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Bhutan’s Tshechu Festivals: Masked Dancers Enact Ancient Legends

This is an excerpt from my book proposal “Footprints of the Enlightened Ones”. Sending warm greetings. All is well here. I’m grateful for lovely summer weather in the forests of Paro. There are secrets in the mountains of Bhutan. And deep memories in flesh and blood. Not sure where to begin my story. But before I can tell you about the Tshechu dancers, we have to go back to the 8th century to meet the famous Guru Rinpoche. Even his name conjures a link between Indian “Guru” and Tibetan “Rinpoche” traditions. Yes, he was both. Padmasambhava traveled far and wide, meditating…

I Finish My Book Proposals and Learn to Do Laundry

Well, today I finally finished ALL my book proposals. The last proposal was for the Bhutan Travel Cookbook, which I decided to call “Walking in the Footprints of the Enlightened Ones”. This one was a challenge, including sample chapters and 75 MB of 90 pages in Word. I believe it will be a lovely book, like a multi-media portal into the Soul of Bhutan through memoir, stories, photos, and food flavors. All is well and I’m feeling a bit tired. Now I’m actively looking for an agent and publisher. All my book proposals are online here. Buddha Speaks, Channeled Conversations…

Exploring Threads in Time, Roots of Tibetan Chöd Practice

Who is Padmasambhava? The energy of Padmasambhava is very strong in Bhutan. His special vibration is one of the main reasons I’m here, since he’s been present in my meditations for a long time. Padmasambhava is said to have been born about 700 years after Christ in the NW Indian province of Oḍḍiyāna. He traveled and studied with many great Indian masters, and was able to purify negative obstacles in Tibet and Bhutan to make way for the great tantric schools of Tibetan Buddhism. This was part of a shift away from Bön Buddhism that lasted many centuries. Statues of Padmasambhava can…

We Visit Paro Dzong and Spend Time with Family

Whew! English summer school with my extended family is over, and all projects are finished. To celebrate, we visited temples, museums, gathered with family and ate lots of Bhutanese food. I’m saying good-bye to my friend Baby, whose English has improved vastly in the three weeks we held our home school. Here we’re at the National Museum in Paro overlooking the town and valley. The National Museum of Paro sits on the hill overlooking the city. It contains a wealth of rare information about Bhutan’s history, traditions, and natural beauty. This is the Rinpung Dzong, the largest Dzong and fortress…

Bhutan Greeting Cards with Buddha Quotes from the Kangyur

These art greeting cards illustrate some of the cultural beauty of Bhutan. I designed the cards from many of my photographs with other added elements. Each card contains a Buddha quote from the Tibetan Kangyur, the sacred book of the Bhutan Drukpa Lineage, translated into English by the Khyentse Foundation.

Clear Skies and Summer School in Bhutan

This is the final week of English summer school. Baby and Kunga worked very hard to finish their projects. Baby finished her eight essays in English. Kunga did a book report on the novel “Heidi”, and made a model of the solar system. Kunga finished his model of the solar system. He used paper mache over balloons, painted each planet and arranged them in their orbits – an excellent accomplishment! Kunga wrote a lab report to describe how he made the solar system model. This is one of many pages in Baby’s essay book. She wrote many many pages. This…

Who is Zhabdrung, the Father of Bhutan?

By Tshering Yangdon. A large statue of a smiling bearded Lama with a red hat dominates the hall of every monastery in Bhutan. Who is the father of Bhutan? Zhabdrung Rinpoche was a brilliant Tibetan Lama of royal birth, named Ngawang Namgyal. Destined by dynastic lineage to be the spiritual-political head of state in Ralung, Tibet during the 17th century, he was forced out of Tibet due to power struggles and disputes over rightful succession to the throne. Invited to Bhutan, he eventually became a powerful force for spiritual and administrative unification, establishing peace and harmony in the face of…

We Visit the Buddha’s Birthplace in Lumbini, Nepal

We took a trip to Lumbini. It’s an eight-hour drive from Kathmandu. Yep, we left at 4am with the Lama, his daughter Baby, myself, and Lama’s trusted driver Manbadhur. I didn’t know what to expect. It was an amazingly beautiful and surprising trip. Yep, it was 8-hours to Lumbini and 8-hours back. Fortunately Manbadur’s car is comfortable, and he’s an excellent driver. The drive through the Nepal countryside was dusty and dirty. Finally we reached the gate to Lumbini, also dusty and dirty. But once we entered the arches into the site of the Buddha’s birthplace at Lumbini, it was…

The Five Kings of Bhutan, and a Sixth in the Making

By Tshering Yangdon. Bhutan is a kingdom that follows a constitutional monarchy form of government. It is one of the happiest countries in the world where people live in harmony, led by the faithful and kind-hearted kings. Words cannot express the Bhutanese people’s love and respect for their kings. Bhutan’s king is known as Druk Gyalpo, meaning “King of the Dragon Kingdom”. First King, Ugyen Wangchuck The first king of Bhutan was born on June 11, 1862. He spent his boyhood mostly in eastern Bhutan. He ascended to the throne on December 17, 1907. This was the beginning of Bhutan’s hereditary monarchy.…

The Divine Madman of Bhutan, Drukpa Kunley

Who is Drukpa Kunley? It’s time for you to meet Drukpa Kunley, the Divine Madman, one of the most celebrated characters in Bhutan (1455–1529). He came from the Tibetan tradition of “crazy wisdom”. This is a rare and legitimate Buddhist path which embraces actions that may seem bizarre or “crazy”, but are in fact part of the practitioner’s descipline toward his or her own liberation, as well as that of others. Drukpa Kunley was born into that noble clan of the Ralung Monastery in western Tibet. Believing that the strict conventions kept people away from learning the true teachings of…