RYI STUDENT BLOG

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...

A classmate recently approached me asking about ways to improve her Tibetan. This is something I reflect on a lot (as I’m sure we all do!)  and, although there must already be  many such lists, I thought I might share a few less common approaches in light of the variety individual  learning-styles. 1.) Wechat (Tib: skad ‘phrin ) For me, Wechat has been of immense benefit. The walkie-talkie style voice chat allows you to listen to messages as many times as needed  until you understand. Once you understand you can response with the possibility of canceling your message before sending in case you make a mistake. This gives you a little more space to recall grammar, words, pronunciation, etc. than in a real-time conversation. There are also  subscription accounts that send you short articles about Tibetan issues in composed in literary Tibetan as well as Tibetan lessons spoken in both  Lhasa and Amdo dialects. This is a really great way to continuous...

                                                               Dilemma: Life, the living mischievous paradox, one way always imposes upon us the tiring and tear bringing shocks of despondency experienced after departure of futile lifeless excitement, and pain preceded by the unfulfilled strong – misleading desires. While on the other, it rouses a hope, cautious indulgence in which could bestow upon us the mastery over suffering, and lead us to the pinnacle of everlasting bliss, which in turn ends all our sufferings and wanderings. Life, when this paradox is understood, the journey ends, and the search completes. But how to understand it? How to untangle it? Whom to ask? And where to go? It seems to be an unsurmountable mystery, endless search and unanswerable question, and for me and many others, RYI is the junction wh...

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...