Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Since this is a text-generation task rather than a code implementation, here is the paragraph:
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Khensur Rinpoche’s first memory — his mother bedridden, her hands turned black and tough from an unknown illness — anchors this 92-minute oral history recorded at Buddha House in 1988. An interviewer walks Rinpoche through his childhood in Vindala, a Kham village of thirty households at the fork of two rivers near Dargye Gompa. The conversation covers village farming alongside mountain nomadic life, the mixed livestock each household kept, and a family that included monk uncles who lived mostly at the local monastery. Rinpoche recalls learning to ride horses before age four and a piece of childhood mischief — urinating on a sick neighbor’s doorway fire — after which the person recovered and locals decided he must be a lama. The session ends with the landscape: mountain meadows, rotating crop fields, and a small hillside monastery where a lama first cut his hair as a young child.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 RS 1988 10 27.mp3
UUID: a3b03d30-fcc4-45ff-b960-856b1d62c76d
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-10-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 92.0 minutes
Words: ~4,437
What’s the thing that I before five six seven eight nine ten, it is Thursday, approximately the twenty seventh of October nineteen eighty eight. It is Thursday, the twenty seventh of October nineteen eighty eight. And I’m going down to interview Khensur Rinpoche, Tibetan life history. This is interview one, tape one. Some some maps of Tibet here.
Perhaps we could begin if Rinpoche could explain what area, what town he was born in. Lhasa. Lhasa. We saw it a minute ago. Getsi.
Getsi. Come. Come must be up here. Come. Come.
Come. Come. Where’s Lhasa? We saw it a minute ago. Where is it?
Maybe must be. It’s We were located last on the big map. There’s a big mountain. It’s near this it’s near it’s not on the map. It’s it’s near Rongpatsa.
Rongpatsa. That’s the nearest place that’s on this map. And it’s but So we need a better map. There’s there’s a very big mountain. Rongpatsa.
At the bottom the base of the So it’s it’s close to to It’s close to Dargye Gompa. Dargye. That this one here. Yeah. This one.
It’s built. Yeah. And it’s I guess it’s somewhere in this region between Is it is it a little village, or how many There’s about thirty houses. Oh, thirty. So some there’s about three hundred people in the village.
Three hundred people. Yeah. This is where Rinpoche was born. Is that right? Yeah.
It’s it’s between Dargye Gompa and Rongpatsa. It’s between these two. And what’s its name? Does it have a name? In this in the trunk.
Vindala. Is that it it’s named from is that its name? It means base of the mountain. So it’s take its yes. Alright.
Yes. It’s clear. Vindala. It’s between Dargye Gompa and and Rongpatsa. It’s between those two.
Those are the two that are shown on the map. So it’s it’s very mountainous. There’s there’s many there’s many large mountain. So there’s a there’s a there’s this mountain in the center and then on each side, they’re flowing down the mountain. There’s these rivers flowing and at the fork, at the confluence of these two rivers is Rinda.
So what do people what work do most people in that village do? Most of them are farmers. Farmers. So what do they farm? Barley wheat.
I have to check that out. It’s one type of It’s gray it’s grain. Yeah. Yes. But I’m not sure what it means.
It says barley, wheat, and. It’s. Yeah. On the mountain itself, are there there are nomads? Uh-huh.
Yeah. Yeah. Drogpas. Yeah. Drogpas.
Yeah. So in in the in the summer For what? They go up into mountains? In the summer. And then in the winter, they come That’s okay.
In the summer they go up in the mountains and then in the wintertime they come down to a small enclosed area where they have like where they have an encampment for the winter season and they live in tents. Is that is that anywhere near your village, that encampment? The the Toppa Marion do Gundu, Tanebores. Yeah. It’s it’s close.
It’s close to where his village Close. Where they came down for the winter. How how many is it miles? Or what is Tarringlodu. Ah.
Tarringlodu. How close? Tarringlodu. Ten minutes walk. Two days?
It take about one hour to walk. One hour’s walk. Yeah. Yeah. So did the village people have ties, like marriage ties with the people up in the hills, or are they different?
They were often married to get in between themselves. Right. Yes. The the nomads and the villagers. Did all the villagers own land?
So they individually owned their land. Right. So there’s a would be he said three hundred and about thirty in a house. Is that right? Thirty houses?
Thirty houses. Thirty houses. Three hundred people. So good. That’s about ten people per household.
Roughly, you can say that. Some some families had five or six members, and some families had fifteen members. Yes. Yes. Yes.
And did they live in individual houses, or did they have shared courtyards? Or because of the. Yeah. I mean, like, such a. Right.
So they each had their own individual houses. Right. Yeah. Right. Would they be like our houses with a with a fence enclosed around them, or is it just the house and then open to the I’m trying to get a picture.
Not not the. Most of them had a fence around each of the individual houses. Uh-huh. Do they have animals? And then So they had yaks?
So they had they had yaks and dzo, which are and then they had They had cows. Uh-huh. Oh. They had sheep and goats. Horses.
Two. Two. Horses? Donkeys. Donkeys.
S and s, I guess, what you’re saying. Donkey. Oh, mule. So it’s a mule problem because it doesn’t it doesn’t give offspring. Yeah.
Yeah. That’s right. Mule. So it’s a we say mule, don’t we? Cross.
Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Papa.
Pigs. Pigs. Pigs. And goats. Sheep.
Sheep. Mhmm. Did every household have all these animals? So they all each household had this had a very a large ranch. Some of them had all these different types of animals.
Must be a very prosperous area. So there there are different levels of wealth in the village. But in general, they were they were well off. But some of them were much better off than others. Yes.
Was it was it some structure of So so, I mean, all the all the villagers had a field. And then A field? Yeah. At least a field. And then some of them had more than more than just one field.
Yes. But and all the and some of the the nomads, the herders, some of them had up five to six hundred. Of them had a thousand animals. Oh. Some of them had had, like, thirty five horses.
Some of them Some of them had two hundred dzos. Do they have dzo and horses together, or would they be different herds? Some some of them had sheep. Every six hundred sheep. Uh-huh.
Nice. Is it is there a big difference between sheep and goats? Because I couldn’t tell the difference up there. There. We you have sheep in Australia.
Yeah. And goats. Wild goats. Just like the goats and sheep in Australia. Sheep, they they give up the wool.
Yeah. But you don’t get So they don’t eat they they they wouldn’t eat the meat of goats. They wouldn’t. Because it didn’t well, it didn’t smell good. But Uh-huh.
So I asked them why they had goats, and they for the purpose of milking. Oh. They milked the goats, and they they yes. But they ate they ate sheep. Oh, it’s interesting.
So the if they had a lot of goats, they wouldn’t have a lot of horses or if they had a lot of goats. Yeah. So if they had one family had a lot of horses and sheep and dzos, they they would only have a few goats. There’s something about that that didn’t really go. Just enough for for milking.
Yeah. Can I just play this back to see if your voice is picking because it’s Did Rinpoche come from a big family? So there were ten members in his family. Ten. Mhmm.
Who were they? Grandfather? Father and mother. Yeah. Two.
And then And then two relatives? The youngest too. So Mhmm. The and the one before him is a is is now a nun, so it’s a sister. Yeah.
Then So the next one so he was which is the youngest, and then above that was a sister who a full sister Full sister. Who became a nun. And then above that, before that was a half sister. Say same mother or same father? Papa No.
So it’s not right. So the both the same mother and father. Oh. The the Oh. Oh, yeah.
That’s his big sister. So they had he had two sisters and himself. Oh. Himself. Oh.
That’s all. That’s all? Just three. Yeah. So where where do the other ten come from?
Did you say ten? Mhmm. Mhmm. So his mother’s relative his mother had three relatives. Two were monks.
Oh. One was a nun. Oh. Sister. Her the husband Mhmm.
His big sister. Mhmm. So it’s they had three children. Boys. Three boys.
Did did the two monks and the nun live in the house with them? So there was altogether, there was there were two nuns and two monks in the house. Oh. Because they were his his older sister was a If it’s possible, how would the other two relate it to his mother? Were they sisters or brothers?
So oh, so they must they’re they have the same mother and father, so they must be brothers and they must be her brothers and sisters. Right. So the two monks, most of the time, they lived in Dargye Gompa. In Dargye Gompa. Dargye Gompa.
That was that on the map? Yeah. Yeah. They would spend some of the time in the house. Oh, I see.
So sometimes they’ll come and Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. Some people. That was We should work this.
Yeah. We should do. I’ll bring a mark in there. Rinpoche, I might find it. Okay.
There’s something. Target. Target. I do She wrapped in? Yeah.
No. I remember So they all All the I went to You’re all children together, were they? All monks young monks together? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Were all friends together. Oh, the same village? Yeah. They’re in different areas. Ah, but they all worked at Yeah.
They were the same they were the same monastery. And so we would say those two monks were Rinpoche’s uncle and and and the nun was his aunt, wouldn’t we? Yeah. Were they at the well, the nun wouldn’t be, but was were the the others at the same monastery? Is this what he’s saying, isn’t it?
Yeah. That they would quite often The two monks were quite often They were always gone. Yeah. Right. What about what about the nuns?
Where did they did they always stay in the house? Your sister and No. So they would always stay in the in the house? Always. There’s no no other place for them for nuns.
There is a there was a nunnery, but they did but they stayed at home. I see. Yeah. So they all stayed at home. Do they go for pilgrimage or retreat Sometimes they would go on pilgrimage which is as long as fifteen to twenty days.
Uh-huh. Right. So nearly a month, fifteen Yeah. So, well, it’s in the same area? Yeah.
Yeah. The the Lhumbhodön. Oh, Lhumbhodön. Yes. Yeah.
In that in that same area. Mhmm. They make a round different holy places. Okay. There we go.
Could we get the names of this family? Or is if you’d rather not, that doesn’t matter. Okay. Nomi. It’s only for interest.
Oh. G s e Wong, w a n g Mhmm. G y a t s o. Oh. Gyatso.
Sayang Ama. Ama Dondrup. Dondrup. Four four seven. Ah, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not so long.
First sister elder sister? Any any day? Rin g l h a m o. Alright. And his sister that was the nun?
The the that’s her. Oh. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Mhmm. And what about his older sister? It’s So this they would give this name Yama if if if the parent would having getting birth to a lot of children who were dying. And the first one that one life.
Alright. Must must have had some older brothers and sisters who didn’t live. So he had about four mothers. Yeah. They gave they gave him a lot of attention.
How much older were his other sisters? Many years or Four years? Four Four years older? He’s not sure, but maybe maybe about eight years older. Which The oldest sister was probably eight years older than he, and the and the nun was four years older, but he’s not sure about it.
No. No. Got it wrong. Yes. It was on my numbering sister.
What was his brother in law’s name? This one that married his eldest sister. You can correct me later. Alright. And the and the three nephews?
Did he remember his grandparents? Were they living when he was little? Mother’s mother. Yeah. He remembers that.
They didn’t live didn’t live with him? Can I can I put we to So his his the pay his parent the grandparents on his father’s side, they didn’t live in the same village? Right. They lived in a different village. So he he he never met his his grandparents on his mother’s side.
Oh. They they already died. Oh, they died? Yeah. Did they come from the same village?
It comes at the. So they were born in that same village? They were. Yes. So is it was it usual for families to live in the same village as their mothers?
I mean Namgoon. Do of marriage, did they live in the same village as the you know what I’m trying say? So, yeah, there was no particular custom to No particular thing like that. It’s just a cult it’s sort of chance. They might go to their husband’s village.
They might go just to another village in distance altogether altogether different. Alright. Oh, that’s interesting. Yay. Does Rinpoche remember his grandparents’ names on his father’s side?
So he he never met them? Never met them. So one of his one of his one of his grandfather’s relatives was was a monk who he did meet. Oh. But So he yeah.
He he met two of their relatives on his grandparents’ side, but he didn’t meet That’s on his father’s side. His father’s yeah. On his father’s side, but he didn’t other than that, he didn’t meet the the other relatives on his father’s side. Father’s side. That’s interesting.
Yeah. Just wonder what was his earliest memories. What can he remember? I wonder how what can he first remember that? When you’re very little.
So when he was about two or three years old, his mother had a disease where her her hands turned black and became very tough. Oh. And Oh. And that’s the first thing that he can remember. That’s his first memory.
I do. He can remember her hands. Oh, yes. Her hands were black and tough. What when they touched him or just just The skin was tough?
He doesn’t know what what the disease was? No. I don’t got He can remember. He can remember what you were playing. Yeah.
If if Rinpoche if you can give me as as exactly as possible what he says, it makes it really moving in a book. You know? So she couldn’t get out of bed. She would so she wasn’t able to wash her her hands. That’s what he remembered.
Mhmm. Corn on the board. Uh-huh. Mhmm. So who looked after him when she passed away?
The nun on his mother’s side. Oh, we didn’t get those names. Perhaps we can get those names. So it’s Locust and auntie. Yeah.
She she she she began to take care. She was like his his substitute mother. Yeah. Yeah. She he and he she took care of him and made his food and everything.
Did his father remarry? So he didn’t marry again. He was about fifty years old at that time. Was did he when did he first become a monk? So what did he do, you know, when he was little up till seven?
What were some of his memories? What mischief did he get up to? The marbles. The same sort of beads. Yeah.
They they use these as marbles and shoot them. They wouldn’t roll that flat. Mhmm. They they’re dirty. No.
They they would work pretty well. Oh, and then this checking, you put the Oh, you You put in this. Then then oh, this make a ball out of feathers. A ball out of feathers. And then and then just throw it back and forth.
Chicken feather. Chicken feathers? Yeah. That is. Oh, listen.
So it’s the the the the Oh. This one. And I think Tenzin said he used to ride a horse. When did he learn to ride? Oh, Truk.
Truk. So maybe about six years old. When he learned to ride? He was riding a horse. Who taught him to ride and what can he remember the horse’s name?
His horse? So he didn’t have a he didn’t need a teacher. Didn’t need it? Uh-huh. So everyone everyone was everyone rides.
He just watches. There were no cars or trains in that area. They had to go anywhere. They had to ride a horse. There was no particular person who showed them how to ride.
Oh, wonderful. Telling people go and pay a lot of money to have lessons here. So how old was he when he first was riding horses? Almost from Six, I think he’s No. Unless he said he learned to ride, but Okay.
He would have been on horseback by three perhaps. Oh, I know. Almost as soon as he Just riding. Oh. I don’t know.
So he doesn’t remember exactly, but he So it’s old three or four years old. So there would have always been horses there. So at the age of six, he was riding horses alone by himself. Did he ride with his father at first? His auntie.
So his, yeah, his father, but also his older relatives, he would ride with. Older relatives. Yeah. Who were they? Figure soup.
Yeah. My relatives in the village. Think No. They they use the word relative to refer to anyone. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it might have been a sister even. You’re not you would So they would just the women would just ride on normal trail riding, but they wouldn’t race like the men did.
The men used to race the horses. When did he go in his first race? When they were riding, used to bend down and touch the ground. Oh. And they used to while they were riding, they would take their take their gun and shoot their gun.
Guns or bows and arrows. He said gun. Did he? Yeah. Gun.
So when did he learn to handle guns? I can’t hear that. Oh, didn’t in in general, he knew how to shoot or shoot guns, but he didn’t shoot them while he was riding. Oh. He didn’t do that.
He was a good boy, was Oh, I knew that. He didn’t he didn’t ride he didn’t shoot guns when he was riding, but he knew how to shoot guns in general. Oh. Can he remember some of his best friends, who they were, and what what sort of things they used to do together. Yeah.
He remembers his best friends. What did you wanna ask about them? Oh, just their names and whether they’re relatives or where they lived and how did they sleep at each other’s houses or what sort of thing? Did they go out camping together? You know?
They weren’t his relatives. So they they were in the same village. Mhmm. Can now do Karakari. Arrows.
Oh. So the let’s he did he had a custom that if somebody was sick in the house, they would light a fire at the doorway and put put stones on the doorway. Remember, once he he peed on the fire, put off the fire, and he got he got the stones all dirty, and he got rid of the stones. And and the person who was sick got better, and they thought he and they thought he must be a Lama. Like halfway through this side.
What about was any schooling at all? I don’t suppose there would have been. But when did you first learn the alphabet and things? Was that after he went to the monastery or became a monk before To write. Only after he had become a monk, before he became a monk, didn’t study at all.
Alright. So what what did they do all day? Just play marbles and feather balls? Or did they work? Because he was he was the only boy.
Yeah. He was treated very special. That’s what I was asking So what did his father do most of the time then? Can I get What sort of work? Can I get spent his time?
So he used to stay up on the mountains in summer to tend the horses. What all summer? How many months would yeah, there is a good cherries. Will put you up in the mountain for three months. Oh, I see.
Stay with his father. Yeah. Yeah. Who else was up there? So the others had to tend the fields during the summer because they weren’t they didn’t raise any crops during the winter?
Yeah. So oh, so they were down like his sister sisters and his aunties. They were doing the field work. Did did the did the monks and nuns work too when they were staying at home? Do you know me?
The nuns did. His aunties? I mean Oh, terrific, So, only the nuns didn’t do the work in the field, but when they brought in the crops they would help, for example, to put the crops on the roof to dry them out, for example. It was just I guess, he just said and women, I guess he just means the lay people would work in the field. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. His father must love him very much. He was the smallest and he’s also the only boy. So Yeah.
I just kinda like him very much. Did he ever get angry with him? Did he ever get cranky with him? Tell him off. Do you ever touch with his father?
No. His father towards Rinpoche? This is cheeky, but tell him I’ve heard that Khampas have got bad tempers. Did his father have a bad temper sometime? Get get, you know.
It is. So yeah. Except for it would it never really got very angry at him. Just sometimes he’s just a little bit angry. Sometimes he’s just a little bit angry.
Yeah. Yeah. Ask him, did he do any more mischievous apart from peeing in the fire? Not mischievous. That’s a good one.
Cheeky. I don’t know. I don’t know. Some ways I should look up. It’s good to to know them.
So he remembers that one, but he doesn’t remember. Yeah. If Rinpoche had to describe the country and the environment to people like me who don’t know anything about it? How would he describe that that that place? And what does he remember?
So there’s two two rivers flowing down. Uh-huh. Then there’s a really. This This is is this is two rivers flowing down. They’re coming together.
It’s and then this is a like a ridge, the mountain coming up here. So there was this flat area here where the two rivers joined together in the middle, the fork. There’s small rivers coming down here. So they would alternate between so so there was this area So these were like so there was this ridge coming down here. Think you can’t make trunks out of So there was this ridge coming down here in the flat area.
This is where the village was located here. In the flat? In the flat area. The base. Yeah.
That’s what God’s And then there were these two small rivers coming down each side, so there was like a valley leading down to these two rivers. This is where they actually planted the crops. Yeah. And they would alternate. One year They would alternate planting crop and not planting crop.
Then they would put the they would pasture the animals on the side where they weren’t planting in the area. Oh, the one. That’s brilliant, isn’t it? That’s so sensible. The animals would eat the stubble and leave the droppings for the next year.
Would alternate back and forth. Yeah. Yeah. That’s very good. So it wasn’t It wasn’t a very high mountain here.
Yeah. So there was this very few trees up in as you up higher and higher, there were just there’s very few trees. Not many. Yeah. Very few trees.
So it was, what, too too barren to have more trees? Or There was So there are many, many it wasn’t rocky. It was it was ground. Yeah. There were I guess you would say, there was this was a large pasture area.
They said there was lots of flowers. Oh, this is up on the mountain? Yeah. Oh. Well, I guess it was like a it must have been a plateau.
Alright. A plateau, they said there was like big large meadows. They said by no trees, I guess it means a large it was a So it had probably over the years been cut down, have they? I don’t know. Asking about it.
So it’s very beautiful. All different colored flowers. A pasture land up here. Right. And then down here on this on this small mountain was a small monastery.
Oh. And then Lama Lama and then Tubeko. Tubeko. Tubeko. Tubeko.
Tubeko. Tubeko. Yeah. What’s he used in the? He was the one who I have to check.
Yeah. Who gave who cut Rinpoche’s hair. Oh. And they gave him the name. So this was this was done so that he would become a monk in the future.
Oh, so how old would he have been then? This little Today. And does he remember that, or is he just being told about this? Did he have another name before? So probably didn’t have a name before.
Right. Right. Yeah. Did did this Kushog, Gaden Rinpoche, did he live was he up there alone in the Gompa, or were there many many? Gompa.
The Kushog, Gaden Rinpoche. So there were about maybe eight monks doing retreat there. Oh. And there was a section where they did retreat. There were maybe eight. Oh.
But he lived there all the time, did he? This shifted from Dargye Gompa to this Yes. And began to do retreats there, and he had eight other monks doing retreat with him. Right. Alright.
I think perhaps we should stop there for today. Thank you so much. So