RYI STUDENT BLOG

A letter to Classical Tibetan Dear Classical Tibetan, our story began three years ago, when I came to Nepal to study a Buddhist text at a Shedra, and they also offered Classical Tibetan lessons. In the beginning, I was amazed by all your lines and squiggles, since I never learned an alphabet different from my own. When I first managed to transform these squiggles into actual sounds, I thought the hardest part would lie behind me. Little did I know. You forced me through your spellings that just made zero sense to me, and then you threw all these particles at me until I couldn’t feel my brain anymore. In the beginning, all I could understand were sentences about yaks and rabbits drinking tea. I hadn’t looked at a sutra in my life, and I was planning to keep it that way. But with your subtle but persistent charm you lured me into RYI, and there I was, sitting in a proper class setting, learning your expressions for Dharma things. Slowly I got to read along puja texts...

Hello, I’m Pemba,  a 3rd year BA student. Having been brought up in a multi-cultured community, I grew up learning and being most familiarized in our national language, ‘Nepali’, which is the common language for all ethnics and communities of Nepal. I had my schooling in English medium school, so I ended up getting used to Nepali and English language only, rather than my own mother tongue.  Since my parents were from different castes so neither of them communicated to me and my siblings through their respective mother tongues. We were socialized as typical city’s children.  As a result, I ended up being alienated to my own family languages, ‘Sherpa’ and ‘Tamang’ which has very close relation with Tibetan language since both languages were originated from Tibet.  As I grew up becoming more aware and enthusiastic about my family religion, ‘Buddhism’ and its profound philosophy, I realized how important it was for me learn ‘Tibetan’ to be able to understand the t...

As I look back at the year that I have spent here at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, perhaps the most enjoyable, yet challenging, aspect of my studies has been learning the Tibetan language. For years I have felt a strong desire to be able to speak, read, and write in the Tibetan language, and from the moment I started studying here a little more than one year ago, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and heartfelt appreciation for the opportunity that was being afforded to me. The ability to converse with local Tibetans, and to begin to understand the sacred texts written by great masters and the dharma talks that are given is something that has brought an incredible sense of satisfaction into my life.  Although I still have much to learn--and of course the learning never ends--since I have set goals for myself and feel like I have put forth a respectable amount of effort in my studies, I feel like I am making decent progress and that my aspirations are well within reach. While the...