March 14, 2003

no good pronunciation

After about ten minutes we figured out how to fit the sand mandala board into the back of the Blazer. This was our biggest concern, people and backpacks were no problem at all.

I wasn’t sure how the drive back was going to be — I knew that at least Lobsang and probably Dharma (Nguchul Rinpoche) spoke some English. All the rest I wasn’t sure about. I figured that it might be best to have Lobsang drive with Christina because she didn’t know any Tibetan at all and I could wing it with the little I knew with anyone else. Nope. Everyone with good, working English jumped in my car. The one monk, Dawa, who barely speaks any English sat next to Christina. She said it was silent in her car the whole way.

Things were quite different in my car. I had Dharma in the passenger seat, Ali Rinpoche, Lobsang and Palden in the back. As soon as we got on the freeway Dharma asked if he could play a tape. Lobsang said, “this is Tibetan tea — no, no, I mean Tibetan music!” and we all busted up laughing. It was a great ice breaker and the rest of the drive was very lively. I didn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about most of the drive — and they were talking most of the drive. Every so often Dharma would ask a question about Montana or the road conditions, but mostly it was a lively discussion with tons of teasing going on.

The Tibetan “tea” (music) was very modern, with a pretty good dance beat, whistles and is probably a favorite in the Indian clubs. During one song they said, in English, “let’s take it higher” or something like that and everyone (including me) laughed. It played about three times before we put on Kirby Shelstad’s Dewachen. Dharma informed me that he couldn’t really understand it — even though it was supposed to be Tibetan — the pronunciation was all off. I had been wondering about this myself and we both agreed that the music was nice but, “no good Tibetan.”

posted @ 5:53 PM

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