Index of all Khordong pics

Index of all Dorje Drak pics

Travel to Khordong Gompa in Kham, Tibet.
August 2004

After four months of Tibetan Classes in Darjeeling, India, I travelled together with Costanzo Allione via Thailand and China to Tibet. What was supposed to be a nine-month stay in India ended up in a travel to Tibet in order to practice the things I had learned in class.

We were planning to travel in Eastern Kham and Central Tibet around Lhasa for about two months. Flying from Bangkok to Chengdu, the capital of the province Sichuan in China we entered Eastern Tibet. After the Chinese invaded Tibet in the fifties they redrew the borders of Tibet, which means that a big part of Eastern Kham is now part of western Sichuan, a Chinese province. This area is not part of the T.A.R. (Tibetan Autonomous Region) which means that you can travel freely as a tourist without being bothered by any restriction.

The Chinese have built a very nice road from Chengdu to Dartsedo (or Khangding as the Chinese call it), the 'gate city' to Eastern Kham. Where it took about seventeen hours before to get there, these days because of the new road it only takes about five hours driving entering the Himalayas. All the roads from there on going deeper in Kham are bad, sometimes very bad.

From Dartsedo we travelled to Ganzi and visited some holy places there which had nothing to do with Khordong Gompa, since we also decided to go there. About three hours driving from Ganzi, on the way back to Dartsedo we stopped in Trangu. Ugen had given me the telephone number of Tulku Palgön, friend of Chhimed Rigdzin and the Lama in charge of Khangdong Gompa. (In Kham language they pronounce it as Khangdong and not Khordong.) Even though we were able to make a perfect sentence in Tibetan very few people in Kham could understand us. The Tibetan taught in the West is the Lhasa dialect and Kham dialect is very hard to understand even for people from Lhasa. Just before we left for Trangu we called Tulku Palgön. We were able to make clear that Ugen had given me his number and that we wanted to go to Khangdong Gompa, and told that we would arrive in Trangu very soon. His daughter came to the bus stop to pick us up with a taxi. Only 1 km further we stopped and packed out our luggage. Around a central place about ten identical houses were build in one of which they put our luggage. We met two man: one monk and one older man. After some time we understood that the older man was actually Tulku Palgön and that the monk was also a Tulku connected with another monastery nearby. The Chinese policy in this area is that every monastery must have a high Tulku as a representative in a nearby town to work for the Chinese government. In this case Tulku Palgön for the Kangdong Gompa. In the house next ours was a Tulku of Bane Gompa residing.

Like everywhere we came in Tibet again we were treated as guests: tsampa and tea. Maybe not our favourites but you have no choice when you travel there. They arranged a car to go to Khangdong Gompa together with the monk Tulku who would accompany us. They refused to accept money for the taxi. Typical Tibetan hospitality.

We got our own room and took some rest. I decided to do some puja and found a picture of Dudjom Ripoche in my texts which I put on the table next to me, because I wanted to give it to Tulku Palgön. I was doing small Rigdzin when Tulku Palgön suddenly came in. He looked at me as if he wanted to say something. I did not know what to do. He was holding something, came to me and showed it. I stopped my puja. He was holding a very old small Chana Dorje statue which Dudjom Rinpoche had been wearing and which he had given to Chhimed Rigdzin, who in his turn had passed it on to him. I gave him the picture of Dudjom Rinpoche which I had just put in front of me. I found it difficult to relate to Tulku Palgön. I thought he was angry all the time, but then out of the blue he had this big smile on his face which made all my doubts vanish. The rest of the day I played football with his grandchildren.

The next morning we left for Khangdong Gompa accompanied by the monk Tulku. After a few kilometres we took a small trail which was the road to our destination. Since we were in the rainy season the road was muddy and many times the car got stuck in the mud, so we had to get out and push. At several points it was even dangerous when our car started slipping and we were only centimetres away from the river. At one point the car could go any deeper into the valley where only a small trail continues. That is where Khangdong Gompa is situated at your right side on a steep mountainside surrounded by trees. Remember that Kham used to be covered in forests but that the Chinese have cut down most of the trees. This valley is luckily an exception and gives you an idea how the rest of Kham must have looked like.

When we got out the car we were welcomed by a man in his late forties. We had no idea who he was, but later on we found out that this was Tulku Norbu, who is the residing head of the Khangdong Gompa. He and his son helped us carrying our luggage to their house where we would stay for the next six days. Their house is a colourful wooden farm situated amidst fields near the river. The gompa itself and most of the other houses are built much higher.

Again the overwhelming hospitality is almost embarrassing. They made us two beds in the lhakang of their house and immediately offered us tea and food. We were given the main seats while the rest of the family was seated on the wooden floor. His son with his wife and their baby were also living in the house. The wife of Tulku Norbu was not there. She was taking care of the yaks and not at home while we were staying there. The communication with Tulku Norbu was easier since he speaks some Lhasa dialect. The next day he brought us to the gompa which took a 20 minute steep climb. While we were climbing up a small trail he showed us a spot where the young Chhimed Rigdzin had left a handprint in a rock. Unfortunately it had been destroyed by the Chinese. But people would still touch the spot out of devotion. On our way to the gompa we met Tulku Tsering Nyima. Actually first we did not knew who he was and he was also not introduced but walked along with us. After some time we found out that this was the man who I tried to contact before in Chengdu but whose telephone number Ugen had given me was wrong. A big coincidence to meet him, since he actually stays a lot in Chengdu. We went all together to the retreat place connected with the gompa which lies a bit isolated from the other houses. I had asked Tulku Norbu to meet Pema Wangchuk. Pema Wangchuk was a friend of Chhimed Rigzin and he was dying when we were there. Ugen who had been at Khangdong Gompa just a few months earlier knew his health was not good. He had given me money to buy some saffron which I had to offer to Pema Wangchuk as a present on behalf of Ugen. When we entered his room in the ritrö his eyes looked very red. He was laying down but when we came in he used all his force to sit up. I gave him the present of Ugen and talked a bit. When I took a look around in his room I saw a bone phurba on the shrine. I asked Tulku Tsering Nyima what it was. He took it and told that this phurba was used by Gönpo Wangyal, Tulku Tsurlo and Chhimed Rigdzin. I asked Pema Wangchuk if the leather could be removed but he refused. So we asked if they had more of these precious things. Then they showed up with a phurba and dorje. This was a terma from Nuden Dorje. The Dorje Drollö phurba was sealed with the seal of the Kangdong tertöns. This terma had been used by Nuden Dorje, Dröden Dorje, Dorje Gyamtso and Chhimed Rigdzin. We thanked Pema Wangchuk and he gave us his hand blessing, not knowing he would die shortly after we left Khandong gompa. So now we were hanging around with Tulku Tsering Nyima who was delighted to meet us. We went to the gompa and took a look around. The gompa is situated amidst several houses in front of a square surrounded by prayer wheels. The gompa is small and old. There are several murals all around the gompa.

During our stay with Tulku Norbu we were fed four times a day! Given the best food, sweets, fresh curd, tea, tsampa and butter. One evening when we were gathered around the stove. Costanzo took his MP3-player and hooked it up to a loud speaker of a radio. So all of a sudden there we were with Tulku Norbu dancing on Bob Marley. Very funny.
Because we were teasing each other all the time, Costanzo put on Beethoven and said to Tulku Norbu that I dance good on this music. So Tulku Norbu insisted me to dance on Beethoven. Hmm… Happy not many people have seen my performance.

We were invited by Tulku Tsering Nyima to spend one night in his house at Khandong Gompa. He wanted to show us what he was doing. So he took us to the other side of the mountain where about 50 man and women were working on the construction of a new library.

The library was a project of Tulku Tsering Nyima sponsored by his 500 Chinese students. So now our sangha reaches also to China.

Because of all the tsampa which is very hard to digest we produced a lot of gas. You can do anything in Tibet: picking your nose, burping, spitting on the ground, but farting is impolite. So we had to find a way to hide our farting noise. Coughing loudly and simultaneous farting was the solution. Once these two were not synchronised which resulted into a loud fart, which resulted in a hilarious situation with Tulku Tsering Nyima. Blame the tsampa. Again we were offered food, soft drinks, sweets but luckily no tsampa. We spend the night in the house of Tulku Tsering Nyima where we were given the best beds while he and his attendant slept somewhere else. When we left his house the next day he gave us mendrub and money.

We knew that there must still be many precious objects in the gompa so we started asking what they had. Apparently there were many termas, but Tulku Norbu did not have the key of the room where they were kept. It took some negotiation but we were able to see the termas which were kept in the room of a lama. Amazing. There is one box filled with several termas. On one of the statues there were two ringtsel on the flowers. We asked if they maybe had a hat. They did. So we went to another small lhakang where a hat of Chhimed Rigdzin was kept. Apparently this was made by his daughters.

Costanzo and I spend a lot of time practicing in our room. One day before they were about to get us by taxi, I was reading the Big Rigdzin and found at the end of the practice following words: ”I Nuden Dorje Drophan Lingpa Drolo Tsal, took this out from the top of Hayagriva Mountain near Tsoe Village.” I showed it to Tulku Norbu and asked him where this village was. He said it was a few hours walking from Khordong gompa. He said it is a place where Nuden Dorje did retreat in a cave and that people still do chora there. The place is apparently filled with handprints of Nuden Dorje. So I really wanted to go, but Tulku Norbu refused to let us go since our taxi would come the next day. It is a hard walk and we would have to sleep there. Too bad.

The taxi came next day several hours too late. It had been raining all the time and the road was even worse than before. Tulku Norbu gave us money before we left heading for Trangu. Amazing how hospital these people are. When we got in Trangu after a difficult ride we met Tulku Tsering Nyima by accident who proposed us to give us a ride to Chengdu with his car. So we stayed one more night at the house of Tulku of Palgön and left the next morning. We followed the decisions of the mo and did not go all the way to Chengdu but decided to get out in Dartsedo from where we continued our travel.

I would encourage my Sangha brothers and sisters to go to this place and connect with our sangha in Tibet. Since our beloved root guru is not here anymore he felt so present there in Khangdong Gompa. It is my wish that the lineage of our teacher will flourish: here in the West, in India and Tibet. It is our responsibility now to take care of it.


Maxim De Zitter
 

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