Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 92-minute oral history, Khensur Rinpoche recounts his escape from Tibet in March 1959, beginning with the moment he heard Chinese bombardment from Sera Monastery. He describes the decision to flee — consulting the protector deity Kamashar through mo divination, a colleague relaying dice results for three possible routes, the southern road to Lhokha emerging as best — then two days of practical preparation: grinding barley at a village water mill, buying donkeys with eighty silver tamka coins, setting out with a group of twenty-five monks. The account continues through Chinese aircraft strafing refugee columns and an encounter with Tibetans bearing letters sealed with Sera’s confiscated stamp urging surrender. More personal memoir than dharma commentary, it speaks directly to anyone drawn to the human story behind Tibet’s modern history.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 30 RS 1988 10 27.mp3
UUID: 263e0b3a-fe44-4428-9bd7-bbe6acefb99c
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-10-27
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 91.8 minutes
Words: ~5,174
Tenth of March. On the evening, about two o’clock on tenth March, Sera and the whole monastery, they start hearing Chinese attack, bombs, tanks. Bombs. Yeah, bombs and tanks, flames going to and back to and back from all directions, especially Norbulingka. Perhaps the actual attack might have started around one o’clock down in Lhasa city. In the more in the In the city.
Yeah. But in the evening? Yeah. In the evening. That’s sort of like twelve midnight and then one o’clock in the morning?
No. No. New Evening, afternoon. Afternoon about one o’clock. So, in Sera, Rinpoche and others, they started hearing about two o’clock in the afternoon, but the actual attack in the city might have might have taken place from one o’clock already.
So I’m a little bit Oh, in the nighttime. Because we we had this before, you see. That’s why yeah. I thought it was because it must have been tenth March that Rinpoche was in the city, not ninth March. Really?
Yeah. You you tell me because this is what we’ve got here. I city is nine. Nine. And then the next day the attack started.
The next day that is ten. At one o’clock in the morning? Yeah, one o’clock, yeah. In the nighttime. Yeah, nighttime.
So, that would about eleventh. No, that would be the tenth. That would be the actual tenth if he was No, that’s eleventh, strictly speaking. The tenth. Mhmm.
So you can say, like, on the ninth, we went down and then returned back. Yeah. And the tenth daytime, spent. And turned nighttime. That’s what I want to technically, it’s about Oh, I see what you’re saying.
Yeah. I forgot. I I missed a day there. You yeah. Yeah.
Number two. What’s wrong? No. The worst way of saying it would be eleven Oh. Morning.
Betton Wayne doesn’t do that. It’s it’s all tenth until what next morning? Yeah. Daylight. Yeah.
Yeah. Fair enough. Until dawn. Until dawn. That’s more sensible.
To me, that’s more sensible. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s fine. So whatever you can put. Yeah. Whichever. No.
But we can put both. That’s fine. And after that? It’s gone? Yeah.
It’s gone. Very much you were saying, shouldn’t be stopped. Yes. It’s looking up the Tibetan general knowledge almanac. This has got all the details of fifty nine, has it?
Calendar? Of everything. It’s more small than development history Yes. Culture, religion. Alright.
Right. Yeah. Sure. That’s fine. Because we’ll work on this for a while.
I’ll type it up on the computer, and you’ll get it really good while you’re here. Yeah. And then you want to confirm the date? No. Anyway, he wouldn’t be part of The date’s fine.
That’s alright. So I’ll have to turn it up. And then he went up? Was he was he inside? My room was on the top of the building, building, and then and then I went up to the roof Right.
To have a look. To have a look. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you.
Yeah. Because oh, we from other monasteries getting those guns too or only from Sarah? Because you’re asking. Sera. Sera Je or all of Sera?
Sera Je, Sera Je. All colleges? Yeah. It a special storeroom in the Potala just for Sarah things or was it just they knew about, Sarah Monks knew about it? No, it’s government arsenal.
Oh, right. It’s just that they had knowledge of it, so they yeah. Good. Wondered whether it was five years before, twenty years before, how old the guns were? Many years.
Many years when they were — they were bought during the time of the thirteenth Lama. The thirteenth Dalai Lama? So that’s before nineteen thirty five? Yeah, was before twenty three. So they were at least twenty five years out of date.
That’s what I was trying to find out. Yeah, that’s right. So they’re quite quite useless against Chinese modern weapons of that day. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s right. There’s nothing by which to fight with. There wasn’t any bullets? No. I think Rinpoche was saying it’s not good enough.
It wasn’t good enough to fight. Did they did they actually have bullets? Yeah. They were bullets. Yeah.
But you probably have to load each one once. Mhmm. I think Japanese, Japanese style, and they were ready to fire. Yeah. That’s right.
All were like that. One shot. One shot only. Mhmm. And and Chinese had machine guns.
Mhmm. Machine gun. No? Yeah. That’s right.
Oh, yeah. That’s right. Even though monks had this, what I call, guns, but there wasn’t anything Tibetans could do because already Chinese, they have dug ditches on the mountain. Dug ditches. And then installing the guns already pointing down.
Oh. And they just have to pull the trigger. Oh. So already they prepared from all all the surrounding mountains. So how how many days would they have been preparing then?
No. A couple of years. Couple of They must have been planning since fifty one, fifty two. And since then, they’ve been preparing this thought of attack. So in the history it actually has started, old fifties, have been years of continuous struggle in the east.
Is this what Rinpoche is saying? No. Yeah. Yeah. That’s alright.
It’s funny. So in Lhasa, they knew this for very many years what the Chinese were doing, that this might happen one day. You know, that’s that’s when they had been trying to, first try to control their evidence if things don’t work then to brute force. Even before the actual things started, the days before Chinese had invited His Holiness to a very big show and saying he’s not allowed to bring his normal bodyguards, and also he shouldn’t come with many people, many different people. So from that time, they have either intention to arrest his holiness and either put him in detention or take him down to China. And at that time, maybe because of Tibet’s local protecting on deities, somehow Tibetans understood the bad intention Chinese had.
So all the public gathered around Norbulingka and stopped his holiness from going to the show. So his holiness left on the evening of seventh or eighth, but people still believed he was in Norbulingka. So all the people they gathered there, carrying everything they could have guns, different sort of weapons. Sticks and everything. And then the Chinese start attacking with machine Rinpoche and others up in Sera Monastery, they had all these bombings so on, then ennobling, and then they had a big intense, I could worry.
You know, what’s going to happen. Worry. Yeah. What could be happen to this holiness? Yeah. It’s been terrible.
And then on the tenth, ten o’clock on tenth morning, Rinpoche and the others heard the message that his holiness has left, escaped, so they felt relieved. How did they get that message? There were a lot of bombings and massacres down in Norbulingka, so people couldn’t stay there any longer. Some monks and some people, they escaped from Nobelinga. There were monks who escaped from Norbulingka and who brought the news.
So Rinpoche’s room is two quarters. And another is a kitchen. So kitchen had what we call a stove and a chimney, and chimney at the top, like normal. The top part is outside, and then it had a covering on top to protect from raindrops. Then the, what called, bombs from the tank, strike and then destroyed the top part.
Due to impact, inside the house, the whole house was filled with smoke dust and smoke. And it was so so bad that one one of the roommates, he just fell dizzy and started fainting. Was actually gas and stuff from the bomb then that came in? No. No.
It’s not the bomb gas or things. It’s just up there is the chimney top that’s destroyed. So whatever in the chimney Oh, yeah. All the dust and ashes, they start. So I thought that, implied maybe over the years.
Yeah. It’s been there. It might be hundreds of years of gas. It’s just yeah. Dust and because It’s not dust in the sense of chimney residue, but the top part of chimney would be built like a small miniature house, like a proper soil, small rocks, like a normal cement, and then put into shape to cover the chimney top.
When that’s destroyed, that whole thing came into pieces through the chimney. Oh. That whole thing, yeah, covered. Oh. Maybe we can ask the machine to draw the chimney top.
Yeah. You ask Good. Yeah. That’s right. Together with the outside thing.
Mhmm. And inside that thing would be many years suits. So that’s correct. Yeah. So that’s correct.
Fumes and dust and rubble, perhaps. Yeah. Rubble. Rubble. Continuous.
Good. Okay. One of my roommates recovered that same day or what? Oh, just within a few Mhmm. And so Rinpoche was would have been coughing and too?
Which he ended up? Yeah. Yeah. There’s actually one small monk who just escaped down to log downstairs. Yeah.
So what it is. One monk went downstairs to hide. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
That’s better. I didn’t think that was quite right. Then oh, yeah. So either you call Cultural Revolution, it’s a time when the red guards start gaining control. So it must have been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the sixties.
Mhmm. So Rinpoche says — Chinese had many bullets that’s in this machine gun and automatic ammunition. And we had only one old rifle. So did Rinpoche have one rifle himself?
Some students who were at that time in company with Rinpoche. Some students. Yeah. Who were in company with Rinpoche. There were Rinpoche said, it’s a bit too early to go now.
Mhmm. Okay. Then then Rinpoche said, I’ll go to the protector. Mhmm. If the mo says Mhmm.
Then we’ll go. Mhmm. I think that’s Yeah. Good. And then, Dawel, we talked about this, and you said we really need to get more information about how he does the mo.
So Rinpoche decided to go in the temple to the protector deity, but I’m not sure which one Tenzin was translating at that time. Just say protector is fine. Not Buddha. Just alright. Okay.
Mhmm. You say that back to him? Mahākāla. Mhmm. Kamashar.
Kamashar. Kamashar. Okay. You just Kamashar. Okay.
No. That was protected for the the Is that right? For his. It’s also in the general protector of the Sera Monastery. Ah.
And also to For both for both? Mhmm. For the whole Sera or Sera Je? Sera. Sera Tshatsang.
Yeah. Yeah. Whole Sera. Je, Me and everything. Mhmm.
Mhmm. And then you get that. Mhmm. Yeah. It’s all all all the Sera.
All three. Alright. Okay. So perhaps if you could ask Rinpoche for more more details here. I’ve got then he he so he went there to the Kamasha.
Mhmm. And he said, will we go or won’t we go? Mhmm. And the must have said to go, but maybe if we could have some more deep details. Normally in this protection, every day without single day’s break, every day, the main teacher of the hostel, so there’s always one hostel, one comes in the hostel.
Normally, every day, regularly, the main teacher of the hostel has to offer special puja every day, which is called kangso. So, every day, the teacher has to offer kangso puja, which is like what I call expressing the faults, which the monks have done during that day, and asking for forgiveness. And also a special puja called tinchod, which literally means relying on his activity, relying for his help to kindly please help us. I need to help. Could I just check this around?
That’s good. That’s fine. That’s alright. Didn’t want to miss this. Yeah.
How come you’re live? I don’t I think the battery’s wearing down, but it’s still working. So, normally, whenever you have something to ask or request the from the protector, you have to go through this main teacher of the hostel. Oh, okay. So, in doing that, you have to mention to this teacher of the hostel saying, I have to do a tagrim, which means tagrim is an award for Tagrim.
Tagrim. Tagrim. Which is like a request to do observation. Rinpoche, in this case, went to this teacher who was the caretaker of the protector and saying, Oh, I have to do this observation. Then my students have been requesting me to escape.
So will it be alright to escape or not? And that teacher of the hostel was Rinpoche’s friend, same was coming from same native area, and also they both belong to same class in the Oh. And then that time the teacher said to Rinpoche, Oh, there have been a lot of people, a lot of monks who came about the same question, to go or not. And all of them, the answer was to go. I remember just sitting there insisting saying, but still would you please ask for observation about my case?
Then the teacher went and then he came back saying, the it’s better to go. Leave. And again, Rinpoche asked the teacher to ask second question. Even if I have to leave, the answer came to leave, but would it be better to just go to a point in the mountain range called Gephu or to go beyond the Mhmm. And then again, he did observation to to the protector and then it came, it’s better to definitely it’s better to go beyond that And then the teacher, he did for his own case, whether would it be good for him to leave or not.
And so keen, it’s better for him to stay, not leave. So that’s very interesting. That was insertion. This is very interesting part. But still, Rinpoche gave Rinpoche’s opinion to that teacher, saying, Even though the answer came for you to stay, you shouldn’t be too insistent on that point.
You have to see how other people are doing. If everybody leaves, then there’s no point for you to stay. With that opinion, Rinpoche gave his key to this teacher. But for the time being, would you please keep this key of my house? And then when Rinpoche went back to his quarter, all the students are gathered, and they were asking, what happened?
What happened? And what was the answer? And then Rinpoche said, oh, it became better to leave. Then they started packing things. They didn’t have too many things, just a little bit of supplies of food and some text.
Rinpoche, he couldn’t carry anything. He just took with him the main texts called Lamrim texts and the Lamrim. Mhmm. How big was that? Is that just one bundle?
Yeah. Just one? The yellow one. Yeah. Just one.
The thin one. The thick one. Second one. Yeah. Thick.
So it’s about five inches thick. So Rinpoche hasn’t brought his copy. It’s in Sera, but it’s about that thick. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s too too precious now, I guess. The only thing that was the only thing, let me see, Jerry. I tied on his neck, on the shoulder. And then about in the evening, about eight o’clock, together with the students, Rinpoche started. That same. Eleven.
Thirty two. Okay. Yeah. What a pity that man, he couldn’t come. Afterward, Chinese beat him, tortured him so many times.
Finally, after so many tortures, he was sent back to his hometown where he was imprisoned. In the prison, he died. Mhmm. Mhmm. He was sent to his hometown in prison, and then he died.
What town did he come from? Rinmiji. Rinmiji. Rinmiji. He was one of the monks that had been with Rinpoche from Dage.
They were at Dage together. Did he come down to Lhasa at the same time as Rinpoche? Same hometown, with a good friend. How he get how did Rinpoche get news about this? Much later?
The Rinpoche, only much later, after nineteen eighty one, people from Sera Monastery came to visit India, and then she asked them. Then they told him, Oh, he has been beaten tortured so much. Then afterwards, was sent to a prison. I asked what the most particular reason for the protector to say he should stay. So it must be for his past karma to be purified.
Afterward, when we heard his news, it happened that after some time, this monk was personally by his students to escape. When they came to some point after traveling sometime, then he would of a sudden change his mind and say, oh, I have to go back. Things are not supposed to be like that. And he just wouldn’t listen and go back. Because of the mo.
Yeah. Because of what the mo said. Well, mainly it’s because of his past karma. Yes. Afterward, about two groups of monks, which were of same class in Sera.
So these two groups, they gathered together, and they all formed one company, and they were at the end about twenty five people. Twenty five. So that so they went they left in the evening Mhmm. And they went over the mountain. And then on the twelfth, they were over the mountain into the country the other side and passed.
So that thing will be known after, sure, especially if we know the first date. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, alright. So we’ve sort that out, but that’s alright.
Now I’ve got something about the Chinese Sea Rinpoche and the monks from an airplane. And they’re wondering where they’re going? That’s right. I was in Pembar, then after coming to Pembar, it was daytime, sunshine. Then, a Chinese aeroplane appeared in Pembar, and then they started firing shots from aeroplane.
Oh! Because there were a whole chain of people escaping, some to north, some to Lhokha, and different — so they were firing down to the people. Around Pembar? Yeah. Machine Machine gun.
Machine gun. Gun. Yeah. Yeah. Some sort of big fire, but I couldn’t see it.
It was quite high in the space. Can’t understand all this. After Rinpoche heard that not many people were killed by those fire, but a lot of our cattle, animals, and, you know, Yeah. Yeah. Domestic animals.
So villagers lost their animals. Yeah. That is they traumatized with that sort of position. What’s associated with the world? Were they aiming at the animals or at the people?
Yeah. Was being aimed at people. Oh. So There it is. And then in that household, Rinpoche and the company arrived and asked for shelter. There were three elderly monks, Rinpoche, the two and the rest of it were students.
Ah. And then they were among the three elder ones. They had a discussion on which way would be best to escape, the northeast or the west. Then they come out with a suggestion, Oh, maybe it’s better for us to consult the protector Kamashar, and do observation. Then they did observation.
Could they do that when they weren’t there? It doesn’t have to be present there. They just request in their visualization, and then do the observation. By mo? Yeah.
Mhmm. With the. Three dice made from dice. So Pembar is quite an intersectional place. So one way would lead to Lhoka and to India. Lhoka.
Lhoka. Lhoka. L h o k a, Lhoka. Lhoka. Yeah.
Lhoka. Yes. Yeah. So Lhoka would be where the Tibetan volunteer guerrilla army, Chushi Gangdruk. It’s where the Dalai Lama has on its Another way would lead to western Tibet, called Tuukhouni, which is Tuukhouni.
Then, another one would lead to it’s called western part of Tibet. And then the other one would lead to northern desert, northern desert. When Rinpoche did observation with the other monk, they chose three, whether it would be good to go this that way, or there there was around nearby thick bushland. Maybe it may be better to go to that bushland and hide for some time until the situation changes. And at that time, the dice, they have to be what I call cast, and they throw the dice.
Cast? Yeah. This is the mo, the dice made from dough. Yeah. And then among those three elderly monks, there was one monk who was higher in class to Rinpoche.
Rinpoche and and Rinpoche Rinpoche that monk said no. He wouldn’t. Instead, he requested a ring, which he had to do. So Rinpoche threw the dice, and the answer came like this way: to go to north one would be the worst. Worst.
Worst. Yeah. And then to go to the other one, which is perhaps the west one, is the second one. Second, not Yeah. But the best one, number one, would be to go to Lhoka, which is the way the Dalai Lama took.
Oh. So no. So to take that road? No. The the one that.
What about the the fourth alternative of hiding? Yeah. So there were three observations done. Well, would be would it be good to go to Noah? Mhmm.
Or the second one now is referring to the forest, the bushland. Oh. So those two came not good. Right. And now this third one, the that’s the best one.
Right. And then they started escaping through that route. So they didn’t really consider going to the west one? The west is the one with the bush. Oh, I see.
So, anyway, it looks more clear like saying the first one would be going to bushland, which would, if lead to a desert. The second one would lead to the west, which would lead to western Tibet, and the third to Lhoka. And so at that time, Rinpoche and the group didn’t have enough food. Everything was finished. You know, eating, and then they didn’t have it all.
So they didn’t have pots to cook things in. And also, most of the students didn’t have proper shoes. Mhmm. So they stayed in that house. I think I mean, there’s a minimum.
Yeah. That’s what I’m They stayed in that house for a couple of days trying to prepare Right. All these supplies. Because there’s a very big trip ahead. And that house was very good.
The couple in that house, they looked after the group, and they the group very much. Mhmm. They were amazingly good. Mhmm. Mhmm.
So the group started grinding tsampa. And how how they did was nearby in the neighborhood, there were families who normally their property would belong to the monasteries. So they were some which belong to Rinpoche’s monastery of Sera. This is the flour, barley flour. Yeah.
Flour. No. This is talking about they started grinding the flour, barley flour. That’s right. And how they grind it was.
In the neighbourhood there were families whose property somehow belonged to the monastery. I see. And then these people, they start saying, We’re leaving tonight, so need anything, take help yourself. Then the group told the people, oh, we need some barley to grind for tsampa. So they gave a lot of barley to Rinpoche and the group, and then they start grinding it in the household, householder’s water mill.
At the moment, they were using the mill, usually. Yeah. Alright. So these other villages would have been living on land attached to Sera. They might have sent Mhmm.
Barley to Sera anyway. And they put a lot of effort on these people around the neighborhood, roasting the barley and then grinding it at the mill. And someone in the in the group, they start, like, repairing their shoes. For two days, Rinpoche and the group started repairing everything. Repairing?
Preparing. Repairing. Repairing the shoes. Somewhere, repairing their shoes. So, this way, they prepared for two days.
And the villagers helped with the grinding and preparations. Yeah. And someone wearing the panda or whatever. Yeah. And then the whole group had too much tsampa and pots that they couldn’t carry all the tsampa.
And then the couple the couple said, we have two donkeys. They don’t look very strong, but they are very strong. So you can have these two donkeys to carry the tsampa. So they gave the two donkeys. They gave us?
So at that time, the monks start collecting whatever money the monks might have, and it came out in total they had eighty silver coins. The coins are normally called tamka. Tamka, eighty. Yeah, eighty silver coins. Then they gave it to the couple saying, Please keep it as a price of the donkeys.
And if sometime after, if we meet again, then we can perhaps do something more. Escaping with the donkeys and tsampa, everything. In that village temple, there’s one very reliable deity protector, one very reliable protector. Somehow better to leave sooner or later, and perhaps much better to leave before the fifteenth. The auspicious position was the fifteenth of the Tibetan month. This is the village deity?
Yeah. So Rinpoche and the group were staying on Tibetan fourteenth, Tibetan fourteenth. Was it mules or donkeys? And after a while, when they started escaping, then after after a while, there were Tibetans waiting on their way with letters. Letters were stamped with the Sera monastery seal.
The letters carried the first point saying, You should surrender all your weapons. The second point saying, If you have any statues, texts, holy things, you should all give it to the government, the Chinese. The third point in that is, if you do that, then everything will be as before. Everything will be good and peaceful as before. There will be no punishment, nothing.
They were just people sent by Chinese to stop the scape. And they but they had a seal of Sera Monastery they were using. No. The Sera seal. Which means they’ve taken over.
Yes. Everything has been under their control. All of us, Sera, everything. All are in need. So I had access to all those official things?
Yes. That someone there. Yeah. Were these Tibetans that that brought that? They had to.
Of course, it’s forced by Chinese. So many people returned back. Really? Rinpoche and the group, they had a good experience from their hometown, how Chinese somehow at the end turned out to be deceptive. So Rimshi and the group strongly decided as best we can escape that much, we should try.
So they had just had a feeling it wasn’t good. No. Mhmm. That was right. Some of the some people from the group, told loudly to these people carrying letters.
They told, There’s no point for you trying to say things to us. We are somehow deciding to leave. We’re leaving. So they couldn’t force them to stay. They’re just asking, requesting only.
And they were just trying every means politely to draw people not to lose any escape. Then on the other hand, there was the army and the airplanes. Airplane was only a couple of days before, on the eleventh and twelfth. Right. They might have been looking for his holiness.
No. It’s not. They were just trying to fight and people not escape. Yeah. They they were walking with their students.
And three of them went afterwards. Must’ve been five people with guns. There’s two in front and three. So that’s describing how the process how they were escaping. Like, on one hand, Chinese trying to draw people peacefully with letters.
But on the other hand, there were whole guerrilla fight happening with Tibetan Chushi Gangdruk with Chinese. There was still a possibility of Chinese attacking. Among the group, there were five who had gone to Potala to get guns. Two in the front and three behind and in between the group, just to protect. So how many people would be in the group at this stage?
Still about fifteen? Twenty five. Are they joined at Pembroke? More joined at Pembroke. Yeah, from Pembroke, and then the group traveled, then there’s a river, then the river passed the river, then into Hokkien.
The thirty five left together. Mhmm. The bigger. And this music with each other, Yeah. I think there was a point when we That’s alright.
I’ve I’ve sometimes I’m getting Good. Good. Yeah. I just from one point, this preparation of monks with guns in the front and back seems very magnificent. But if Chinese come, they can’t hold you.
Couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t do anything. One shot each. But but somehow it’s good. Remember, she said somehow it’s good that these students out of their faith, they’re trying to protect.
Yeah. Psychologically, it’s good. You have a good feeling. Especially, the group was traveling on the vehicle road, proper roadways. So if any Chinese car or vehicles came, there’s no chance.
They were traveling at night, that time, or day? No. In both day and night. Really? No.
So they didn’t sleep much? Sleeping idea wouldn’t come in such situation. Sleeping? Idea. The idea to sleep wouldn’t come.
Yes. So they must have been exhausted. Mhmm. Yeah. Heavy eyes?
No. Yeah. That’s good. I think Rinpoche said one time it was very cold. When was it wintertime?
Was it it cold? Remember sometime he slept on a sack of sampa. It was so cold or something. That’s right. From Pembroke, the party left till Hoagar.
And from Hoagar, on wind, there’s one very big mountain pass. And on top of the mountain pass was the snow. So the party couldn’t get over during the night or in the evening over the past, so they had to sleep there. Ah, so that was the only time they slept at night, was it? It?
Oh, yeah. They slept in between. From Pembar, had to cross the river, and some of the monks got their robes wet, so they couldn’t go further. Just across the river, there was a family where the group stayed for one night. River is the big river which flows from the Brahmaputra.
Oh. Brahmaputra. Oh. It’s the same river. So the river was quite big, and then they started talking about what’s the best way to cross the river.
On this side of the river, before crossing this side, there was family. They asked their family what would be the best way. They seemed to have no idea at that point, but still the family had a lot of zo, female yak. The group said, Oh, maybe we better cross the river by riding the zo across the river. Then the family said, no.
Dzo is only for ploughing the field. And never in the past we had put a burden or loaded it with anything. So you can’t. But somehow one man thought maybe he could still try. So he started riding. So they put on the saddle on the dzo and put more of the other