The Weekend

"Was someone's stomach growling - or was that a leopard?" ~Isabelle (our academic director)

So for the weekend we went on an excursion to Pharping. Its a village outside of the Kathmandu valley known as a holy site for both Hindus and Buddhists. For Hindus it is home to Dakshinkali: a temple where every Saturday thousands of male goats are sacrificed to the Goddess. For Buddhists it is home to two caves: Asura and Yanglesh where Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambabha - the man who is given credit for bringing Buddhism to Tibet - fought off demons and reached enlightenment. In the stone there is both his hand print and a head print from when he stood up.

Other than touring these two holy sites and a few others we also had a dharma teaching from Kenpo Rinpoche a promenant lama in the area. It was a really awesome experience. He would lecture in tibetan which was then translated into english for us. Unfortunately, because we had been running around all day and hadn't had our ten cups of tea it was really hard to stay awake the whole time. The Rinpoche also had one of the most soothing voices ever. But I was sitting in the very front and managed not to completely fall asleep.

The bus ride there and back was one of the bumpiest I have ever been on - but the amazing views of cloud ensconced mountains and deep green valleys made up for the discomfort. Today we are going back to the Tibetan Medical School which I am very excited about. Leaving in ten minutes!