Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The annual blessing at Sera Je — where the abbot carried a sacred knife called a purgoo through crowds of monks and government officials — opens this 92-minute account from Khensur Rinpoche of his early monastic life. He then walks through his own ordination: the abbot’s examination, prostrations to prove physical fitness, and formal entry into the Kham district house. The conversation fills in daily life at the monastery — quarters barely five metres square, earthen stoves burning dried dung patties, each monk cooking for himself — and Losar celebrations with fried pastry and devotional songs used as deathbed prayers. The session closes with a story of a lama favoured by Mao Zedong who was poisoned by a Tibetan official near Chamdo around 1952.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 RS 1988 11 24.mp3
UUID: c1a1df7f-558e-4a51-a0de-1e1006e46834
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-11-24
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 92.6 minutes
Words: ~4,760
So it was colder in the journey, and in the mornings, he’d walk for a while, then when he got tired, he’d ride his horse. Oh. So it snowed. It did snow? Mhmm.
What were they wearing? Be very warm once. Pants and shirt and chuba. I think it’s fox fur cap. Big one.
And it can come down over the — yes. Down over the ears. A katze. Oh. Oh, and a wool cape of some kind.
Ah. That’s what I wonder because of just a chuba. Yeah. A woolen one. Thought that’s what was sort of like Kartse.
You know, Kartse. Kartse. Isn’t it? Yeah. How did Rinpoche first arrive at Sera Monastery?
Who did he meet and how? So they went to the — and offered a khatag there. In prayers? Then on the twenty sixth of the twelfth month of the Tibetan year, he went to Sera? Sera.
Yes. So there are many monks from his birth area. They gave him a room. He requested him to be his teacher? Requested who?
Oh. His name. Gyalpen. Gyalpen. This is Gyalpen.
Gyal, G-Y-A-L. G-Y-A-L. Yeah. Pen, P-E-N. Chuntset.
Chuntset. C-H-U-N? T-Z — T-Z-A-E. This you — to check these eventually. What does that name?
It has Gyal. Gyal is like Victor, king — king — yeah. And pen is benefit. Uh-huh. I know that.
Yeah. He’s requesting to be his teacher? And then he went and he gave him his khatag. Only his khatag. So then next day, went to visit the special deity of Sera Je.
He went to visit Sera Je — they had a special special day at the — you want to visit the special deity of Sera Je? The — you don’t didn’t say. Tansen. Tansen. Tansen. Mhmm.
And then there was a very precious — it’s called a purgoo. It’s like a special knife. Mhmm. Like your knife? Yeah.
And this was considered a very holy object. Anyway — and then some kind of divine power. Some — divine power? Some kind of — yes. Power?
Yeah. And so he went the next day, went to visit that deity. The image of that deity. Where was that? In Sera at Sera Je.
It was in Sera. Yeah. Sera Je. So then at this time, many people came for this, like, to see this blessing of this knife, this purgoo. Mhmm.
And the abbot of Sera Je, he was blessing people with this purgoo. It was considered a very holy object. Mhmm. So he went along — Mhmm. The next day.
And was that something that happened every year? Every year. This knife. Jetsün Lama. Yeah.
His holiness. And then they — and then all the government officials came. And then they took the knife all around the city and blessed these people. And then they went back to Sera Je to the prayer room, the main prayer hall. And they had a high throne in there for the abbot.
And then all the monks received the blessing with this knife. What was the name of — the camp of. One with Gontse. Was this the first time that Rinpoche had seen His Holiness the Dalai Lama?
Oh. No. He didn’t go. He didn’t know. No.
But they — they are abducted. Yeah. Oh, I see. They just took it to the main — to the palace to bless this whole — that the that’s the palace. That — that’s where this — that was being — that must’ve been the — that’s what we call the palace.
No. Okay. So there was one — let’s say, it’s one of the temples inside the palace. There are many temples inside the palace itself, and one of them. Yeah.
Which one? He’s telling me I’ve been there. But — so there are many — there’s one that has the image of Avalokiteśvara, the very famous one. That’s the one he met — he went to see when he first came to Lhasa? In the palace.
In the palace. Yeah. There are many different temples in the palace itself. They went to one of the temples. That’s a very old one, isn’t it?
This area — is that the oldest temple? So, I mean, this is I guess, the temples were built at the same time as the Potala. So it’s as old as the Potala. I think I’ve got a photo of that. I’ll bring it next time.
Oh, the. Oh. Oh. So so then the actual the red building? Yeah.
It’s called — it’s referred to it. Uh-huh. Right. So that entire building. Oh.
It’s — oh. Beginning to understand right. How did Rinpoche find Sera after Darge Gompa? Was it very different? What did he notice?
So he was very happy — everything was very holy. There were many holy things around, and he’s very happy to be there. So there were tulkus. Oh, so most of the monks that had tulku status were old Sera monks. Mhmm.
And then when he went to Sera, he met — there were all these tulkus. Mhmm. There were all these tulkus and all these great Geshes. And he was — there was a — he had heard about this and so he was very happy to be there and meet all these people and all these holy objects. So he only stayed one day in Sera.
Mhmm. And after having made request to his teacher, he then left. He requested his teacher on the twenty seventh. On the twenty eighth, he went back to the place that he had been staying when he first arrived in Lhasa. Oh.
To get — and then on the twenty ninth, he returned with all his possessions. Oh. He just went to go get his things. Where had he been staying? One of his trading partners.
One of his uncle’s trading partners. No. No. No. So it’s Tibetan, not — it’s — really?
Mhmm. He’s a monk. He was a trader for — so he was — he was in partnership with his uncle trading for Darge Gompa. That’s where he — so when he first arrived, that’s where he put all his things. So he yeah.
So he became a monk on the next day, on the thirtieth. Because the next day after that was New Year, and it was very — I would have thought it would be good if he became a monk before the New Year. Alright. So it was the last day of the old year. So then he had he would have been considered to have been a monk for one year. So then he went to the abbot, and he had to carry tea and some money.
And his money — I’m trying to find out what his money was about. It’s called — have you seen? I think. It’s some kind of money. Is it — written money with a — not paper money?
Silver. Silver money. Circle. Is it holding up? Yeah.
No. No. No. No. No.
I didn’t know what you said. I meant to bring some today. I’ve got some little coins. I think you might have had something bigger. I bought — I got some little old.
They’re silver and bronze. Uh-huh. Yes. Yes. Do you — Dronga.
Dronga. Dronga. That’s a silver one. Yeah. I thought I had one with a hole — what could he have bought for it?
Very — so it’s not worth — it’s silver, so it’s not worth all that much. I’ll bring my coins. And I’ll bring my coins next week. I’ve got some.
And I had some paper money too. Yeah. Yeah. Ask him about the paper money. Money that you brought last time — they had the silver money, and they also had lots of Indian money.
Ah. Uh-huh. Later on, they started printing paper money? Later. Five, ten, twenty five.
Whatever. Could you ask Rinpoche what that coin’s called? So they would call this coin — D-R-O-M. K-A-R-P-O.
What does that mean? Do you know? So Dromkarpo is just the name of the coin. Right. Right.
Yeah. Karpo means usually — I mean, karpo means white. Ah. The silver. The white one.
Is it that — this began as they started printing paper money, this became rarer and rarer. Oh, they stopped they stopped making them, did they? Lots of paper, but there wasn’t much silver. So yeah. So they stopped making the silver ones, and they became very rare.
Yeah. Julia, I’ve got a little one. Would it be bronze or some sort of other metal, brown metal? Copper? Yeah.
It must be copper. Sang. Yeah. Copper. Yeah.
I think it’s copper. It’s sang. I call it sang. Think that’s copper. Probably mixed or something.
Yeah. Yeah. Copper. I’ll bring it mixed. To it.
Sang. Sang. Sang, S-A-N-G. Sang. Sang.
I think that’s copper. But I say it’s not pure copper. No. Like the ones you had, not like this one, like the ones you had? Yeah.
And also copper. Yeah. Yeah. That way. And then he went to meet the abbot?
And he dressed up as a monk? And one older monk took him? And he offered prostration? He asked him many questions like, where are you from? What was your district?
Who was your teacher? How old are you? Mhmm. So he has to be examined in order to make sure that he’s not dumb. Yes.
He’s able to speak. And he did full prostrations. To see if there’s any — having bodily defects. Oh. Oh.
That’s very practical, isn’t it? The reason for prostrations. Yeah. They have to do that. It’s required.
And then he gave him his protection strength. So he said you should remain humble and study well. And he went to meet the disciplinarian — the monastery disciplinarian. The, yeah, the college disciplinarian. And there was a big offering ceremony.
He went to there was a — he went to meet one Rinpoche there? Mhmm. Then he went to the district house. There was — district house. The disciplinarian?
Then he went to the great meeting hall. The official of the entire monastery, then — where they have a joint — you know, Sera Je is one of the colleges in there. Yes. So they have a — he had to go to meet the official who was in charge of the entire monastery. Ah.
Then then he went to the Kham district house. Mhmm. Kham. Kham. Kham.
That’s the whole. That’s his district. Oh, in Kham. Yeah. That’s what it is.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So the district from there. Yeah. The district house.
That’s where they stay. According to districts. Uh-huh. And the — oh. The teacher of the district house and the treasurer. Then he went to meet them.
Yes. He said that he had been to the abbot and the abbot had given him permission to become a monk and that he should request him, the teacher at the district house to make him a monk. Ah. Then — so, I mean, even at this time, he wasn’t actually a monk. He was entering into the training as a novice monk.
Oh. Did he have his hair shaved? Yeah. Had all the monks’ clothing. His head shaved.
So he was — they said, like, entering into the training of being a monk. He wasn’t actually — he hadn’t taken the vows of a monk. Oh, okay. Did he wear the monk’s robes when he came to Lhasa, or did he only put them on after he went to Sera? So, only when he first went to see the abbot did he start wearing monk’s clothing?
Did he wear it before in Rinda or in Darge? So sometimes when he stayed at the monastery, he’d wear monks’ clothing, but in the home, he didn’t. Very interesting. And about the colleges at Sera, how was the college chosen for him? How did — why was it — he according to the district that they came from.
So wherever the area, there was a tradition within an area that they’d all become members of one particular college. So a rule that you couldn’t join another college. So do we have a tradition of going to this college and we can’t go to another? Yes. Yes.
I know all about that. And could Rinpoche just explain how many colleges there were for the books so Westerners can understand? So there were three colleges at Sera. And then many — there were thirteen district houses. Ah. There is a lot.
How many monks per house? That that was a great deal. Would it? Yeah. Then a newcomer comes in?
So at first, there weren’t so many — he was talking about his particular khangsten. Yeah. At first, there weren’t so many. And then as they started having more and more trouble with the Chinese, the Chinese started making more trouble in Kham, his khangsten grew.
But he thinks that maybe initially when he arrived there, there were three hundred monks in his khangsten. In his — it is his district house. District — when you first arrived, there were about three hundred. It’s called his district house. We call it —
So it’s spelled T-R-I-H-O-R. Oh. You have to check on that. That’s very big. How was the house structured?
Who cooked, and where did they all sleep and that sort of thing? So they didn’t have a common kitchen — each person — they had their individual kitchen, and they would only — for each monk? Each each — not. Yeah. Each monk has own kitchen.
Oh. As many — each house would have a kitchen. If there was one monk living there or whether there were three monks living in the house, each house would have a kitchen. So, they all cook for themselves. They only — but they would have, like, if they had an offering ceremony at their district house, then they would make tea and things like that for all the monks at the offering ceremony.
Three hundred. Yeah. But they didn’t have a common kitchen. So there were little houses for just a few monks each within this district house? This is what they call district houses.
It’s like they’re a cluster of places in this — well, they — it doesn’t mean they’re physically together, but they would be members of this — yes. Just and they would do a lot of things together. Yeah. You know? So it’s like the structure.
There’d be Sera and then Sera Je. Within Sera Je, they’d be — Mhmm. You know, getting — what about on the physical level? Where did all those three hundred monks from that house live then? This — the newcomer comes in.
Most of the monks had their own house. Most had their own end of their house. Oh. But it was very small. It would be like — we can not imagine it.
We’ll see. Maybe — so just five meters by maybe five meters by four meters. Room. Fireplace in the room? It was in the room.
So there’d be a little room with a fireplace in it? A little separate room. Yeah. The. Yeah.
That was only for preparing food and cooking — yeah. Just like kitchen. Yeah. And then they’d have a living quarter. But presumably, it might heat a little bit too, but it’d be cold.
They had — so they’d have this big place for storing water, then they’d have the stove, and then they did use dung. Mhmm. Maybe they could store their dung there for cooking. Tell him I’m very interested about dung, how they actually prepare it. Do they mix it with straw or — because I saw it all over Lhasa, and I wanted to understand.
So they just pick up the cow droppings. Droppings. And then they shape it into patties — yeah. And put it against the wall in the sun and let it dry. Yeah.
Then it was dry on the outside. Yeah. That’s a — they turn it over and let it dry on the other side. Ah. And there’s nothing mixed with it.
No straw? The straw. Dry grass. No. They don’t blame.
No. They mix up — people would come from the outside and sell it to monks. It’d be already dried and everything. Yeah. I saw it everywhere in Lhasa.
I saw this dung on walls. Wood is very scarce. Wood is very scarce. Yes. And it’s very sensible to do that.
And it burns well? Burns well. Has to be dried out properly, though. Yeah. Do they use that also in —
So if they had wood, they used wood. But some places didn’t have wood. So some places, they use horse dung, and they would dry that out, and they’d have — they’d use bellows on the front. Oh, okay. Oh, did his home use wood mostly?
Or — so it is the cow dung and horse. Horse dung. So, he would in the morning, he’d go down into the where the animals were, and then they’d get all the droppings, and then they’d take them up on the roof and shade them and dry them out on the roof. On the roof? Yeah.
How long? They dry very quickly. Do they? How quickly? It took many days, but since it was thin — I mean, maybe three days. Oh, that’s not long. Do think we should have about it? Do think we should have about it? So, in that little kitchen — just it’s hard to imagine that it would have had a little — that’s perhaps the shelf and then the kitchen here.
Did it have a wall, or was it just in the same room? And it did have a door? Or yeah. It goes like this — so it’s just more or less a curtain running across the room. And then there is a — oh.
There was a stove here — uh-huh. And a place to store water — yeah. And a door going out to the outside — yeah. And then the place where they kept their clothes. It was just — kept the clothes.
Oh, hidden here. Yeah. Yeah. But it was just — it wasn’t a wall. It was just a curtain around.
Yeah. Yeah. How was the stove? Just something on the floor with a — the top — top cut — top cut. It was an earthen fireplace.
Yeah. It’s something I think. And the fire goes Nachi? So it’s built in. So there’d be two — so there was only one or two people who lived in there, so they didn’t have many holes.
Uh-huh. And on the only — one or two people living in this room. Yeah. So they didn’t need many holes up there. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So, there’s this room, then there’d be a bed here. You’d have a bed here. And then, there’d be an altar here.
Mhmm. Mhmm. And then, sometimes, if there were two, then the other — yeah. Person would stay. But did he have a room to himself when he came?
When he first came? There were some some of the houses that had three levels. So the place — his house, they lived in there was three stories. Mhmm. And then the entry — this is the ground one?
This is — this is all this. This is the plan on the second floor. He lived on the second floor. Oh. Uh-huh.
There was one huge room, a big room where three monks stayed. Yeah. And then there’d be these individual rooms. Ah. One, two, three, four, five.
Five more individual rooms. The — so you’d have to go through each other’s room. Then there was a door that they entered in, and this was the big room. Uh-huh. And then — so he lived in this big room with three monks.
So yeah. So he had four people in his room. They were from the same place. Ah, were they all young? Yeah.
Yeah. They were young monks. Oh, that was nice. Oh, from back home. So yeah.
So, yeah, same place. They all came from the same place. But they had come before — Mhmm. Previously. So they had been there already one year before him.
But he was one year too. Unless I got like you in trouble. One year and one day. So they would more or less have shown him around, looked after him a bit. Yeah.
They. Uh-huh. So they asked him to come stay with them, and then they helped him out. They didn’t have — at that time, their khangsten didn’t have many — they had many living quarters, so they — it was difficult to find a place to stay. So they told him to come stay with them.
Oh, which didn’t have — oh. His khangsten now. His district. Oh, because there were so many people coming because of the Chinese, is it? Not at first.
There wasn’t a power outage. But there was one era. Mhmm. So there’s a limited space. And so they couldn’t fit many buildings yet.
Uh-huh. And up to that time, they only had one monk per room. Uh-huh. So they didn’t have many places to put — rooms in. And so at that time, they weren’t many places for monks to stay.
Uh-huh. On those days — at about five o’clock in the morning, they had an assembly. No. No. Tea.
Tea. So so so. So each person brought their own. Uh-huh. You have to explain anyway because I used to go — the different shapes.
Many different cups. This is like a special pastry they make. Yeah. Some of were he — oh. Yeah.
Yeah. I think I — and these were big ones. Really big? Really big. Oh, only not little.
No. Many many just — yeah. Most of them make big ones, they stack them up. Oh. Like, I remember Rinpoche had six of them.
He ate six. Yeah. Seven even. What about khapse? Each person got six cups.
Oh. So how’s it made — it’s made with tsampa? Tsampa? No. Flour.
Flour. Flour and wheat flour. What’s toshi? Doshi — wheat flour. Wheat — oh, wheat flour.
Is it sweet? Normal. Normal. Normal. Really?
It’s sweet. It is sweet. Must be making your mouth water. So this was the first assembly that he had been doing. He got all these cups.
Flour. Too bad. Too bad. Too much wheat. Wheat.
Make a special very thick porridge — Mhmm. Like wheat porridge — Mhmm. On Losar morning — oh. Where it used to come from.
Oh, in come. In come. The small ones, are they in different shapes, or they just — yeah. Yeah. I think I saw some in Sydney that they made for the Tibetan festival.
That’d be the same, would it? Yeah. Some — they fried? Some of them are they fried? Yeah.
They brown very quickly. Yeah. I think I’ve seen one — that’s a sugary thing. And they eat those with tea? We — you do?
Oh, just the same. You dunk it in the tea. Good. They last a long time. I mean, sometimes they keep them for six, eight months.
So they might spread over the year. Mhmm. It’d be very hard. Rinpoche ate all his at once. Was he sick?
Never. So what happens then? First, they go to their teacher. It’s very important when they offer a scarf. Mhmm.
They carry incense and a scarf and go and visit the other monasteries. They dress up very well. It comes down. Comes down. Then they go.
Yeah. I can’t find it. It’s my head. Big matte black. They might have changed the name.
They might have — so oh, I was just wondering how Rinpoche actually chose his teacher or how it was decided he should first. You know? I mean, now this was before — yeah. Yeah. Oh, sorry.
So they had they celebrated for three days. New Year for three days. Mhmm. Played lots of games. What sort of games?
His own area when he where he used to do it in Kham. They would sing and dance like that. Just folk songs or religious songs or just everything? So these were just — they weren’t particularly religious songs and dances. Just what they did in their own back home.
It’s just that worldly dancing. What sort of things were they about? What sort of themes? Love songs or songs about great kings like Gesar of Ling? The truth.
So there was some — so there’s, like, a collection. These are. It seems like these are religious songs. There’s one — a great lama who composed a book of songs centered around the sutras and tantra. Mhmm.
So they used to sing these. So these were very precious songs. They used — if somebody was dying, they used to go sing these songs to them, and it would benefit them if the dying person heard these songs. No. This was a regular practice.
All the people would come. They made offerings, and then the lama would come and give empowerments during this period. This is the three days. This was to benefit the dying person, the dead person. So these were some of the rituals that were very important rituals that were to be done during that period.
So these songs were like mantras. Uh-huh. And that’s what these are what they would say. Okay.
What century would they have been written in? The — what time? So they were written? A few years before Mao — said. They weren’t very old.
And they’re written in from somewhere. The — yeah. The — the great — whatever he needed, like food and things like this, gave him. Oh, no. This is the lama that wrote the songs.
Mhmm. Oh, goodness. It didn’t come from. So because he helped him so much before previously, not doing so after he won China. He made him a very important lama and gave him honors.
Oh. Oh. What was his what was the lama’s name? One would have thought he would have had some would have had more respect than the. So in general, Mao didn’t have any respect for lamas or religion, but because this one particular lama had helped him before, he held him in high regard.
So this Lama was going to go visit Lhasa. Mhmm. And he got as far as Chamdo. Mhmm. And he had a big — since he was — since Mao didn’t like him so much — because Mao Zedong liked him so much, he was held in high regard by the Chinese.
So, they were accompanying him — they were going to accompany him to Lhasa. Oh. Many Chinese got to Chamdo, and the official of the Tibetan government wouldn’t allow him to go to Lhasa. Oh. And he said, you know, I don’t care what you’re saying.
I’m going to Lhasa. And the Tibetan official poisoned him and he died. The Tibetan official poisoned him. So he went to visit the lama — and the Tibetan official offered him food. He offered him food, and then the food was poisoned.
What year would that have been? Maybe maybe fifty two. Oh, that’s later. Late. So the lama was still living at the time when they were singing the songs — see, this is forty five we’re — so he was still in Kham.
The lama was still in Kham when he was in Sera. His — so he had clairvoyances. After the third day of Losar, they begin the great prayer festival on the fourth day. Lhasa? And there’s a lot to be said about that.
Next week. Gonna do. Tick tock in Waiala. Oh. We’re going on Wednesday and come back Friday.
Oh. So maybe we can make it another day. Maybe we can plan another day. Yeah. You go on Wednesday.
We’ll go Wednesday and come back — oh, was going to Port Augusta, and I planned my trip so I could come back here on Thursday. Yeah. So you’re going on Wednesday. So Wednesday? Special year then.
Two years. Two years. Years in a month. And then this — this is the this period.