From the Heart of Tibet: The Biography of Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche, the Holder of the Drikung Kagyu Lineage by Gruber Elmar R

Author:Gruber, Elmar R. [Gruber, Elmar R.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2011-05-06T03:00:00+00:00

12

The Burden of Freedom

CHETSANG RINPOCHE arrived in Dharamsala on June 6, 1975. He felt better at the higher elevation, even though it was not as high as Tibet. Rinpoche was greeted by Kungo Depön Phuntsog Tashi, whose motorcycle had caused such merriment among the nomads at that long-ago reception for the Dalai Lama. Phuntsog was now the government-in-exile’s minister of security. Rinpoche was going to be given accommodations in a small house in the Tibetan Children’s Village, where all newcomers were first brought, but when the Gyalyum Chenmo, the mother of the Dalai Lama, and her daughter, Jetsun Pema, heard that he had arrived, they invited him to lunch and to spend his first night in Dharamsala in their home.

Jetsun is an honorific title for a highly esteemed teacher, or in the case of a woman, a revered nun. An old nun, Jetsun Kusho, had lived in the house of his aunt Taring, and so Rinpoche expected to be lodged in the home of elderly women with shaved heads. The image of the wrinkled little old nun was before his eyes as he went up to the house and knocked on the door. A pretty, elegant young lady greeted him and introduced herself as Jetsun Pema. Rinpoche was astonished and amused at the tricks the human mind can play. Another dignified lady appeared behind him, wearing glasses. “Don’t you recognize me?” she asked. He did not. It was the Gyalyum Chenmo, the Dalai Lama’s mother. She examined Rinpoche’s mysterious companion and said that his face did not look Tibetan, and she wanted to know who he was. Rinpoche’s nameless companion excused himself and left without revealing his identity.

There were many delicious dishes to enjoy at lunch. Rinpoche, who hadn’t eaten so well in many years, was very happy to be served Indian curry with mutton, lentils, and potatoes, and he enjoyed the first taste of mango in his life. After Rinpoche had spent a few nights in a guest room of the Gyalyum Chenmo’s home, his brother Jigme returned to Dharamsala; he had heard that Rinpoche would be traveling through Delhi and had gone to meet him there. Jigme had graduated from the University of Indiana and worked for a bank in New York for a while before moving to Dharamsala with his wife, Yangzom Dolma Döndrup, a daughter of Gyalo Döndrup, one of the Dalai Lama’s brothers. He was currently the director of the Tibetan Medical School and lived on the same property as the Gyalyum Chenmo. They were like strangers to each other when Rinpoche embraced his brother for the first time in eighteen years; they had been children the last time they had seen each other, and even then they had been together only seldom. In the United States their parents had heard the first reports of their son’s escape from Tibet. They couldn’t believe it and suspected a hoax—only a telegram from Jigme, who had seen their long-lost son in person, brought them certainty. Dundul Namgyal immediately booked a flight to Delhi.

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