English - The Official Tenzin Palmo Website

Dear friends, continuedcontributed by translating, giving usaccommodation, meals, transportetc. throughout all my past tours.Everywhere people have been so kindand I am deeply grateful to all themany people involved in these tours.I would also like to thank all thosewho have donated funding or itemsto the nunnery, and those who havewritten to the office offering their helptranslating and transcribing Newslettersand Teachings. The support we havereceived for the nunnery has been mostgratifying.The temple continues to rise andour team of young Nepali craftsmenare busy on the cement embellishmentsfor the friezes and columns. At presentthey are at work on the dragons that coilaround the pillars - facing outwards toinvoke peace and ward off obstacles -in accordance with our tradition. Thisnunnery belongs to the Drukpa Kagyulineage and the word “Druk” meansdragon. Meanwhile in the shrine roomof the Study Centre a team of youngartists from Tashi Jong are painting thecarved wooden shrine in commendablysubdued colours (by Tibetan standards).The statues for the Study and the RetreatCentres have been beautifully gildedand painted and look both resplendentand refined. Gen Lodro has been closelyinvolved in filling the statues with /zung/(rolls of printed mantras) and precioussubstances. This is a highly skilled joband we are deeply grateful to LamaLodro for his continued assistance withthese arcane technical matters.As I write the monsoon rains arecoming down and it is the season formagnificent storms where thunder andlightening bounce off the mountainsfor hours at a time. (Then of course wehave the inevitable power and internetfailures!!) It is a great relief that the dryriver beds are now full of water and thatthe country side is lush and green again.The local farmers are planting the ricecrops that will sustain their families forthe coming year.Lama Sonam LodroAn AppreciationLama Lodro has been associatedwith the DGL Nunnery from the verybeginning. In those days he taughtTibetan writing to our first batchof nuns at Tashi Jong. He is a monkof many practical accomplishmentsincluding painting, filling statues andstupas. He has an extremely goodeye for detail and on many occasionshas pointed out seemingly smalldiscrepancies which have been a greathelp.When the statues were being filledLama Lodro was at the Nunnery formany consecutive days, conductingPujas as the mantras were placed insidethe statues. It is important to have ahighly trained monk of pure disciplineand devotion to carry out these duties.Lama Lodro has been an invaluableand reliable help to us throughout theyears and he seems to very much enjoyhelping us. The nuns enjoy workingwith him as he is always smiling andlaughingLama Sonam Lodro was born onthe 10 September 1980 and receivedhis initial monastic ordination in thepresence of the great Khenpo Leksheyat Nubgon Monastery, which is abranch-monastery of Khampagar, inEast Tibet. He continued studyingat the monastery for 15 years duringwhich he undertook the basic monasticeducation including the study ofBuddhist philosophy under thedirection of Ratrul Rinpoche, KhenpoTalo, and other scholars.On leaving Tibet Lama Lodro cameunder the guidance of His EminenceDorzong Rinpoche from whom hereceived the novice ordination as wellas much teaching. Lama Lodro receivedhis Bhikshu (full ordination) vowsfrom His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.In recent times, Lama Lodroworked as Tibetan language teacherat the Young Monks School of theKhampagar Monastery in Tashi Jongand of course also taught our nunsof the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery.Lama Lodro also played a leading rolein the construction of the Stupa at theDGL Nunnery and is now the advisorguiding the decoration of our mainTemple and the puja hall of the StudyCentre.OCTOBER 2009 GATSAL 3

How to help each otherby Ani Dechen ChodronTo be happy and survive werely on the help of each other.From the moment we wereborn our mother fed us. Then throughthe kindness of others we gainedthe skills to live in a community.Everything that you and I have doneuntil now has required the support ofothers. Just like a small tree needs theelements to grow strong we cannot doanything alone. We cannot clap withjust one hand!The world is made of people fromdifferent religions and culture. In orderto live together happily it is importantthat we learn to respect each other.We do this by developing patience,tolerance and loving kindness. Whenwe don’t support each other, we throwour power away. One stick alone iseasy to break, but a group of sticks arevery strong. Our nunneries arewhat we create them to be, every actof kindness however large or smallhas an impact on us all. We each havesomething to offer. A small smile,being a good listener, helping inpractical ways or using our thinkingskills help to create a place of peaceand harmony.At Dongyu Gatsal Ling NunneryI have been helping the retreat nuns.They rely on me and others to bringfood, gas, clothing, medicine andthings for their pujas. Being able tohelp them gives me satisfaction andmake me feel very happy.Studying the Dharma is somethingvery difficult. By taking the opportunityto help each other we can build eachothers self esteem and confidence.I feel very privileged to live ina Nunnery where I can study andpractice the Dharma. If we help andsupport each other we can make thebest of this special opportunity. It isonly in giving that we receive and byloving that we are loved.4 GATSAL ISSUE 23

MyAssociationwith DGLNunneryby Charanjit SinghIt has been my great good fortune tobecome associated with DGL Nunnery,first as a trustee, and then as the nuns’English teacher. In fact my connectionwith the founder of the Nunnery goesback to the late sixties when Jetsunma,then Anila Tenzin Palmo was living in thenearby village of Andretta. She appeared tobe a motivated and dedicated practitionerof the Dharma. She was already doingher practice, living in a solitary cottageon the top of a high hill above the village,surrounded by deep forest.She would come down to ‘Mirage’,owned by the family of Professor Jai Dayal,which was where her Dharma sisters AniLodro, Ani Jinba and Ani Pema were living.Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo would come to thishouse to collect her supplies of food andother supplies.It was during these visits that I happenedto meet her and come to know about herzeal and compassion for understanding theBuddha Dharma and that she practicedit in letter and in spirit. She seemed eventhen to incorporate it’s tenets in her ownlife most religiously and sincerely. Eventhe tiniest and most insignificant creature,(such as a mosquito) was dearer to her thanany other living being.Once when I visited her at the ‘Mirage’in the middle of the monsoon, the place wasvery damp and full of weeds and bushes. Itwas infested with swarms of mosquitoes. Iwas moved to see her catching them whenthey were sitting on her bare arms and feet,and carefully taking them out of the room.Such was her love and concern for thesetiny blood sucking creatures.She has carried the same kind of loveand developed and deepened it furtherover the years. She always felt excitedabout women’s issues, in particular theirimpoverishment and their hopeless state ofexistence, especially in this part of the worldand particularly the women in Buddhistnunneries.A great manifestation of her unboundedlove can be seen today in the form of DGLNunnery near Tashi Jong Monastery innorthern India. The Nunnery has over 60nuns at the moment. It really is a tributeto her untiring efforts and humility tosee that she has created the best kindof infrastructure available for the nuns,who mostly come from very humblebackgrounds.She is always concerned about thevarious incomplete tasks and upkeep ofthe Nunnery. She works hard to achievethe best available academic and religiouseducation, and provides them with idealliving conditions. Jetsunma is always verybusy working towards these ends. She isindeed a great source of inspiration to us.I am very moved when I see so manypeople coming to the Nunnery. They areBuddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Jews andare from all kinds of nationalities. Jetsunmawelcomes them all with open arms. Shelooks so pleased to see everybody whocomes to the Nunnery. She loves to discussvarious problems and issues of commoninterest with them. She has developeda very cosmopolitan culture of peopleinterested in supporting the Nunnery. Shehas not shut herself in a cocoon but freelymixes with one and all.In my opinion this is what the worldneeds today. We should not be running indifferent directions dictated by our owninflated egos. Rather, we should cometogether to share each others viewpoints.A true religion unites people rather thanseparating them. This is the very essenceof religion and has been understood so wellby Jetsunma. She follows this philosophyin letter and in spirit.Jetsunma treats everyone equally andwould not like to have special food forherself. She wants to share whatever is inthe kitchen. The woman who cooks forher always eats her food at the dining tablealongside Jetsunma.Today, everybody seems to be busygetting more and more material goods forhimself, there is a mad race going on to fillones own coffers by throwing considerationto the wind, endangering life and theenvironment. The result of this mad race isthere for all of us to see in most countriesin the world. It fills my mind with great joyto see Jetsunma doing everything for othersand not for herself.Compared to Jetsunma, my owncontribution at the Nunnery is verylittle and not of much significance. I amreminded of a story about a small sparrowin a certain forest. Someone had set theforest on fire. The little sparrow on seeingthis terrible sight tried to extend a helpinghand to those who were trying to put thefire out. She would go to a river flowingnearby and collect a few drops of water inher small beak, and pour them down on therising flames. Someone in the multitudeobserved the sparrow doing this and couldnot resist asking her, ‘Do you think youcan even hope to extinguish this forest firein this way?’ The sparrow very humblyreplied ‘I know I cannot, tiny as I am, buttomorrow when history is written my namewill be included in the list of those whotried to put out the fire, and not in the listof those who started the fire, or those whostood by and did nothing’.OCTOBER 2009 GATSAL 5

DGLTempleThe work on the temple has continuedthroughout the monsoon season andeach week we see advancements andchanges. Although we have kept it modestin size it is very traditional in design. Itwill eventually seat 150 nuns in rows. Wehave received a very generous offering forthe main throne and table. These will be ofcarved wood.There are beautifully carved dragonscoiling around the four internal pillars.There will be three main statues,Shakyamuni Buddha flanked by GreenTara and Akshobhya Buddha. We plan tohave some frescoes of particular relevanceto women, such as The 21 Taras, MachigLabdron etc.We have also commissioned stainedglass window panels which will be madeby a Canadian Nun who specializes increating beautiful stained glass images.These will be of Tara and Prajnaparamita.We hope that the work on the templewill be completed within the next year.6 GATSAL ISSUE 23

OCTOBER 2009 GATSAL 7

My name is Lhamo Yangzom.I am twenty two years old. My motheris no longer in this world, but I have ourfather and four brothers. They are all stillin Tibet. Two of my brothers are monksand the other two are married. They arenomad farmers in Tibet. My father worksin the field.Our families are Khampas and ourhome is in Markham. Since there was noschool for girls like me in Tibet I spent mytime looking after the home and feedingthe animals like cow and yaks.I decided that my life would be morevaluable as a nun and was ordained in Tibetby a visiting Rinpoche. Soon after, in 2006,I was given the chance to come to India,where I hoped I would have the chance tosee the Dalai Lama and to study.There were 80 people in our group.It was in January or February and theweather was icy cold. Due to Chinesesecurity guards, we could not go byvehicle. So, we walked to India and therewere many hardships. We had to walk atnight to avoid being seen and we hid incaves during the day.We would take it in turns going aheadof the group looking for the path, in casethere were Chinese soldiers waiting. Oneday the Chinese caught the boy who waswalking ahead. We heard this happeningand hide. We were very frightened andwhen it was safe we turned back andwent back to Tibet. We don’t know whathappened to the boy – it could have beenany of us.We started again after 1 month andfinally got to Nepal after 23 days. Westayed there for 2 months while our paperswere processed, then we were taken by busto Delhi. After a while we were put onanother bus and taken to Dharamsala. Iwas taken to the newcomer’s school.I soon heard about DGL nunnerythrough friends. I asked if I could join. Iliked it because it is a very quiet peacefulplace and the facility for study is good. Ihave a sponsor and am so grateful to mysponsors to give me this opportunity tospend my life in study and prayer andliving for the benefit of all sentient beings.For the last few months I have beensick with TB and a liver abcess. I had tostay in my room alone so that others didnot get sick. At first I felt so sad to bealone without any friends and wonderedwhy I am not like others. I spent this timereading and praying. I thought that sinceeverything is impermanent and has an endI would overcome this sadness one day.The doctors have now told me my healthis good and I can once again mix with theother nuns.I am very grateful to Jetsunma TenzinPalmo for this opportunity. I can nowspeak and write a little English. I wantto be able to use my life as a nun to helpothers, maybe one day as a teacher.Live andLet Liveby Drimay PalmoLive and let live should be the motto of each one ofus. Others will let us live only if we let them live. Wecan’t hope to live in peace if we disturb the peace ofothers. All great religions of the world give the highestimportance to the love of fellow beings. Love of one’sown country, religion or community does not meanthat we should run down others.Peaceful existence should be the goal of everyindividual, community and nation. Only such thinkingcan save mankind from impending disaster. Wenuns are living in a community founded by JetsunmaTenzin Palmo. She always teaches these noble thingsto us. Currently she is teaching about six perfections.The six perfections are generosity, morality, Patience,Joyous effort, concentration and wisdom. We nuns arealways trying to incorporate these values in our dayto-daylife to contribute a bit for restoring peace andhappiness in the world.8 GATSAL ISSUE 23

InPraiseofTaraThe Dongyu Gatsal Ling Endowment FundOm Tara. What a privilege it is toknow Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo. Andwhat could be more joyful than beingpart of her effort to raise awareness forthe Dongyu Gatsal Ling EndowmentFund?I met Jetsunma on her first NewYork City teaching tour in 2002, atthe Shambhala Meditation Centerwhere Deborah Garrett was thenits executive director. So I feel it isespecially auspicious that seven yearslater Deborah and I are collaboratingas directors of development for thenewly created DGL Endowment Fund,to help achieve the nunnery’s goal ofraising two million US dollars to ensurethe long-term education and wellbeingof our DGL nuns and nunnery.With the support of Jetsunma, MonicaJoyce, Eliz Dowling, and many others,Deborah and I look forward to offeringmany opportunities to the supportersof Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and DongyuGatsal Ling Nunnery to help build thisendowment so that the nunnery cancontinue to thrive and accomplish itspurpose.My inspiration became evenstronger earlier this year when I visitedthe nunnery for the first time andfully grasped the scope of Jetsunma’sundertaking. I was totally taken bythe heartfelt wisdom embedded inthe facilities and programming toencourage these young women to bepowerful, loving representatives of theDharma. The nuns have already begunto exercise their leadership outsidethe nunnery. At a regional dharmaconference earlier this year, they spoketo their sisters from other nunnerieson developing confidence. So muchhas been accomplished in such a shortperiod of time, and this is just thebeginning.As many of you know, Jetsunma isplanning to lead a pilgrimage to the“cave in the snow” in the autumn of2010 to raise funds for the DongyuGatsal Ling Endowment Fund. Ifyou are interested in participating inthe pilgrimage, please email Deborahand me at pilgrimage@gatsal.org, andLesley Kovitz, our tour coordinator,will be in touch with you. And ofcourse, email us at endowment@gatsal.org for any questions about the DGLEndowment Fund.What an honor to supportJetsunma’s mission to nurture anew generation of Tibetan Buddhistnuns from the Himalayan regions torealize their spiritual and intellectualpotential. Needless to say, this deepwish and expression of Tara, the divinefeminine, extends to all of us.May it be so.Evan ZazulaOCTOBER 2009 GATSAL 9

Welcome & GoodbyeThe DGL Nunnery team is delightedto welcome Evan Zazula and DeborahGarrett. Evan and Deborah both live inNew York and are helping us to raisemoney for the Endowment Fund. Thisfund is very important for the future ofthe Nunnery, since nowadays monasticinstitutions are no longer funded by thenuns’ own families and the surroundingvillages.The interest from the corpus we raisewill be used for the nuns’ food, clothing,medical expenses, staff salaries and forthe maintenance of the buildings, therebygiving the nuns some basic security,enabling them to continue with theirstudies and practice.Therefore, we are so grateful that suchtalented people as Evan and Deborah havevolunteered to direct this project. Theybring with them a wealth of experience inbusiness and organisation, which will bevery useful in achieving our aims.I have known Evan for several years(see Evan’s article) and know him to be awarm hearted and intelligent man withdeep devotion to the Dharma.Deborah Garrett is also a verygood-hearted and sincere Dharmapractitioner. She was Executive Directorof the Shambhala Meditation Center ofNew York from 2002 to 2005. Today shedevotes her time to practice and volunteerwork. She is vice chair of the ShambhalaTrust and on the board of The MountainInstitute, an international organizationfocused on cultural preservation,economic development and environmentalconservation in the HimalayasTenzin Lhakpa has joined us to replaceYeshi Lhamo. She is another bright andhighly qualified young woman from TashiJong Monastery - which seems to have analmost unlimited supply of talent!!!We are very happy to have Lhakpawith us since the work of accountantrequires someone of integrity with aclear mind, and who is of course good atfigures.I first met Heather Conte at the airportin Adelaide, Australia, where she was partof a welcoming group. It was the last dayof her professional working life as she hadtaken early retirement and was looking for‘something Dharma related and useful’ tofill her time.Heather had previously spent 2 yearsworking in Delhi and so was already athome working in India. To our delightshe agreed to join us here at DGL to takeover from Jude as my assistant. Heatheroriginally trained as a nurse and has spentmost of her working life working in themedical field.Once more we are brought face toface with the Law of Change as two ofour treasured members of staff leave tocontinue their lives elsewhere.First we said farewell to our talentedaccountant/secretary Yeshi Lhamo whohas been with us for 3 years and wasvery competent in dealing with our quitecomplicated financial affairs. Yeshi is thedaughter of the master artist in Tashi Jongand she has now moved to New York tostay with her brother.Jude Avery worked at the Nunneryas my assistant for 2 years, dealing witharrangements of my tours and many othermatters. Since she is an artist by trainingshe was an invaluable help working withthe Nunnery Webmaster Brian Sebastianon our Website design and the GatsalNewsletters. Jude has moved on todevote the foreseeable future to spiritualdevelopment, in retreat and attendingteachings.We wish both of these lovely andtalented young women happiness andsuccess in their chosen paths.How to Support the Nuns at DGLJetsunma Tenzin Palmo and the nuns at Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery thank our supporters in a mostheartfelt manner. Your kindness helps our Nunnery to flourish and keep the Dharma alive. Sponsoringa nun costs the equivalent of US$365 a year.Cheques should be made payable to ‘Dongyu Gatsal Ling Trust’ and posted to:Dongyu Gatsal Ling NunneryVillage Lower Mutt, P.O. Padhiarkhar, Via TaragarhDistt. Kangra, H.P. 176081, IndiaAnyone wishing to make a donation to DGL Nunnery via Tenzin Palmo’s account in their own countryby Swift or Telegraphic Transfer, please email Eliz Dowling for details on eliz_palmo@hotmail.comFor further information or to contact Tenzin Palmo please email DGL on dgloffice@gatsal.orgDongyu Gatsal Ling Trust is registered in India as a charitable organization designated for the support ofDongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery and its activities.10 GATSAL ISSUE 23

Our TibetanStatue PainterPema TashiAfter they left Tibet my parents came to PhunstokLing Colony in Orissa. This is where I was born.I was sent to learn art from painters at MindrolingMonastery at Clementown in Orissa. I enjoyed learningto paint from the masters when the old temple there wasre-built. I found that this was something I could do, andenjoyed it very much. I then went to Bykaluppe to theNyingma Monastery, Namdroling to continue my studies.I have now been painting statues for 14 years. I like thismuch more than sketching or other types of painting as it iswonderful to see finished statues. I am a Buddhist and I liketo make the Buddhas look beautiful.I get the painting jobs by word of mouth. I have paintedin Rewalsar, Bir and Nepal and have been to many placeson the Tibet/Nepal border, painting statues in differentmonasteries.When I am asked to paint the statue, I find out exactlywhat is wanted and then work closely with the statue makersto make sure it is right.I hope I will be coming back to Dongyu Gatsal LingNunnery to paint the temple statues once the temple isnearer completion. I have enjoyed working for the nunnery,but I enjoy my work everywhere, because I am painting theBuddhas. In between statue painting jobs, I paint thankas.OCTOBER 2009 GATSAL 11