Kalon Pema Chinjor in San Francisco

February 24, 2013 Sunday

དབུས་བོད་མིའི་བཙན་བྱོལ་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་རིག་བཀའ་བློན་སྐུ་ངོ་པདྨ་ཆོས་འབྱོར་ལགས་ཨ་རི་སན་ཕེ་རན་སི་ཀོ་ལ་ཆེད་ཕེབས་ཀྱིས་ས་གནས་མི་མང་ལ་ད་ལྟ་བོད་ནང་གི་ཛ་དྲག་གནས་སྟངས་དང་། བཙན་བྱོལ་བོད་མིའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཀྱི་ལས་གཞི་ལས་འཆར། ད་བར་གྱི་ལས་བསྡོམས་སྙིང་བསྡུས་དང་བཅས་བཀའ་སློབ་ཟབ་རྒྱས་བསྩལ་གནང་བ།

San Francisco: Kalon Pema Chinjor visited San Francisco bay area today and addressed the Tibetan people at the Community hall in Richmond. He said that the visit was a part of effort by the Kashag [Tibetan cabinet] to reach the general public and Tibet supporters abroad. He said the Central Tibetan Administration stands for pure and genuine democracy, and in this democracy people plays a very important role, therefore, the Kashag’s effort to reach the people.

 

He talked about the on-going self immolation in Tibet. Since 2009, 104 people from three provinces of Tibet have burnt themselves to protest the brutal Chinese regime, and called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. Most of the self immolators are young people brought up under the Chinese occupation. Chinese government has claimed that they have turned Tibet into a socialist paradise and that the Tibetan people are happy under their rule. But these self immolations by the young people convey the real situation in Tibet. Chinese government should accept the reality and resolve the Tibetan issue.

Tibetans in Tibet are not happy under the Chinese rule; this self immolation spat is a clear message to the world and to the Chinese government. We should all respect their sacrifice, and do our best to inform and reach their message to the international community. People in Tibet are relying heavily on Tibetan community abroad who are living in a free world. We should not let their sacrifice go astray.

 

Language is an important part of any culture. Tibetan language is the important link that connects the Tibetan people in unity; it is our identity and our cultural strength. When the Chinese government has failed to disintegrate the Tibetan unity, they are now trying to root out this important link, Tibetan language. Their policy is to destroy the language; this would lessen the cultural and religious strength, thus destroying the Tibetan identity.

Kalon also talked about how under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the exile-Tibetan are able to have a vibrant democratic setups. In order to make this democratic system strong and sustainable, Tibetans around the world should take active participation in it. In the next the election of Chitue, we should have many young and educated people aspiring to serve in our parliament, and in the election of Sikyong we should have number of Lobsang Senge and Dikyi Choyang to lead our struggle.

བྱང་ཀེ་ལི་ཕཱོར་ནི་ཡ་བོད་མི་སྤྱིན་མཐུན་ཚོགས་པའི་རྒྱུན་ལས་དང་མཉམ་དུ་འདྲ་པར།

After the talk, the Kalon accepted questions from the audience, and there was an active discussion on number of issues relating to Tibetan situation, and the administration of Central Tibetan Administration. Answering a question related to Shugden, Kalon warned the Tibetan people of the Chinese government’s effort to create dissension among the Tibetans through the use of Shugdhen followers. People expressed happiness over the Kalon’s visit and thanked him for clarifying on many issues, and showed their unwavering support to the Kashag of Central Tibetan dministration.                              


 

Losar Decoration and Derkha

ལོ་གསར་སྡེར་ཁ་མདོར་བསྡུས་གླེང་བ།

During Losar, altars in every Tibetan home are bountifully decorated with offerings. It is a Tibetan way of saying thanks to the nature, yulha and shidag for the good things they had in the passing year, and seeking blessing for the New Year.  Let me give a brief description of what is commonly found at the altar during the Losar celebration. They are: Derkha, Chemar / Chang-phuth, Bo, Yon-chab, Lug-go, and Lo-phuth.

Choeshom (མཆོད་གཤོམ།) is the altar where the Buddhas, gods, goddesses and deities dwell. It is also known by thongdrol chenmo (མཐོང་གྲོལ་ཆེན་མོ); meaning the great one that will liberate you on seeing it, and kunga rawa (ཀུན་དགའ་རྭ་བ།); meaning the great circle of happiness. On this Choehom, the choezes (མཆོད་རྫས།) are offered and displayed.

Derkha (སྡེར་ཁ།) is a pile of Khase (Tibetan cookies in different, mainly elongated shapes) offerings with other eatables. Der means plate; and Kha means mouth. So, it is a big plate in which lot of eatables are presented. Bongbu Achok literally means donkey’s ear. Why it is called donkey’s ear, nothing specific could be found; it may be because of its physical shape. Usually it is about one-feet in length and 5 inches wide. As it is soaked and prepared in hot boiling oil, it comes with an average height of 3 to 4 inches. It is sturdy and hard.

This Bongbu Achok is the pillar of the Derkha. Number of Achok for Derkha could be eight, ten, twelve and so on in even number. It can also assume odd numbers, when the base is made of three Achoks. Derkha is composed of six different khases. Achok, Nyashag, Tashi mugdhung, Kongche, Bolug khorlo, and Pinpin dhog dhog. All these are khase of different physical forms. Construction of Derkha is done to assume the shape of Tashi Taggye (the eight auspicious sign) in union. While official and monastic derkha are mostly constructed with its mouth facing downward, private home have the derkha with its mouth facing up. It is said that the private Derkhas are faced up so that various delicacies and sweats could be put inside the mouth of Achoks, while this is not done in official or formal Derkha.

It is also said that in order to have a harmony in the society, public authorities and public should have good communication. To indicate good communication and proper listening to each other, authorities’ derkha has the face down; and public derkha facing up, forming proper union facing each other.

Pic: Chemar in Bo [at Tibetan Association of Northerna California (TANC) Altar, 2013]

There is other theory as to why Achoks at Derkha are facing down. In Tibetan society, usually all the utensils, bowls, cups and containers are kept face down. If you keep any empty container facing up after washing it, you will be admonished to keep it facing down. This is because Tibet is a land of deities and spirits or ghost. Deities are propitiated often to subdue the malignant ghostly spirit harming the human beings. When the deities pursue the malignant ghost, the later often try to hide inside the utensils and containers. As the deities are sacred and clean, they can’t go inside the utensils and containers used by human beings. So, the ghost escapes from being caught by the deities. Therefore, all empty utensils and containers in Tibet are kept facing down. Official Derkha’s Achoks, which are empty, are kept faced down. Private home have their Achoks facing up because it is filled with other delicacies and sweets.

_______________________________________________________
Reference:
•          Festival of Tibet, edited by Kalsang Khedup and Chung Tsering, Dept. of Education, CTA
•          Bod-rgya tsigs mZod chenmo, dictionary
•          Legend of Amche Raru by TG Arya

Losar; The Tibetan New Year

གནམ་ལོ་གསར་ཚེས་ལ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བེད་ལེགས་ཞུ།

ལོ་གསར་ཟེར་ན་ག་རེ་རེད།  དེ་ལོ་གསར་པ་དང་ལོ་ཏོག་གསར་པ་ཞེས་བོད་པ་དང་ཧི་ལ་ཡ་རི་རྒྱུད་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་དུས་ཆེན་གལ་ཆེ་ཞིག་ཡིན།  ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་སྐད་ཡིག་ནང་ New Year ཞེས་གསར་པ་ལོ་ལབ་ཀྱི་ཡོད་འདུག་ནའང་། བོད་སྐད་ནང་ལོ་གསར་ Year New ལབ་ཀྱི་ཡོད། དེ་ཡང་ལོ་དེ་གསར་པ་ཡིན་དགོས་པ་ལས་གསར་པ་ལོ་ཡིན་དགོས་པ་མ་ཡིན་ཟེར། གསར་པ་གང་ཡང་ཡིན་སྲིད། དུག་ལོག་གསར་པ། དེབ་གསར་པ། གྲོགས་པོ་གསར་པ་སོགས་ཡོད། ལོ་དེ་བརྗོད་གཞི་ཡིན་པའི་ཆ་ནས་སྔོན་ལ་སླེབ་དགོས་པ་དང་། གསར་པ་དེས་བརྗོད་གཞིིའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས་ཡིན་པའི་ཆ་ནས་རྗེས་སུ་ཡོང་དགོས་ལ་སོང་ Year New དང་ལོ་གསར་ཡིན།

What is Losar? It is an important festival of Tibetans and people living along the Himalayan ranges to celebrate New Year or the New Harvest. Lo in Tibetan means Year; and Sar means New; therefore, Year New. Now, why Year New and not New Year as used commonly?  Tibetan language contends that it is the Year that is New, so the Year New (Lo-sar). New cannot be Year only, it can be anything; new dress, new book, new friends etc. As the Year that is subject of the topic, it should come first, and new being an adjective and ornamental to the subject should come later, therefore, Lo-sar; Year New.

ལོ་ནི་བོད་སྐད་ནང་ལོ་ཏོག་ལའང་གོ་གི་ཡོད། ལོ་གསར་ནི་ལོ་ཏོག་གི་ལོ་འགོ་གསར་པ་ལ་གོ་ཐུབ། འདི་ནི་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་དང་ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་མང་པོའི་རིགས་གཞུང་ནང་ལོ་ཏོག་གི་མཇུག་དང་འགོ་གཉིས་དེ་དུས་ཆེན་གལ་ཆེ་ལ་བརྩིས་ཏེ་སྲུང་རྩིས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད་པ་དང་འདྲ་པོ་ཡིན། དེ་ནི་འབྱུང་བ་དང་། ལྷ་སྲུང་མ་དང་གཞི་བདག་རྣམས་ལ་འདས་ལོར་ལོ་ཏོག་ཡག་པོ་གནང་བར་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་དང་། མ་འོངས་ལོ་གསར་པ་ལའང་ལོ་ཏོག་ཡག་པོ་ཡོང་རྒྱུར་འབོད་སྐུལ་དང་བྱིན་རླབས་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། བོད་པའི་ལོ་གསར་གི་མཆོད་གཤོམ་ལ་ལོ་ཕུད་དམ་ལྗང་ཕུད་འབུལ་སྲོལ་ནི་དེ་ལྟར་མཚོན་གྱི་ཡོད། འདིར་ལོ་ཟེར་ན་ལོ་ཏོག་དང་ཕུད་ཟེར་དང་པོ་ལ་གོ་གི་ཡོད། ལོའི་ལོ་ཏོག་དང་པོ་གྲོའི་ཉེ་མ་ལྗང་ཐིང་ངེར་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ཕུད་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་དུ་མཆོད་པར་ཕུལ་བ་དེ་ལོ་ཏོག་ཡག་པོ་ཡོང་རྒྱུའི་སྨོན་ལམ་དང་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་མཚོན་བྱེད་ཡིན་པར་སེམས།

Lo in Tibetan may also means harvest. It comes from the word ‘Lotok’. Here the Losar means the New Harvest. This is in conjunction with many eastern and western cultures, where the end and beginning of harvest is celebrated with great festivities. It is to thank the nature, gods and deities for bestowing a good harvest, and praying and seeking their blessing for a bountiful harvest in the coming year. Tibetan Lo-phuth, also called Jang-phuth, offered at the altar is symbolic of this fact. Lo here means Harvest as well as Year; Phuth means, the first offering. Young shoot of wheat grass, symbol of healthy harvest is offered at the altar to pray for good harvest.      

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.   

 

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.

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.

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 1^st 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.