Article Archives  >  September, 2009

Mala prayer beads are used in Tibet by monks and ordinary people as well for reciting mantra with deepest intention and resolve. When not used for concentrated and calming recitation, they may be worn wrapped around one's wrist or as a necklace for convenience or even fashion. Both men and women can wear mala beads either way.

In the darkness of an ancient Tibetan Buddhist monastery dimly lit by the sporadic flicker of yak butter lamps, often one can still find on occasion a Tiger skin crouching in an unlit corner. These have often been preserved for generations. Possessing the tiger’s spirit, the skin serves as a Symbol of protection against the dangers of ignorance, frustration and greed; the “three poisons” of Buddhism which should be crushed by “correct thought, words, and action” The tiger spirit is there to keep it all correct and the demons in time.

Anu is an elderly Tibetan lady. She lives alone on the upper floor of a traditional Tibetan style courtyard home in the Barkor area of old Lhasa. Life is hard. She was crippled at age four when a tractor ran over her leg, severing it. She grew up disadvantaged, never married and has no children. Her apartment is simple and bare, except for her sewing machine and a Buddhist shrine. To receive water and yak butter, essential for living on the Tibetan plateau, caring friends are required to bring these to Anu each day.

Tashigang Monastery lies along a quiet bend of the Lhasa River. Here the current is fast as icy water passes rapidly from melting glaciers on the long winding path to India. At the gate of Tashigang Monastery a dirt road marks the famous Tea Caravan Trail which one served as the main link between China and India. Tea Traversed by pony from rich Yunnan Province across Tibet to India. Buddhist sutras returned with the caravans. Historically, Tashigang Monastery was the first overnight stop of the Dalai Lamas whenever they made sojourns from Lhasa.

Menzikhang Hospital, Lhasa's only traditional Tibetan hospital, is just steps away from Tibet's most sacred pilgrimage site at Jokhang Monastery, where hundreds of Buddhist pilgrims prostrate themselves every morning and afternoon. At the Menzikhang Hospital entrance I am met by Seva Tibet Sight Program's Associate Manager, Dolma Chugi. She guides me through the patient recovery room and the theatre of cataract operations. I was stunned to see, that in one morning, twenty patients were operated on for cataracts. They entered the operating theatre blind and ten minutes later came out seeing.