Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 97-minute talk, Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen opens his life story by describing his childhood in Rombatsa village in the Kham region of Tibet, born in 1966 into a farming family who grew barley, wheat, beans, and vegetables. He recalls attending a one-room school around age nine, where a kind Tibetan teacher named Mimi taught—but only briefly, as she knew little Chinese herself. He paints vivid scenes of the landscape: wildflowers covering the summer slopes, glacial rivers crossed on horseback, the brutal winters with six months of snow when rivers froze solid and firewood had to be hauled from the mountains. By age twelve, inspired by the Buddhist faith that permeated his community and encouraged by family members, he began memorizing major texts including grammar, Prajñāpāramitā, Madhyamaka, and the Lam Rim—a preparation that culminated in his ordination as a monk at eighteen. The talk is conversational, interspersed with audience questions about village animals, traditional foods like toma (tiny tubers collected by wild guinea pigs), and funeral practices, offering a rare firsthand account of Tibetan life before and during the early Communist era.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07122016s Life Pt1 – KR.mp3
UUID: 9c89ef9e-e129-4c63-bf5b-587135150661
Teacher: Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen
Collection: Rinpoche's Story
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~6,238
Okay. That’s funny, you know. So There’s no one. So Geshe-la’s going to talk. Alright?
So I’m just here, you know, if he needs assist. So Okay. So Carefully, I’m going to tell my story of life, you know, and it is sometimes very funny and sometimes sometimes very important I think help you impossible, you know. Did you get that? Yeah.
They got it. I didn’t get that one. So Geshe-la was saying that I’m talking my life story and it bit sometime quite strange things, you know, in a life and then sometime Geshe-la said that my life story may benefit for you, you know. So let’s say carefully, you know, my English is Excellent. No, no, no.
My English is color, not you know very well, very well. So when I I tie it, they help me, then I relax, you know. I like relax, know. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Here.
Yeah. Exactly. I was born in Ishta Village in 1966, know, but in my passport 1964, different. So just one, yeah, yeah, funny thing. Then, my yeah, father passed away when I was five years old and my mother passed away 31 years old.
At that time I was in India. You know, do you understand? Yes. Okay, good. Yeah.
And I have one brother, know, he lives in now. Yeah, that’s all, yeah. So he lives in Lhasa, he doesn’t work now, retired but before he was business. What? Businessman.
Businessman, just little you know. Little businessman. No, no, no. He was businessman but now he lives with my sister, sister family. Okay, and actually I had one sister but she died when I was born.
She She died died when when I I was was born. Oh, okay. Tada, yeah. She died before? No, just Oh, yeah, she died before Fei.
Alright. So I need to relax, you know. She died before when I was born. I think, not sure, she was oldest. Eldest.
Eldest. So second my brother and third I am you know. So I think my brother nine years older than me. Yeah and my family, actually my family were farmers, you know, they saved for money, money, So I think Geshe-la was saying, my whole family is farmers and that’s where the they get the income from For money, you know, for money, so a few things of food. So what they grow in their farm is the barley, wheat, beans.
Soybeans. Beans and also a few vegetables like radish in Tibet, grow very well and etcetera. Yeah. And then yeah. So the Geshe-la’s where Geshe-la was born is called the Tera area, which is a terror is a part of Mhmm.
One of the calm area. Tibet is divided into three parts, which is one part is called Ü-Tsang, is which is a central, and the other part is Kham, and the other part is Amdo, which is, you know, three divided. You know? So Geshe-la’s Village was located in a inside within a Kham area, And that also inside Kham is also very big, you know. And Tibet is generally very big and that divided.
And so within Kham, you know, the Geshe-la’s born in a a on a Tera area. So Dennis has been two three times. Three times. Yeah. So he is very experienced my country, you know.
So Geshe-la said that Dennis been there three times. Yeah. So he knows very well in a in a No. Think you’re gonna be there. Oh, this one.
Three times and two times. Three times. Twice I peeked. No. No.
Three times. Really? I went 2,000 Post time we visited Palma and Pamela and Susan. Oh, yeah, that’s There’s three of them here. Yeah.
Sue, Susan, Palma and Pamela. We have 10 people together, Richard. Yeah. And with the Rombutsa visit was 2000.
Then I went there 2005 and 2006 for the school purpose. Yeah. Village in Tehoh? Tewa Gonge Village. My village is Rombatsa, no?
Rombatsa. Rombatsa. Yeah. It was, it is, it was behind. It is behind Chung.
Chung. You know, Rombatsa is just behind the actual very small district of Chung. They’re called I think Chung is now Chung is not Tibetan word. Chinese word, you know. Chung and Xianbi, yeah.
Is a district, you know. Dharma I think, you know. Dharma College. It is behind You know the way the What you call tree? It’s a district.
District. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Closest to Drago Gompa.
Yeah. We cross over that small river with the horse and bike to Rinpoche’s Village. To river? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, no long from my village to Rombatsa’s, Rombutsa’s Village, then went to Rombucha’s Village back walk, I think twenty five minutes. Twenty five minutes, yeah. Very close everywhere you know. So is I just like to add some is a very important place that for Geshe-la because from calm, there’s many, you know, scholars and practitioners, you know, reason. And as for example, you all know, which is the Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand Mhmm.
Is also from Kham. In Chando. Chandu. And He was born in Chamdo, you know? He’s he’s born.
Yeah. He was born in Chando. So the the Kham, there is many high practitioner, scholars came in and like a Pabongka Rinpoche and also the near Geshe-la’s area is Geshe-la’s area is actually called Drago area. Then Ganze area is within only half an hour distance. So for example, in Ganze, there is a lama who is very popular and very, you know, famous.
And And not only that, you know, he was also popular and famous in a monastic in in, you know, those the great monasteries like a Sera, Drepung, Ganden. And Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen, you know, which is one of the Geshe-la’s local monastery, which is Drago Monastery. It’s a very popular, and his students like we used to have, you know, is yeah. And Geshe Rabten and our Rinpoche and Khensur Lobsang Wangden. And Khensur Lobsang Wangden.
You You know, Khensur Lobsang Wangden. You know? Or their teacher, you know, these these lamas, you know, those lamas. There’s many, you know, scholars and the practitioner, great practitioner to came into in the Kham area. And Geshe-la said those lamas are knowing in a which is very close to his town.
And but, you know, Kham is a very vast, you know, so there is many in areas called Serta and Derge. There’s many great lamas also, you know, came into it. Okay. Then I went to school, know, it’s very funny. Listen carefully.
I went to school. I went to school when I was maybe nine years or 10 years old, you know, and there is minimum of 30 people in my class. My class, you know? Do you get that? Yeah.
Minimum. Minimum. Minimum on his class there is 30 kids, you know. 30. Yeah.
30 people. But yeah, many, many of 30 people in my class. So our teacher, a Tibetan woman, you know, she was very tall and little bit fat. I can remember, you know, fat. But she was very kind and looked after us very well and especially me because Because So Gishula said he’s probably around nine or 10 when he enter in school.
But it is already occupied by China, so Chinese. So in Tibet, there is a little bit into like a caste, you know, not exactly same as in India, but it’s a little bit, you know, And a certain family has a is a, you know, status, very high status. And so Geshe-la’s family got a very high high status. So when you have a high status, the China the communist put entry in a certain mark in those family. So when you go to in a when you enter into in a school, they will ask what caste you in.
Yeah. It’s it’s a kind of like a and he have to say number four, which is When they fill it up form So once you have in a certain, you know, the number that you put it in, they the actually the the staff from school have a look in a very different way for the child. Yeah. Because So before, you know, communist party came into in Tibet, You know, Tibet is many different like, families have a different status, and it’s it’s actually for the wealth of what they have, you know, and etcetera. You know, they have some of the higher than other one and etcetera.
But when the communist enter in Tibet, you know, it’s supposed to be everybody they’re supposed to make everybody equal. So the the school was very poor, you know, is there is no classroom and maybe few of them have but you know, Geshe-la said that he remembered they have to stay outside on just kinda like a bamboo stick Mhmm. You know, with the two, you know, like those chairs kind of thing, you know. And they just sit there and they put a blackboard there and just look at and, you know, study from there. And when the weather is rough, you know, it’s rain or snow, then there’s no class, you know.
There’s a few verse that they always teach that you know. Like Geshe-la said he actually speak Chinese. Mao Zedong and Suzi. Mao Zedong, Mao Zedong, also Do understand Chinese? Sing you know long live Mao Zedong and we are Mao’s little children or something like that.
So she told, just taught Yeah. A few things. You listen this, Geshe-la is going to speak Chinese now. Chinese, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Children, that’s exactly. That’s just two things. Good children of Mao Zedong. Yeah. Long live Mao Zedong.
Live China. Yeah. Nowadays. That’s it. Yeah.
And so yes. Strangely. Yeah. Anyway, not really. That’s that’s what they teach, Geshe-la said.
Know, So the most the school this Geshe-la said, those four verse, you know, is basically the whole school, you know, morning to evening and every day they teach that, you know. It was, you know, it was It was 40 years ago, you know. Forty years ago, you know. Yeah.
But now we changed. Now it’s very big change. We changed. So there is a huge time which wasted, you know, because what the kids, they really like to learn Tibetan, but there’s no chance to learn Tibetan. And there’s every time school they go, you know, they teach this four verse for all day long for every day.
And so there is no desire to Geshe-la said there’s there’s no the family don’t say, you know, don’t learn Chinese because that will be jeopardized for, you know, for them. But, you know, Geshe-la said, you know, what they really want to learn is that they want to learn Tibetan. So they only learn Tibetan at home, you know, for your parents. But there’s no in a school that taught at all and not allowed to at that time. That’s the notion, it’s a little bit wrong.
That time I studied, studied hard in Chinese. Now I could you know Chinese very well. That’s right. They don’t have a desire to learn Chinese but what they really want to at that time you know, they want to learn Tibetan, but there’s no teach Tibetan in the school. So Geshe-la said, I did big mistake, you know.
I should learn, you know, Chinese. And if I learn that time, today I can speak Chinese quite well. Yeah. Exactly. But so Geshe-la said, you know, other thing is, you know, so there is no teach Tibetan, so they don’t go often in a school.
They just play with, you know, kids, you know. Lots of time they waste, you know. So what was the Geshe-la said before, you know, the teacher tall and little bit fat as Geshe-la said, you know. Yeah. Her name is but her name just need her name is Waswa.
her name was Mimi, Mimi is you know Mimi in Chinese. Mimi. Mimi Lao. Lao is teacher, you know.
Yeah. Mimi? Mimi Lao. What does Mimi mean? Alright.
Somehow Mimi Lao, some teacher or something. Yeah. Lao is teacher, you know, in Chinese. Okay. So her anyway, her name was Mimi Lao.
Mimi Los. So so Geshe-la said, we spend a lot of waste. You know, we go here and there, you know, in the shops. You know? Geshe-la said he was very much like to you know, there’s a group of people, you know, and they would like to go to in river, you know, play swim, you know, swimming.
So I like doing the swim that time. Yeah. And also that time was Geshe-la’s summer. In the summer. Yeah.
You know? Very beautiful, but a nice one. So but however That’s right. That teacher was extremely kind for Geshe-la. You know, she time to time come to in Geshe-la’s family place and check him, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. So the the teacher was very kind, you know. She was a Tibetan woman, you know, very kind that Geshe-la said why she check came to in a in a their family house and checking him. She thought, you know, Geshe-la is very clever, but also the same time, you know, they got that category.
You know? So she was very concerned about for Geshe-la, but he he’s got the intelligence. But, you know, she was trying to make, you know, to to help in that way. You know, she’s worried about his welfare here. Because because that time So when he was a child?
Child When he was in the at a school, you know, he he had some award he got, you know. Red one. Red red ribbon. It is in Chinese traditional, you know. Red ribbon?
Some sort of like a red ribbon. Only they give that for those kids study. It’s a red cloth, you know, some sort of like a ribbon on your, you know, to award that gift, you know, when they study well at school. Okay. So she told us only in Chinese during the class but she didn’t enough, but she know enough Chinese so I stopped my class after only one month.
Exactly. Exactly. So it’s it’s like this, you know, she’s just know a little Chinese. Yeah. So therefore, she’s a teacher, but she hasn’t got enough to teach you know whole Chinese.
So yeah. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. At that time it’s strange you know, very funny. So she didn’t know enough. So Geshe-la said you know after one month he stopped going to class.
Yeah. Gishla said he really clearly remember he went there for one month. So now I want to talk about the weather in Yeah. Very, very, very nice. It was the color.
It was very beautiful in summer in Tibet because different natural flowers or wildflowers grow everywhere on the ground. Do you understand? Wild flowers grow everywhere in the ground. Okay. So the in summer three months is really one of the best place, you know, in Tibet, which is whole ground is covered so many different wildflowers.
So and they smelled very nice. The river, you know, the rivers, the rivers were very clear. Clear. Clear. Very clear, so they were coming from mountains, the you know, mountains, mountains.
Which were very close to my village? This one. River is very close to you know, yeah. Alright, okay. Geshe-la said that the summer three months is really beautiful as the river is clear and the mountain, you know, all the snow cover.
Then there is the flowers, you know, the trees grow. And then from there, there’s another hill that doesn’t have any, you know, the snow or anything is covered with the flower and then next one is the village. It’s a very beautiful picture you can take in summer. Geshe-la is saying, you know, a few different places on the left and right, you know. Geshe-la’s village is, you know, like, is actually it’s that sort of thing, you know, in Mhmm.
Valley. You know? Very narrow valley. And you can see mountain and the flowers, village, and the farm. It’s like a beautiful in the summer.
You can ask them, you know. It’s natural, you know, in Tibet. But I said, in Tibet is very natural, you know, that, you know, valley and and conditions of Swiss and New Zealand, they’re not natural. And I said, I don’t agree. Where?
In in the Switzerland and the New Zealand. But just I guess, guess, guess, just guess, you know. Know it’s a change. He’s guessing, you know. Okay.
He has second in the translate for me. That’s good. Yeah. And I come from a farm. Oh.
And I don’t know exactly what you mean by natural, Geshe-la, because I was surrounded by everything that you were surrounded by. Probably not as big. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s natural.
Yeah. Probably maybe that. Yeah. No. Sorry.
That thing we misunderstood here. You know, the flowers that you get from in in New Zealand and Switzerland, they’re not naturally grow, you know. And the water. River. And the flowers.
That’s true. It’s true. It’s a wildflower. Yeah. Yours again.
Okay. We all agree it’s natural. Better in Tibet. That’s good, Geshe-la said. If it’s natural, good.
All right. Okay. Okay. So, so, okay. Okay.
Then, you know, listen to me carefully please, very busy you know. And then you know the weather was very nice because it wasn’t too cold and it wasn’t too hot, about I think 25, seven, eight, And during the then the same weather in autumn. So the summer and autumn is a little bit similar. Yeah, the same sense, but when the winter came, it was very cold. Very cold because Geshe-la said, you know, this, you know, six months is very beautiful, but when winter comes, you know, it is extraordinary cold.
So he said, the normally the rivers you can, you know, cannot cross on winter, you know. When summer and autumn. Yeah. No cross, is it? Yeah.
In the summer autumn and you cannot cross through those rivers and Geshe-la say in the winter you know it gets ice, whole river gets ice and you can cross over. Very nice, very nice. Winter is very cold but in here that you have a you know ski with the two equipment, they have only one and they would. Yeah. Okay.
So they play all day until they gets dark. Yeah. Sometime, you know, they cannot get out, you know, whole week they get a snowfall, you know, cannot get out from a house. There’s no heat, you know, only they do in a when they cook and that, you know, the heat is the one they can, you know, stove they can use for that, you know, the heating. Sometimes they have to go in winter, they have to go find the, you know, firewoods in up the hill or the mountain.
So it’s just when they breathe in and out, you know, they get ice on around their face. Very cold. Very cold. Very, cold. In the winter and the spring, so Geshe-la said then they start windy, know, and they get a huge dust and wind and it’s cold.
You know, that’s the worst time. This is two very totally different weather in the summer, and it’s a very beautiful, but the winter and spring is cold, you know. And as Geshe-la said, you know, they don’t have the clock. You know, they just look at the the stars, and then they wake up and go up on a a hill where they get collect the the firewoods. And Geshe-la said it’s two very big different, you know, the winter and the summertime, summer season.
Yeah. So sometimes I went to the hills then I look up, look up dig up. Dig up. Yeah. Dug up.
Dug up, know, plants, So in the summer there is they can pick up so many things, you know, but they have to go up the mountain and to dig, you know, and get there’s a lot of medicinal plants and there’s called yartsa gunbu which is a very popular, still popular. Yeah, yartsa gunbu in Tibetan. In the summer it become like a a grass. Yeah. It’s like a worm and it’s like a it’s a very medicinal thing.
It’s a very quite expensive and they sell a lot of thing in their dick, know. Yeah. All that. When summer, you know, during summer. During summer.
Yeah. Are you tired? No. That’s good. Nowadays slightly different in a Geshe-la’s time in Tibet.
The food is a very basic, you know, like a tsampa and butter, yogurt and meat and Yak meat, you know. Yak meat. Just like yak meat and some type pick, you know. Pick. That time they didn’t have fish and chicken.
Fish and chicken, they don’t eat that all at Yeah. But now changed I think. Not sure. Yeah. So there is another very special food in Tibet, It’s called toma.
Yeah. Toma is a very little one, a sweet sweet potato. It’s shaped like a sweet potato, big one. You can see that here, but it’s a very much same shape, but it’s a very tiny one that you have to dig in the underground. Yeah.
Yeah. And you can take that. That food is a very special. It only eat there in a some special occasion, you know. So usually Tibetans you know have great faith, great faith, faith.
Faith. Faith, yeah. Faith. Great faith in Buddhism and the three what? Three Jewels.
So at that time, so there was many monasteries in Tibet. At that time I wanted, I wanted, I wanted to become a monk. And also I often went to monasteries during the special dance and then I started writing what? Reading. Writing and writing.
Reading and writing. Writing. So at first my mother told me and my brother and then my Tibetan was a little bit better than before, then other people told me. Do you understand? Yes.
Good. Very good. So when he was around 12, Geshe-la said he’s come like a start, you know, more interest on studying, you know, and from there onwards, he tried to study, memorize with all the different texts. So when the memorization is a little bit difficult at the beginning, Geshe-la said, but it’s very strange. It can time goes, you know, can use, you know, can more and more you can memorize.
If first, when he started, you know, one verse, you know, can only do it in a one day. Then All dharma. Uh-uh. All dharma. All day.
You know? Uh-huh. So that then as time goes, you know, Geshe-la said, you get more and more, you can memorize. So once the Geshe-la said, you know, at the one day, you know, at the beginning, you know, you can only can memorize one verse, you know, all day. But as time goes and you get experience, you know, you are more familiar with the memorization.
So Geshe-la said he can able to memorize 80 to 90 verses for one day. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a color. Continue.
Can you can what do you call? No. It’s familiarizing, you know. You know. You can train all the, you know, mind.
So the one thing you can memorize, if you understand the meaning of the the verse, then you can able to, you know, to to memorize in quickly, you know. In Tibet is a very popular, you know, memorization is one of Very popular in Tibetan and also in monastery, you know. So when he was in Tibet, he memorized, you know, those major texts, you know, like Prajñāpāramitā and Madhyamaka and the Bodhicaryāvatāra. And and also, sorry, I forgot. Geshe-la said when he first memorization, it was it’s a there is a grammar text.
You know, in Tibetan, he did that in the first when he first memorization. And he also, you know, before he left from Tibet, he memorized all those texts and plus the the Lam Rim. Yeah. The root text, parts and also Lam Rim. Lam Rim.
Lam Rim there’s many different text. Mhmm. And there’s the Essence of Nectar Lam Rim, you know, something. He memorized all these texts and he wasn’t even a monk? No.
Correct. Right. Sorry. No, no, no, no. I was a monk.
I became a monk when I was eighteen years old in ceremonies. In India. So you memorized all these texts before you became a monk. Yeah, yeah. I like, I like, I like became a monk, you know.
Yeah, so that it was like a preparation, you know, to become a monk. Gishida was doing a preparation for the, you know, for his becoming monk so that he was memorizing all those great texts, know. Okay. I am a little bit, you know, tired, so stop here tonight. So you have any question, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But when you question to me in short, know, and slowly, slow then I understand, you know, and it’s very important. Okay, who? Pema and Suzy, I don’t know who. Ordered them?
Pema, okay Pema first. Just you know one story. One story. Just one story with animal. With animal.
Yeah, with animal and everything inside. Kitchen and bedroom and you know, no toilet just outside. Okay, second. Questioner, when you lived in Rombatsa, were there wild animals? Like, you know the red panda?
Did you, in the mountains around Rombatza, So not not in a not a red panda in the Gizhilas area. But Kuku, you know, there was a special Special birds. Bird, you know, special bird. The reason I ask, when we traveled from Tashilhunpo Gonkhar to Manigango up towards Dege. And we went to a lake.
Coming coming to the lake, there were, like, this long animal. It looked like a tail of a fox with a very long red tail, and I don’t know whether that was a red panda maybe or different rats, you know. Like an orange. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re called a rat.
Yeah. The animal called Laksha, which is the dead type, you know, there is a quite lot in the mountain. Yeah. It is called, you know, in the hills, what color? Out of the mountain, yeah.
What gave you the most joy growing up in that environment? Good, good course, but I can’t remember it now. That is the best memorable time and the joyable time when the the boys get together and go up on the hill in the summer and they stay there for Like few a little bit picnic. And that’s a very enjoyable time. Yeah.
Look like picnic. That time we start on the hill. On the hill or the mountain, right? Yeah, yeah and for three nights, four nights. Can be, yeah.
Can you are very clever. Geshe-la lies. Okay. Yeah. This Geshe-la said, actually, he has many memorable, enjoyable time, but that is the one thing.
I think Jen. Yeah. I was just wondering, was it did lots of your other friends also want to be monks or just you or was it a? Good question. I thought before, when I was born, you know, when I was born, Yeah.
So the in Geshe-la’s village, there was four boys and five girls, total together nine. And Geshe-la said among them, you know, he’s the only became a monk. Mhmm. And the rest of they have their own life, you know. Some of them have a family, they’ve got children, etcetera.
And yet When when you started memorizing the text, were you living in the monastery? Just in my village. How did you have access to the text? So they can borrow from one from other, you know. But Geshe-la said is when he was starting, you know, the memorization, at that time, you know, the time is a little bit slowly getting better.
And we’re talking about the communists, you know, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, however, Geshe-la said, you know, the text generally is quite rare, you know, but they can borrow, you know, few few pages from each, you know, like, yeah. No.
The the time that time, there was Nangchen Monastery. At that time, you know monastery was destroyed and so there’s not really such, you know, exist, you know, but just beginning to start establishing monastery. But yeah. Those texts they kept in some families, know, before the revolution came, you know. Many years ago.
Yeah. Hundred years ago. What attracted you to Buddhism? Did you want to just study? Was it something that happened that connected with you and Buddhism?
Or was it something from in the heart? So one thing is a very lucky, you know, because Geshe-la explained in the past the before, he said, I said, you know, he said, he explained, but somehow, you know, whole entire, you know, the the population or the community is such a devoted and has, you know, conviction towards the Triple Gem and, you know, faith is a very strong. Geshe-la was saying, faith was so strong towards the Triple Gem. So that, you know, it’s kinda like in a what do you call it? It’s a naturally, you know, brought up that, you know.
So what’s he’s encouraged to become a monk is part of is generally the whole society is is Buddhism, you know, interest on a in a in a has a great faith, etcetera. But then there is a there is a time when he study in Buddhism, you know, he’s he’s looking for more. But then there is other path, you know, which is surrounded him, you know, people. Oh, it’s very good. You know, they encourage, you know, you really can you can do it, you know.
So that all push through, you know, together. You know. That’s the reason, you know. Yeah. And the Geshe-la said, when there you get encouragement, you get a little bit proud.
Yeah. So and that, you know you know, Encourage is very important. Very important, you know. Yeah. Encourage, you know, praising for person, you know, when they do study.
And so that way they can get more wanting to study, you know. When your father died, who looked after the family? So my father passed away when I was five years old, then my mother looked after me and my brother. Oh good! Good, awesome, okay.
So in Tibet, there is a kind of like almost a starvation, you know, in around around around nineteen sixty one Sixty one onwards for around ten years. You know, it’s been very tough, you know, to to the food was extremely hard hardship, you know. And especially, you know, the Geshe-la’s family, you know, which who have a has a status. You know? They’ll always have, you know, different treatments.
You know? There’s some of those who are rich family. And around the before the just Chinese revolution came, you know, they get put a black hat on their, you know. Yeah. All his parents, mom, dad, you know, they got the black head.
Mhmm. Were there Chinese people living in your village in that time to to watch what you were doing? Not really Chinese people, you know. Not really. It’s it’s actually, you know, the not Chinese people, you know, because the the they have control by one, and then the village has has heads.
You know? It’s those controls. You know? Yeah. Yeah.
And Just one question. Who can? Really? Oh. Is there any more question?
So With The special vegetable like the sweet potato, was that wild, or did you grow it on your farm? It’s the animal collected. Yeah. There’s one animal that collects, you know, and that digs up. Yeah.
Yeah. And when they the village people. Sorry. I can’t speak. So I haven’t finished yet.
This the animal, you know, you talking this kinda like a rat, a guinea pig. Yeah. They go, you know, they digs out and collects, you know. And it actually grow in a on the mountain and they collects and then digs and then they pile it up, you know, for the For the winter. For Yeah.
During the winter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So We steal from them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A kind of generosity.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely is stealing. So so The guinea pigs, they collect in summer and for you know one place and for winter you know stock. So that’s why they get yeah Geshe-la said it’s delicious.
Geshe-la said, I think all winter they sleep for six months during the winter and after autumn. Autumn. Spring. Yeah.
It’s It’s a it’s very funny, you know. That food become very popular. It’s a it’s a very special. You know? It’s a you know, you can see the I know it’s very funny.
You know? You can make a story about that. But you you know, when you have the great lamas, you know, the you know, his holiness, you know, they make offering two thing. You know? One that the sweet rice with the, you know, the grapes, you know, dry with sultanas, etcetera.
And then the other one is that sweet sweet potato, you know, that sweet beans, you know, potato looking. Anyway and that is cooked first and then put in a mix with the butter and that they offer. Because I wasn’t born in Tibet, you know. That’s my question. So the one very pure natural food And the other one, probably when they make offering for the lama, they can at least get some purification.
You know? Yeah. Purification for stealing from the the little guinea pig. Geshe-la, can you explain what happens at a Tibetan funeral? Sorry?
Can you explain what happens at a Tibetan funeral? The the the real body part, you should have said there’s a three. One, they they gives chop and give it to the bird. But is it depend, you know, some birds, they don’t come. Depend on the But before they do that, they invite the birds.
But sometime, you know, the the person or we don’t know, not sure what it really, the birds don’t come for a certain body. You know? And then if the bird come, then they chop and give it to the bird, and it’s kinda like a generosity. And if that not happen, then Gisha said they throw in a river. They chop before in a chop chop?
Chop and then throw in the river. And then the the the if the person has some sort of like a sickness or certain disease, then they’ll bury it underground. Yeah. And do the children are the children permitted to attend the funeral? So most of the the usually the children doesn’t go there.
But most of the voluntary or the family or the, you know, the village, you know, people, there are certain people they do, you know, to help them, you know, and there is a basic voluntary work, you know. About something that is made into medicine but it comes from a worm. Is that true? Mhmm. It’s look like a worm and it’s turn into the plant.
Yeah. Yeah. How was it? Mhmm. Gunbu.
You still didn’t hear. Can you repeat that please? Yeah. Repeat a little bit louder, you know. Then I can Geshe-la, the earlier you say about a plant. Yeah.
That come from a worm, is turning into the plant. Yeah. The Tibetan up there, they harvest it. Do they use it?
What is that useful? So in Tibet, they don’t use that, you know. But that’s very popular in the Chinese medicine. You know. So the Geshe-la said, yartsa is yar is summer.
Yeah. And za is grass. Grass. Yatha. Gumbo is a Gung is a winter.
Bu is a worm. Is is Is a a worm. Which a bhu is a worm and in a in winter it is a warm worm and in the summer is like the grass. So they they sell this, you know, collect and sell to in a Chinese market. So the Tibetans don’t use it?
Don’t use, yeah. Yeah. It’s quite expensive. Yeah, very, very expensive, know. It’s very funny.
So nowadays is a little bit of problem inside Tibet, you know, because they this is so popular, you know, so And the people go on a mountain, and sometimes they get to fight for it. So they get a mark in their land, and then they can dig, you know. And so Geshe-la said, only sell into in a Chinese market. And China, they use that for medicinal purpose. And Geshe-la heard said, they also send export.
You know? I’m not sure. Yeah. That’s sad, you know. That’s sad.
Okay. That’s enough isn’t it? I think you are a little bit tired. Oh yeah, nearly, no, nearly two hours. For two hours.
So we dedicate now? Yeah. Yeah. Yep.