RYI STUDENT BLOG

How Visitors make me feel at Home   When I was leaving two years ago for Nepal to study at RYI, many people at home were surprised about my choice. Sure, many heard of Nepal as a place where you can do trekking and have some adventures, but studying? That was not really a classic activity associated with Nepal, and especially since it hasn’t been long after the earthquake, people were quite skeptical. However, some of my friends were also excited to know somebody “out there” that they could eventually come and visit. “Yeah right”, I thought to myself. As if they would actually do that. Of course I was surprised then that just after studying at RYI for 2 months, one of my friends spontaneously decided to come to visit me and use the opportunity to do some trekking. That was the first visit and at the beginning I found it a bit strange to have people from my “old life” join me in my “new life” for a period of time. But since then, I have gotten quite used to having at least on

རི་རྒྱལ།  -  The Glorious Mountains ཨའ་རི་རྒྱལ་ཡའ་རི་རྒྱལ་ལྷུན་པོ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ས་གོ་ལ་ཡི་རྒྱན་ཆ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ཧིན་ཏུ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ཁ་གཏད་ཡང་ཡིན། ཁྱེད་ནི་གཏེར་རིགས་ཀུན་ཀྱི་བང་མཛོད་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་རྩེ་ཤིང་སྟོང་གི་བཤམ་ཁང་ཡང་ཡིན ཁྱེད་ནི་མཛོ་གཡག་ལུག་གི་ལྷ་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁྱེད་ནི་འགྲོ་བ་མི་ཡི་དཔུང་གཉེན་ཡང་ཡིན། Ah’ mountains yeah, the spontaneous mountains! You are the ornament of the earth, And you are the rival to Indian ocean. You are the storehouse of all minerals, And you are the museum of thousand trees. You are the heaven for Dzos, yaks, and sheep, And you are the protector for human beings. ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དགུང་ལ་བསྙེགས་པའི་སྐྱེ་སྟོབས་ལ་སུ་ཡིས་འགྲན་ཕོད་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་མེད་ཞི་བའི་གླུ་དབྱངས་དེ་སུ་ཡིས་གོ་ཡང་ནུས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་དབུ་སྐྲའི་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་་དྲི་ཞིམ་དེ་སུ་ཡིས་རྔུབ་ནུས་ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བུ་གའི་དངས་གཙང་རྒྱུགས་ཆུ་དེ་སུ་ཡིས་སྤྱོད་པར་ནུས། Who can compare with your sky-reaching growth? Who can hear your music of silence and peace? Who can inhale the natural fragrance

Colloquial Tibetan Is Fun                   I  have taken colloquial Tibetan I this semester, thinking that it would complement my learning of Tibetan Buddhism. However, learning colloquial Tibetan in RYI proves to be just more than that, its great fun. To be honest, I had missed a lot of classes this semester, nevertheless the time when I was in the class were all about learning with fun.                   The classes are managed in such a way that one does not get monotonous by the similar way of teaching. For that, RYI divides the course into three different ways; the master class, language partner class and the boost class. The master class involves the learning of the grammar, language partner class is about interaction with another Tibetan partner and boost class is revisiting what you have learned. All these classes are conducted in a different setting, for example the Language partner class is conducted in the RYI restaurant, boost class in another room and so on.