibetan masters were busy studying the inner spiritual essence of all beings, promoting human value, atmosphere of peace and non-violence.

However, in 1950, driven by greed for the high ground of Tibet and its rich natural resources, Communist China invaded Tibet, they massacred some 1.2 million people, razed the Tibetan temples and monasteries, Tibet was thrown into the world of blazing hell. The PLA army did what the Colonel Quadric and his team did to the Navies.

But Tibet is a real life story. Tibetans are still suffering under the oppressive Chinese regime. Their leader, Dalai Lama is in exile, his non-violent and peaceful approach to restore the peaceful glory of Tibet has won him Nobel Peace Prize but not Tibet. He is tirelessly globetrotting appealing the international community to support peace and freedom in Tibet.

Today, with the completion of railway lines into Tibet, China is all out in stripping the mountains and damming the rivers of Tibet with impunity.

I don't know if James Cameron had Tibet in mind while making Avatar, but Pandora and Navi represent the Tibetan situation. Avatar is set as some occurrence in the coming centuries in a small planet called Pandora. We don't need to look far; we have a real Pandora right here in the heart of Asia, Tibet.

If the people who had seen Avatar want to see a real Pandora, they should go to Tibet and save the land.
http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/8394
Avatar movie review: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/802848/reviews/

Saturday, August 11, 2012

བྱང་ཀེ་ལི་ཕོར་ནིཡ་བོད་མི་ཚོས་མར་མེ་ཁྲོམ་སྐོར་བྱས་པ།

Tibetan in North California observes candlelight vigil August 8, 2012 Wednesday Berkeley: Tibetans and Tibet supporters gathered near Berkeley BART Station this evening to observe candlelight vigil to protest the Chinese government for its continued repression in Tibet. Pictures and the profiles of the 46 people who committed self-immolation to protest Chinese occupation of Tibet were displayed at the venue. President of the Tibetan Association of North California briefly spoke on the critical situation in Tibet. He said this gathering is in conjunction with the completion of one-year by the Lobsang Sangay's cabinet in Dharamsala, which is being celebrated and observed throughout the Tibetan community in and outside Tibet.
TANC President Mr. Tsedup briefing the gathering at Berkeley Members of Tibetan Youth Congress and Bay Area Friends of Tibet, and supporters joined to read the profiles of the martyrs, and pay respected to them. People sang Tibetan national anthem, and marched around the Berkeley Shuttuck avenues reciting Jangchub semchok prayer [generation of Boddhisatva's heart] carrying candles, Tibetan flags and slogan banners.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Tibetans in North California Celebrates His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Birthday

July 7, 2012 Saturday

San Francisco: Tibetans in San Francisco Bay Area gathered in great numbers at Berkeley Marina Park to celebrate the 77th Birth Anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Tibetan Association of North California organized the event with three main events. Official function was conducted on the eve of 6th July at John F Kennedy High School Hall in Richmond. The next day, an open picnic and event show was organized at the Marina Park. In the evening, cultural and dance show was conducted at JFK High school hall. Many Tibet supporters and friends had come to show their solidarity and to celebrate the day with the Tibetans. A big Tibetan tent was erected, where people offered traditional Tibetan scarf, Khata, to the portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the altar. The monks from Nechung, Gyuto, and Bon Gyalshen led the prayers and people prayed fervently for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Traditional Tibetan dances, and purification rite, sangsol was conducted. People came in traditional Tibetan attires, costumes were colorful and impressive. Californians visiting the Park on the day had a very rare glimpse of living and vibrant culture of Tibet. Tibetans also basked in the California sun in typical Tibetan picnic style enjoying the vibrant energy of their identity and culture. Gorshe, a big circular Tibetan dance was performed.

In his speech, Mr. Tsedup, Chairman of the Association reminded the people of the messages of His Holiness the Dalai and urged the people to live by His teaching of peace, non-violence and compassionate society. Remembrance and tribute to the Tibetans martyrs in Tibet was paid, and people prayed and reiterated their firm commitment to the Tibetan struggle for peace and justice. Richmond Mayor and other dignitaries expressed their good wishes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and showed their support to the Tibetan aspiration for freedom and peace in their homeland Tibet.

According to an early settler, there were only about 40 odd Tibetans in San Francisco Bay Area in early 1990s. The California weather and the friendly environment had the population grow. Many shifted from other areas; new immigrants also tend to prefer the region to start a new life. In this way, today there are around 2000+ Tibetans in San Francisco Bay Area. The Birthday picnic gathering at Marina Park also gave the Tibetans a good opportunity to take some time out of their busy California lives to meet and talk with their fellow countrymen, and rejoice in their culture.   

Monday, June 25, 2012

What to see in a Mandala


བེད་གཤེགས་རིགས་ལྔ་དང་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་གནས།
དཀྱིལ་ལ་སྣང་མཐའ་པདྨ་དཀར། ཆགས་པའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
ཤར་ལ་མི་སྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྔོན། ཞེ་སྡང་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
ལྷོ་རུ་རིན་འབྱུང་ནོར་བུ་གསེར། ང་རྒྱལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
ནུབ་ཏུ་རྣམ་སྣང་འཁོར་ལོ་དམར། གཏི་མུག་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
བྱང་ལ་དོན་གྲུབ་རལ་གྲི་ལྗང་། ཕྲག་དོག་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།

Debarshegpa is usually translated as; the one who has gone or arrived at eternal bliss; the enlightenment. Debarshegpa Nga; the five families of Buddhas representing the victorious ones; Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghashiddhi.

In the Mandala of Chenrizig; Avaloketeshvara, we find this Gyalwa-rig-nga, the families of five Buddha in the middle of the Mandala. Above Tibetan verses tells you how these five Buddhas assume their respective place in the Manadala; how they are represented, and power of their blessing.

In the core center is Nangwa-thaye; the Amitabha, represented by a white Lotus, deliverence from the power of attachment. In the East is Mikyopa; the Akshobaya, represented by a blue Vajra, release from the negative power of pride and arrogance. In the South is Rinchen Jungden; the Ratnasambhava represented by a wish-fulfilling jewel in yellow color, eliminating the dark power of hatred and anger. In the west is Nam-nang; the Vairocana, represented by red wheel, deliverence from ignorance. In the north is Dhondup; the Amogasiddhi, represented by green dagger, cutting the root cause of jealousy or envy.

Above is how the Buddhas occupy their respective place in Mandala according to Tibetan Buddhism. In Japan, it is said that the Vairocana occupy the center seating. It may be little different in  other tradition also. The important point is  that the practitioners or devotees need to grasp the essential significance of this seating and the representation, and immerse themselves into deep meditational contemplation to receive the blessing of the Buddhas to cleanse and to eliminate the stain of nyonmong (five mental delusions) from their mind and heart. 
 

©TGARYA