Seems this was Mongolian Visitation Week at KPC, much to my delight.
At last week’s BBQ for newly-arrived Ambassador Bekhbat, the Mongolian Embassy’s Consul General, Mr. Ganbold (center), and the president of the Mongolian Cultural Center, Mr. Saruul, arranged to pay their first visit to our temple last Wednesday. Arriving promptly at 1:30 for our 12:30 meeting (you can take the Mongols out of Mongolia...), I first showed them around the temple and, apparently, ‘splained a bunch of stuff...
...and then we sat down for a wide-ranging interview with the back of my pasty bald head:
Actually, especially given Mr. Ganbold’s intellectual bent, it was really stimulating and the afternoon hours passed us by with barely a notice. The interview, mostly about KPC’s work with our Mongolian Buddhism Revival Project, will be distilled for publication in a Mongolian ex-pat weekly called Dayar Mongol Sonin and, possibly, another within Mongolia itself.
The next day, I was so happy to host a surprise visit by my good friend Lama Baasansuren (“Baasaa”).
Longtime DODR readers may recall that Baasaa is the head lama of Erdene Zuu, Mongolia’s oldest monastery. I have visited him at his home in Kharkhorin, we see each other frequently in Ulaanbaatar, and he has even taught once at KPC. Plus, he’s forever in our hearts for agreeing to be the new papa for Floki, the UB street puppy I rescued a couple winters ago.
Baasaa, true to his compassionate nature, was in the U.S. on a mission of mercy. Seems there was a Mongolian teenage girl of his acquaintance with a spinal column so severely out of whack that, without corrective surgery, she could only be expected to live four or five more years. Such surgery was impossible in Mongolia, so he raised the funds and made the arrangements to have the surgery done by a specialist in Phoenix, AZ. He personally accompanied her, the surgery was a success, and now, barring the unknowns to which we are all potentially subject, our young friend can look forward to a long, normal life. Would that this world were flooded with Baasansurens, I swear.
Taking advantage of his US stay to see friends in the Washington area, Baasaa accepted our invitation to come to lunch. Apparently, before we ate our carefully prepared Chinese take-out, there was more ‘splainin’ to do. First by him (note my feigned comprehension)...
...then by me.
It seems I’m expounding on a closely-held theory as to why the Earth actually does exist in a flat, two-dimensional space. It seems further that Brother Baasaa is trying not to laugh in my face. Story of my life.
Excellent!
Posted by: Christian | September 15, 2008 at 12:41 AM