Where in the world is the HHDL

There are several rumors floating around McLeod Ganj amongst Tibetans that the HHDL is now in Amdo, Tibet. A friend of my host family said that his father had called him from Tibet to tell him that HHDL is in Tibet. But the Tibetan-Exile-Government officials have clearly stated that he is not in Tibet but here in Dharamsala. Some folks are saying that they are lying because folks are hearing the opposite from their relatives in Tibet. It is really interesting to see how this kind of the stuff gets to spread. If it is true then they don’t want anyone to know about. But I too have suspicion that someone inside Tibet could just be playing with the emotions of the people just to see their reaction. But of course I do not know anything.

At TC MEC all of the computers we rampaged by a virus so they were re-imaged, so we lost tons of information and I have been trying to recover as much as I can. So all week I have going through all the old back ups, updated and going through all the sent email files so that I try to retrieve some the lost stuff. TC MEC is full of volunteers right now, which is great and TC MEC they have buying all kinds of stuff. They have made a staff room for all the volunteers to chill in with nice furniture and a computer with broadband. And there will be more computers coming for the computers classes that they have. They will be hiring a full-time Tibetan English teacher and have hired a Tibetan computer teacher full-time. So this place I think in the future will be more like a real school and it won’t be dependent on volunteers so much. I think that this is good, especially that this will give the school a better sense of continuity than it has had in the past beside just having the Director of Tibet Charity, India and TC MEC.

With my new tutor, I am learning many new things. He lived in the US a few years ago, and he watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi with the George Lucas at his pad and told me some interest Star Wars facts that are Tibetan related. One that I knew already was that the Ewoks speak hyper fast Tibetan, Mongolian and a bunch of other languages all mixed up.

The named Skywalker comes from the Tibetan word mkha ‘gro pronounce Khandoe. mkha means “sky” or “space” and ‘gro means to “go” or to “move”. Thus, one who goes or moves through the sky, easier English “Skywalker”. And he said the Yoda’s character is designed from a famous rinpoche; through I have forgotten the lama’s name.

My tutor lived in Texas for a bit, and he had Dharma center there. While he was there he got to go to a Navajo festival where he was given peyote and did a sweat lodge. The people didn’t tell him exactly what peyote was (besides that it was medicine) so he got very sick and vomited a lot. He told me that he was sick for a few days. During these times too he was a monk. I couldn’t image how that must have been for him. He knows a lot about the etymology of Tibetan words so I learn a deeper meaning to the words that hear every day. So, I am happy with him, I feel that I have lucked out, though I still miss my old tutor.

Pax