11 July 2016
Well, two almost crying moments today: 1) when told of my learning partner working in an open pit coal mine when she was fourteen; 2) puja performed by Tsering’s sister Chokey. On the first: we were practicing English and talking about school: primary, middle, secondary or vocational. Tai Chi [name changed] has more schooling, completing vocational school in computers and secretarial school—except their school had no computers so they just read about them out of books. Qi Gong [name changed] only completed primary school. She had to return home to take care of siblings (cook, clean, garden) when her parents were in India. Her father apparently was sick. She then had to go to work in the mine, which involved shoveling coal into some sort of coal crusher. She was paid 25 ren per day, not much. Her boss knew of her home situation so would give her 2 or 3 ren extra. She worked at the mine for a year, until her brother returned home and began to support the family. She continued to work in her family’s vegetable garden. I asked both why they left Tibet, and both said the same thing: they had a dream, or dreams, that the Dalai Lama told them to come. Tai Chi’s dream had H.H. standing with open arms to welcome her. Qi Gong’s had him in yellow robes wearing his pointy lama hat. I bought them some little books by H.H. to take with them on their train trip to New Delhi [to obtain legal documents for traveling outside of India] . . . We were fortunate to see Chokey [Lama Tsering’s sister] set up a puja at her home altar. She explained the seven offering bowls of water, the butter lamp, said her prayers, but is too crippled with rheumatoid arthritis to do prostrations. She blessed Dan and me with a leaf from the bodhi tree, the one where the Buddha received enlightenment. She also gave us special coins from holy places in Nepal. Las of all, though perhaps it should be first, Tsering gave Dan and me threads blessed by H.H. He expertly tied them on our wrists. All in all an amazingly religious day. [Photo is of Dan Parker, my partner in this amazingly religious day] |
Author Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute. Archives
December 2021
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