RYI STUDENT BLOG

After finishing 5 kora at Boudha stupa, I went to one tea stall. The taste of the tea was so good and it was made by an old lady, around my grandma’s age. I asked her about the background story of Boudha during her childhood.  She started telling me the story of Boudhanath. Once upon time, Boudha was a very beautiful village adorned in all directions by thousands of trees and flowers, blooming through all four seasons. Different kinds of insects made noises that sounded like bells. Different birds tweeted like a melody-queen. The main source of local peoples’ income was from agriculture. Almost 90 percent of people were farmers and all the locals were Tamang. Usually, Tamang people worked very hard in the day time but at the night they all needed to have rakshi (local whisky). Boudha’s local people were living autonomously, a simple life. After finishing the conversation with the old lady, I got to know some back ground story of Boudha. It made me reflect on the hi...

“The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Often, when a person settles in a location, one eventually becomes accustomed to his or her surroundings and can easily become complacent. I am grateful to reflect that, after almost three years living in Nepal, I still carry the same sense of awe that I had when I first arrived. On more than one occasion, I have walked down any road in Boudha with a friend or a colleague and wondered how strange and incredible it is that I (or we) landed here. This sense of awe is especially apparent when I walk with somebody who has never seen Boudha or Nepal before, for through fresh eyes can we revitalize our experience of the world. Life in Nepal provides a number of opportunities for students, but the most promising of those opportunities are the people we meet and the places we go to find inspiration. At RYI, we have a supportive community, and have the opportunity to work closely with...

A team of RYI students has just finished a translation of the history of the precious Boudha Stūpa and it was published on the Lotsawa House website. It is with great joy that we announce that the full English translation of the History of the Jarung Kashor Stūpa , otherwise known as the Boudhanath Stupa, is now available. Auspiciously, the release of this translation coincides with the Tibetan Year of the Bird – the same year in which, generations ago, the precious Jarung Kashor was first completed and consecrated. The story of this stupa has been told in myriad ways, but one of the best loved and most authoritative is the version first discovered by Khandro Lhatsün Ngönmo and later rediscovered by Yolmowa Shakya Zangpo (15 th century), on his pilgrimage to Samye monastery in Tibet. Having deciphered the text, Shakya Zangpo travelled to the Kathmandu valley in search of this unique and precious stupa. Discovering upon arrival that it had been reduced to rubble, he imm...

Tenpel and a young friend near Jarung Khashor. Once back home in Brazil, I heard that in the middle of an immense valley in the Himalayas there was a great white stupa, where the awakened masters of the past and present would come from days and months of walking to pay homage.   It is said that there was an old woman whose power of aspirations and devotion to the Buddha, and with the help of her four sons, accomplished the extraordinary task of creating the illusory symbol of the body, speech and mind of the enlightened ones, meaning the Great Stupa Jarung Khashor, in the valley nowadays called Kathmandu.  As if in an auspicious dream, those including myself who are searching for answers and spiritual comprehension come to this sacred place surrounded by spiritual practitioners and extraordinary realized masters that are able to fulfill our most deep spiritual wishes.   One of those masters, understanding our motivation and searching but also our difficulties in c...