Goodbye, Bodha

I love buildings. I don't know if this is something weird about me or if lots of people feel this way & just don't talk about it much. Maybe I should have been an architect, but I don't think I could handle all the math. Anyway, I don't actually want to design buildings, I just want to relate to the ones that are already here.

Sometimes when I'm riding in a taxi in New York, usually to or from some airport or other, I suddenly get a sense of seeing everything for the first time. I look at all the strange structures the inhabitants of this planet have built, especially in lower Manhattan, my favorite part of the city, architecturally, because it has so many different shapes & styles crowded into one small area. There's a new building going up now that looks kind of like someone picked it up & twisted it & then put it back down. A lot of people hate it but I think it's great because there's nothing else like it (except maybe in Dubai, which has the weirdest architecture on Earth). City Hall is another great shape, with its statue-encrusted towers & gold something-or-other on top.

I used to have a big relationship with the World Trade Center, which I could see from the roof garden of my late lamented apartment. I thought of the twin towers as Padmasambhava & Yeshé Tsogyel & it always seemed as though they were presiding over New York in some incomprehensibly benevolent way. That's all gone now.

But my favorite building in the whole world is the Great Chörten in Bodha.  When I first saw it, in 1995, I called it 'a big happy cake'. I like the way it just plopped down & a ring of smaller buildings grew up around it, & then other roads like spokes radiating out from it with more buildings. I know there are other chörtens but this is the only one I care about. I like the way it's so big & generous - it even lets you walk on it, on several different levels of its white layers. Wherever you go its eyes are watching - in a pleasant way, I feel, as if it really wants you to be happy.

It's certainly happy. You can tell that by the way it manifests strings of colored flags in a very festive manner. I think it does that for us, to cheer us up or celebrate something or just make the world a more colorful place. I like its little hat with the curtain on it that blows in the wind, & the red sunshade above its eyes.

This time I was finally able to get some pictures where the gilt on the steps above the eyes showed up. I took a lot of pictures because I knew it was the last time I'd see it. I'm not going back to Bodha. This was my last trip. There are things I will miss about it - the chaotic colorfulness of the shops, the food, the clothes, the people - everything. There are some amazing people there & I will be sorry not to see them again. The countryside is beautiful with the steep mountains & the terraces & the intense greens & yellows.

But most of all I will miss this, the big white happy cake that presides over Bodha. I'll miss its cheerful benevolence & kindly attitude. It always made me happy to see it & I won't be seeing it again.

I was walking around it with Ngak'chang Rinpoche on one of the last days of the pilgrimage. I'd been taking pictures & just happened to run into him. As we turned off the circle to take the road back to the guest house we both turned around & looked back at the chörten, which was radiating happiness as usual. I felt like we were both thinking the same thought: I will never see this again. It was a poignant moment.

Glory to God in the Hyatt

For our last night in Bodha, Pema Zangmo & I decided to spend it at the Hyatt. I hadn't had a shower in 15 days (yes I was counting) & I was tired of being cold. When I looked online & found out the rooms were only about $150/night that settled it.

Rang-rig & Felice decided to accompany us. At first we planned to get one room for all four of us, in order to economize, since the double rooms have two queen-size beds, but it turns out that the Hyatt will not allow 4 adults to share one room, so we got a double room & they got a room with a king-size bed. We checked out of the Valley Guest House & took a taxi to our new home.

Things are pretty spiffy at the Hyatt, with its reflecting pools & collection of bogus (but attractive) stupa-looking objects in the lobby. As we slouched over to the reception desk in our dusty robes & identified ourselves as having booked a room, a hotel employee came around offering fruit juice & iced tea on a silver platter. We knew we were in the right place.

By the way, speaking of being in the right place, I am now home in Brooklyn, using my little Mac Mini rather than the miserable app I was using to blog from Nepal on Lily so things will probably look better & I will also probably blather on at greater length since I won't have to pick out each letter individually on Lily's imaginary keyboard.

Our room was quite nice, with two huge soft white beds that were as comfortable as they looked. It was an exciting novelty to take off our parkas & still be warm; in fact we sat around in our underwear for a while just enjoying the warmth & light & ever-present electricity. A small fly appeared in the ointment when I discovered that I would have to pay an extra $15 for a day of wifi but I reminded myself that that meant 24 actual hours of wifi with no blackouts. We dumped our filthy robes in the closet & headed for the bathroom where Pema Zangmo had a bath & I had a shower that lasted so long I got tired of standing & finally flopped onto the bed, in the thick white cotton bathrobe that came with the room. Bliss.

After watching a beautiful sunset out our huge window we went down to the lobby to rendezvous with Rang-rig & Felice & the BoyToy, a.k.a. Ja'gyür, who was going to join us for dinner.

The others had real drinks, like gin & tonic & Singapore Sling but I just ordered espresso because I was tired. It came with a little cookie & a shot glass of water, which seemed strange but not unwelcome.

We sat around the lobby for a while waiting for the restaurant to open, then we went downstairs to the dinner buffet that has the distinction of having poisoned Rinpoche on one of the previous pilgrimages. We hoped it would behave tonight.

 

Somebody's dinner: plate #1.

A hungry pilgrim chows down.

 The waiter complimented Pema Zangmo's red blouse & said he didn't see people wearing that color at the Hyatt. 

After dinner we said goodbye to the BoyToy & went to bed.

The next morning we were back in the restaurant for the breakfast buffet.

 Rang-rig's minimalist cheese platter.

 After this we wandered around the grounds for a while.

Then wandered around the shops (those jewels are as big as doorknobs, no kidding).

I briefly considered buying diamond stud earrings for $800, then realized I'd gone insane & instead bought a $15 fake pashmina that turned out to be my favorite purchase of the trip.  

 

After this we went back to our rooms to enjoy the last few hours of lolling around, then checked out & hung around the lobby till it was time to go to the airport (several hours later). The whole time we had heat & light & comfortable chairs & everything! Wotta world.

more highlights

I'm still in Penarth clawing my way back to health and sanity (actually I don't feel particularly insane, it just rounded out the sentence) (which I've now ruined with this longwinded explanation anyway). Here are some more events from the pilgrimage.

Group photo with Khandro Ten'dzin Drölkar and Ten'dzin Wangyal (her brother-in-law and translator).

The wedding blessing of Rang-rig and Felice, performed in the hotel lobby, which has nice Tibetan murals. A few days later there were wedding blessings for Ja-zér and Sonam and for Bar-ché and Mé-sèl.

Lunch at the Garden Kitchen with the brevet lamas and Rinpoche, Khandro Déchen, Robert and Raechel. We mostly talked about Drala Jong.

A visit to the home of Sang Nang Rinpoche and his sang-yum Yangchen Llamo. She had heard us singing Seven-line Song and came to the guest house to invite us to visit. A large group of us trooped over there, walking through the grounds of their gompa, which is right next to the guest house courtyard. We sat on cushions and carpets in three separate rooms (we couldn't all fit into the shrine room) and were served tea and cookies. 

The room I was in also had entertainment from Sang Nang Rinpoche's young son, who became fascinated with Druktsal and Khadrön's son Jim.

He also seemed fascinated with cookies.

Khandro Déchen gave a mélong transmission at night on the roof, with the chörten smiling in the background. Another night Rinpoche gave an empowerment.

Another day there was a transmission of namkha ar-gTad or sky-gazing. Here are people attempting it on the roof.

We had another shoeshine party.

There were several farewell dinners, this one at the Double Dorjee.

Rinpoche found a few things to buy at the Temple of Doom.

I decided to take a picture of everyone who took a picture of me. Some of them seemed quite surprised but they usually posed happily anyway.

Others were less amused.

momos al fresco

Even though the pilgrimage is over for most of us - though a few from our group remain in Nepal - I wanted to post a few more pictures and descriptions of events.

Khandro Ten'dzin Drölkar couldn't go back to Yang-lé-shöd because of the strike so she and Ten'dzin Wangyal appeared at our door somewhere around 7:30am. This time we were both in our underwear so we hustled into our clothes while they waited with Mé-sèl and Bar-ché outside the door. This time they hadn't brought breakfast but parting gifts for us all: bu-ré and other fabrics. There was even something for Pema Zangmo to take home to 'ö-Nyi. It was kind of a bittersweet occasion because Pema Zangmo probably won't be coming back to Nepal so she and Khandro Ten'dzin Drölkar may never meet again in their current lives. A whole bunch of picture-taking ensued but I don't seem to have any.


After this, Jomo Samp'hel arrived with Lama Tséring. Bar-ché went to fetch them in a taxi. We set up chairs outside in the guest house courtyard and watched as they sat and talked with Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. There were a lot of us, and the guest house courtyard is flat, so most of us could not see or hear all that much, but it was nice to be there for the occasion anyway. Here are some more pictures.

We each got a chance to present a katag, which took some time since there were so many of us. Rinpoche presented Jomo Samp'hel with a copy of 'Wisdom Eccentrics' which was sort of a surreal moment (two worlds coming together), and eventually momos were procured from the Double Dorjee for the hosts and guests. Apparently the whole conversation was taped so eventually those of us who couldn't hear (and those of you who weren't there) can find out what was said.

blog from the big chair

Hello, I'm back in Penarth with some sort of hideous illness involving the digestive system in an unpleasant way. I guess I shouldn't have said so many times that I have guts of steel and never get digestive issues since it's obviously not true. I hope to do some retrospective blogging, plus catch up on email, when my brain unfuzzes sufficiently for more than 5 minutes of focused activity.

Occupying Bodha

Yesterday was a strike, which meant that the taxis and buses weren't running and most of the stores were closed. Rinpoche thought it would be a good day for the gö kar chang lo'i dé to Occupy Bodha.

We assembled in the guest house courtyard.

Everyone dressed in their best robes and clothes.

We walked to the chörten en masse and circumambulated, trying to stay together as a group. We collected a lot of gawkers and photographers.

After a while the group followed Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen through a gate and up onto the chörten.

After this some people followed Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen to the Stupa View restaurant.

Many of the pre-ordained who were having robes made here were allowed to wear them for this occasion. It was great to see so many white skirts.

After this the group dispersed.

But with so many of us it felt like we really did Occupy Bodha.