Exquisite Bouquet

Here’s a measure of just how good I feel today: a third of the way through making the morning brew, my coffee maker heaved a steamy gasp, and perished. “Oh well,” I thought, “I’ll just put some extra milk in the strong stuff and make another cup later in my little camping plunger. Doot doodly doot-de-doooo...”

At least for the moment, I am impervious to caffeine glitches, the multiple power outages of the past 24 hours, Communist Chinese oppression of Tibetan Buddhists, whatever. Why? Oh, I’m glad you asked! Yesterday morning, finally, we waved goodbye as nine beautiful young Mongolian women boarded a plane bound for Mother India, there to study the Buddhadharma at Tsogyal Shedrup Dargyeling Nunnery under the flawless guidance of HH Penor Rinpoche.

This moment was delayed and delayed by Indian monastic and governmental bureaucracy, but frankly I’m glad. It was a secret source of disappointment to me that I would probably have been in Australia when the girls gathered for departure, and I wouldn’t get to meet them, or send their images and stories to my teacher, after working so long to secure the means for them to go. As it stands, it couldn’t have worked out better.

When I heard they were to fly on that auspicious spring equinox morning, I quickly offered to host a dinner for them the night before. Twenty of us gathered altogether, including Altangerel, head of Khamar Monastery (Danzan Ravjaa’s seat where the nuns will eventually abide once their training is complete) and my good friend Erka, who has pledged to provide the funds for the women’s temple that will house them. As they each entered shyly – most are under 20 and from the deep Gobi countryside – I greeted them individually, joked a bit to put them at ease, and once they felt welcome, made sure to get a nice photo of each. Learning their names, I laughed. Several had the word tsetseg in their names. Common for girls, this is the Mongolian word for “flower.” I quickly started to think of them to myself as the Exquisite Bouquet.

This exquisiteness is not about superficial appearance. It’s about that seemingly ineffable way that good qualities of an individual emanate from the inside out. Thus it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you our ennead of nuns, the first group of women to be sent for Buddhist training to India since Mongolia’s 1990 restoration of religious freedom. From youngest to oldest:

Orjinbaisakh, 13

Oyundare, 14 (Altangerel’s niece)

Munkhzaya, 15

Nyamtsetseg, 17 (she’s been in robes for a year)

Puntsaldulaam, 17

Ondrakherdene, 19

Nergui, 20

Tsetsegsaikhan, 31

Zoloo, 32

Aren’t they marvelous? The latter two, being more mature, will serve as kind of “big sisters” to the other seven and are really taking that responsibility to heart.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to all the generous sponsors who contributed the funds allowing these young women to fulfill a great dream. Altogether, we raised $10,600. Originally, we had a group of ten scheduled to go, but one dropped out late in the game. Thus $9000 was used for the remaining nine young women’s travel expenses, new robes, etc. The remaining $1600 is being carried to the monastery to be held in reserve as an emergency health care fund for all the Mongolian students there at Namdroling Monastery. Thank you, and thank you again.

I should also mention one more time that through the auspices of Jan Felgentreu and the Tilopa Center, 11 boys also left on that flight, headed for the Drikung Kagyu center in Dehra Dun, India. He tells me he plans to send five more before the year is up. This creates such great hope for the future of Mongolian Buddhism and tickled me no end.

The moral of the story? True joy and profound satisfaction derive from virtuous activity engaged in solely for the benefit of others.

Here’s the whole bouquet together:

And here’s a photo I just love, Nyamtsetseg and her proud mama at the airport:

And then, just to give you a hearty laugh for the weekend, here is one of the Danzan Ravjaa lamas and his impossibly charismatic infant nephew who showed up to bid farewell:

Comments

[Sangye]

E MA HO! How beautiful, indeed.

[Sarabaite]

Did my comment from a few days back get deleted? So sorry if I offended!

[Konchog]

No, Sarabaite, it's still there, but there have been many since then. Glad you're back!

[Noreen]

Wow! Thank you for the photos of all the 'tsetegs' going to Namdroling!

[Carol of Seattle]

Thank you for this posting. The news from the orient has been weighing on me heavily. Have you heard anything about an earthquake in western China? I'm worried about my uighur friends.

This news cheers me up greatly. When will the women's temple be built?

[palzang]

Thanks for making my day too! I noticed that one of the young women is name Nergui - Nameless, right? I guess she'll soon get a real name! So wonderful...

[Chris H.]

A very fortunate lag time in their departure, so that you might be there... was sort of like a "Tashi" Delay? N'est Pas? Awesome News Konchog!!

[Christian]

May the scent of the dharma flowers pervade this crazy world.

[Sarabaite]

Oh, thanks, Kongchong! I guess I just didn't look hard enough!