Back home

We reached Brussels safely and on time last night.

I'll be quite busy today as my teacher Ringu Tulku is in Brussels for
another 24 hrs. This morning we will have a meeting to talk about the
projects in Rigul and this afternoon I will attend his teachings.

I will continue to update this blog with pictures and more details in
the days to come, so visit this page again soon.

Our afternoon in Chengdu

After lunch, the girls when to shop for clothing while I went to
visit the "computer city" buildings. I mainly stopped at the Apple
and Canon booths.

We met again at 5 p.m. in front of the Mc Donalds downtown, then we
went together to the small Tibetan area of Chengdu where we met with
Yeshe Dorje from Rinchen Ling the village across the river from
Rigul. He kindly offered us dinner in his restaurant.

On our return at the hotel, Cheukyi had the privilege of choosing the
DVD in honor of her birthday. She turned ten today and lost a teeth too!

It's past midnight now, our bags are almost ready and we're about to
go to bed. We have booked a taxi for 11 a.m. tomorrow morning. Our
flight to Amsterdam is scheduled to leave at 2 p.m.

Rain in Chengdu

It's almost 11 a.m. in Chengdu and it's raining. I will not complain
as it keeps the temperature much lower than last week.

The girls are still sleeping. We haven't much plans for today except
meeting someone from Rigul tonight. He has a Tibetan restaurant here
in Chengdu.

I posted some pictures from Lhasa on Flickr, I will probably upload
some more today.

You can see them at the usual address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/

francoish/sets/72157601114970981/

Back in Chengdu

We just arrived at the Mix Hostel in Chengdu.

Quite a few tears were shed when we left Lhasa at 9.30 this morning.
Almost all the family came by to say goodbye. We all hope to see them
again very soon.

We reached the airport just in time (11.05 for a 12.00 departure!).
The flight was delayed by 30' but for the rest it was fine.

We are all quite tired (the girls went out last night) and we will
probably have a little nap soon.

I'll try to upload some pix from Lhasa later today.

Last two days in Lhasa

On tuesday we had a family picnic at Gyamtso Chumi. The girls had the
opportunity to swim at an altitude of 3,500 meters. We all had a lot
of fun.

On wednesday, the family met again, this time at Passang's house.
Passang is Yangchen's eldest sister.

Monday in Lhasa

Again bright sun. Sunburns!!!

We had a shopping day at the Barkhor, buying some souvenirs.

Oh, Zoe turned 16 today.

Happy birthday Zoe!

Sunny day in Lhasa

This afternoon we all went for a walk in the mountains around Sera monastery. The sun was shinning bright and we all enjoy the splendid view of Lhasa's valley.

Our second day in Lhasa

We all slept relatively late as we were quite tired. Around 10.30 a.m. , I went to the Jokhang. It was my lucky day as it was open for Tibetan pilgrims. I joined the Tibetan pilgrims queue and I was able to enter without paying any fee.

In the queue I was able to buy a khatag (traditional white Tibetan scarf) and some butter to feed the many butter lamps inside the temple. After visiting secondary chapels, I went to the chapel housing the Jowo. The Jowo is a statue of the Buddha and is considered as the most sacred in Tibet. I consider myself extremely lucky that I was able to see it from so close once again! I was also able to request for butter lamp offerings in memory of Tsering Lhamo.

After the visit, I again went to sit in front of the temple and recited prayers and mantras until around 1 p.m. I then returned home for lunch.

In the afternoon, the girls, cousins, aunties and I returned to the Barkhor to do some souvenirs shopping. After the shopping we had tea all together then we splitted. I went back to the Jokhang for more prostrations and mantras while the other went for a walk around the Potala before heading back home.

As strange as it may sound to some of you, I really feel so good there with the pilgrims. The idea came to my mind that I should return here in a couple of years and stay long enough to complete a 100,000 prostrations cycle.

It was 8.30 p.m. when I returned home.

Tonight the girls are going out with their uncle and some of their cousins. I'm sure that they will have a lot of fun.

I tried to connect using Yangchen's mother telephone line but it is so slow that I could only retrieve 2 emails in ten minutes. So I'm now in an Internet place, 5 minutes walk from home.

We have no specific plans for tomorrow. We will see...

First day in Lhasa

So we are in Lhasa!

We left the hotel in Chengdu on time at 4.20 a.m., we were at the
airport 30 minutes later. Check in, security and boarding went very
well. The Airbus 319 was almost empty so we had a lot of space to
rest while we had to absorb a 1 hour delay "due to ATC"!

We arrived at Lhasa's Gongkar Airport around 9.30 a.m. Yangchen and
a few family members welcomed us there. The drive to Lhasa city is
now much shorter thanks to a new bridge and tunnel. We all went to
Yangchen's mother. She was, of course, delighted to see us again.

We all had dinner together. Then, the girls went with Yangchen to
visit all their aunties new houses while I went with Ama-la for a
khora (circumbulation) of the Potala Palace. After the kora we had a
stop for a cup of tea then I went on my own to center of Lhasa.

The first thing I did was to get our tickets for the return flight to
Chengdu. It took 15 minutes. We will leave next thursday (August
30th) at 12.00 p.m. We can take the airport bus at 9.30 a.m. in Lhasa.

Then I went straight to the Jokhang temple and the Barkhor, the heart
center of Lhasa. Thousands of pilgrims go there everyday to pay their
respect to Lhasa's most sacred temple. I did a khora and then joined
the pilgrims in front of the Jokhang. Most of them perform
prostration in front of the Jokhang doors. Prostrating is not only a
way of showing respect but it is also a very powerful body
purification practice. Many among the pilgrims are there for many
weeks to accomplish an accumulation of 100,000 prostrations.

I stayed there for about three hours. I mainly sat reciting mantras
and prayers but I also did a set of 108 prostrations. This place is
probably the one that inspire me the most to practice. I intend to go
back there tomorrow morning.

Now I'm back at Ama-la's. The girls went to sleep at Sega's (one of
Yangchen sisters).

4 a.m. friday

Time for me to wake the girls up. The taxi is going to be here in 20
minutes.

My next post should be from Lhasa!