Ever wonder what Brother Konchog looks like when creating these silly dispatches? What? Well, I’m gonna show you anyway, even though I’m a little mortified at the evident loss of my chin, inspired, apparently, by my hair. Good Lord, age 41 and I’m already turning into my father. What I’m listening to is an advance copy of the music CD Jetsunma’s about to release. All I can say is…look out.
In the middle now of a small Mongolia whirlwind at KPC.
I labored almost non-stop the past three days to create a PowerPoint presentation about our Mongolian Buddhism Revival Project. It’s the first time I’d messed with this program but I have the 2007 version and it’s quite intuitive. I tried to think of it as a live version of the blog – you know, brilliant, hilarious, profound. About 30-40 people turned up and they seemed to dig it.
The aspect they responded the most strongly to was this year’s effort to get young Mongols to India for intensive Buddhist training. Why? Cuz this year we’re sending the ladies.
I met with Altangerel before I left and asked what he most would like us to cooperate with this year. He said he felt the time had come to launch a project to rebuild Khamar Monastery’s women’s temple. This complex had been called Toinag Datsan – the temple of the wrathful black dakini Tröma Nagmo, who’s the central figure of devotion in the practice of Chöd. While he’s secured a sponsor to rebuild the physical structure, he asked us to see about underwriting the ten young women and two older chaperones he’d indentified as candidates to be sent. They’ll be trained for many years at His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s Tsogyal Shedrup Dargyeling Nunnery.
I already have two sponsors committed and explained that it costs about $1000 to sponsor one nun’s travel. Darn if at the end of the talk I didn’t have pledges for four more, getting us halfway. Not bad for an hour’s work. But we still have six more to sponsor before the summer's out. If this sounds like a way you'd like to contribute, drop me a line at konnorbu at yahoo dot com.
That afternoon my friend Enkhe, the owner of UB’s esteemed Silk Road restaurant, turned up with Enkhtsetseg who had the time of her life in Indianapolis and Chicago. As I mentioned, he’s on a tour to film episodes of his weekly Mongolian National TV cooking show that will be broadcast under the umbrella title “Cooking in America.” He got right to work while the ladies filmed:
As I looked through my photos I thought this one was hilarious. He’ll kill me for putting it up, but doesn’t it look like he’s mocking the lettuce leaf to make his Mongol viewers laugh?
To be fair and balanced, here's a picture Ani Dawa took which is the mood in which you usually find Enkhe, hence my fondness for him:
Unfortunately, Jetsunma wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t make it. But she sent her attendant Alana over with gifts and a beautiful message for Darisuren. She first talked about their connection saying she felt sure she had been Darisuren’s teacher in the past (Darisuren told me later she felt the same the second she saw Jetsunma's photo back in Mongolia). She said she was conserving her energy for the most important event, which was the Shower of Blessing tsog we’ll hold tonight. But she praised Darisuren’s efforts and affirmed she would not forget or abandon Mongolia. She told her in no uncertain terms, “I will come.” Darisuren seemed pretty pleased to hear this:
The central gift she offered was this necklace of hers, which Darisuren promptly donned:
If you’re in the DC area, the ceremony tonight is open to the public and will begin at KPC Maryland at 7pm.
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