More time has passed then I expected in my last post. Instead of taking me with him to Lhasa, Gyaltsab Rinpoche sent me to the mountain behind the Shechen monastery to do a meditation retreat. He borrowed me his retreat house and a cave where he dissolved into rainbow in one of his past lives.

I was doing mandala offerings there. What is that? You imagine a perfect world and offer it to the enjoyment of all living beings. You repeat this 111.111 times and this takes some time - one month in my case. I was mostly alone in this time. Lama Shibu who takes care of the retreat house took advantage of my presence and went wandering around. Yaks and cows were my company as well as happy mountain girls who come in the afternoon to fetch them.

Life conditions were very simple. No electricity, water needed to be brought from far away. Food was tsampa, rice, dried yak meat, sometimes some cabbage and potato. Real contrast to the month before.

I finished all of the mandalas in one month. For reward I got another two weeks of involuntary retreat. Shibu decided to visit his mother in Derge and of course somebody had to take care of the house while he was gone.

I had quite enough of solitary retreat and every day went to the monastery or to the village. If not there that at least a bit down the mountain to the huge pile of stones with engraved mantras and prayers. It is believed that Shechen Mani stones have healing powers; so many sick people come from near and far away. They stay in small mud houses or in tents and spend days walking around the stones in the clockwise direction. I was also going a lot around that stones, especially after discovering it is a great place to meet beautiful Khama girls who come there with their sick mothers.

Khampa guys are also not bad. I’m sure our girls would like them. They have huge ones. When they pull them out of their pants and hold erect, shining on the sun, they look very impressive. Probably they polish them every day with butter to ease the friction; they are so thick it is not easy to get them in. Compared to theirs mine is very humble and small. When I pull it out I first have to stretch it as it is bend. Yet it has its advantages - I can open tins with it and it has a fork and a spoon mounted on the sides…

Hey, please, don’t blame me for your erotic fantasy, of course I speak about knifes.

Khampa men don’t have them only for decoration.

In my first month in Shechen three people died. First one was an old man that somebody stabbed with his sword, second one died of alcohol poisoning and the third one was a monk shoot dead by the same person who stabbed his father two weeks ago. There is no police or court here. The law of blood revenge is practiced. One year before a son of the killed father killed two people in the fight over land and ran to the hills. Now somebody had his revenge, killed the father and brother and also escaped in the mountains.

Gyaltsab Rinpoche usually tries to solve such disputes, to reach a compensation agreement between families involved to avoid revenge and further bloodshed. In this case, after many days of negotiations elders of two villages in dispute reached an agreement not to use any more violence and signed it with their fingerprints in the protector chapel of the monastery. This was after the father was killed. Despite the agreement his son was shot just few days later. Pride and need of revenge are very strong in this area.

Sky burials are used to dispose of the dead bodies. On the small hill behind the monastery specially trained monks cut the body and birds eat it. Burial is a private affair; I could only look from far away. When I went there after one month I could still find a rotten and smelly arm with a piece of backbone attached and eagle chewing on it.

For many everyday problems here it is not possible to blame the Chinese rule. Main cause is un-education of lay people. Shechen has a free primary school sponsored by Rabjam Rinpoche but parents send there mainly their sons who will later become monks. Only few girls attend. For most parents educating their children who will not be monks seams like a waste of time and money.

As usual Lama Shibu stayed longer than we agreed. One time before, he told me he goes to the next village to make a phone call. He was gone for five days. Yet this delay turned out very good.

In my last five days of staying in Shechen I met another family there - that of Gangshar Rinpoche, a young master from Shechen monastery. First I met his sister Tsolha who can speak English. Her brother came back from mainland China the next day. He is young 25 years old handsome guy famous for being one of the main teachers to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in his previous life. I spend four days with him and his family and every day went up the hill only to make fresh offerings in the retreat house.

Then I had to leave Shechen as my visa was nearing its end. I went back to Tsar Tsar to spend some time with my friends there; I haven’t seen them for two months and a half. Everybody in the temple of King Gesar was happy to see me again. Kunsang Wungdi became a nun and moved into a newly build nunnery close to Tsar Tsar. Twelve nuns are there now; there is space for 30. First they will have to learn how to read and then start with doing the practices of 111.111 prostrations, mandalas and similar things before progressing to more advanced Buddhist practices.

Summer is gone. Instead of flowers and insects there is only high yellow dried grass at the Gesar’s estate. It is cold during the day and freezing in the night. When rains falls it snows. I could only stay a few days there. These six months passed very quickly and ama Khadro was again crying when we bid farewell.