I have traveled quite a bit, but this is the most wonderful trip of my whole life. Gar Monastery is situated in a place that I could only describe as Shangri-la, and I have been to the real Shangri-la last year with Minam Rinpoche and that could not even compare to this place, in terms of beauty. The trip to the 2 holy mountains of Chenrezig and Manjushri in China with Rinpoche was precious but once we arrived in Xining, the capital of Qinghai, Rinpoche had been surrounded by crowds of people all the way to Gar Monastery and we who followed him were treated as VIP guests of Rinpoche wherever he went. It was an experience that I would never forget, the thousands of people lining the streets, people chanting out the Guru Rinpoche mantra, the hundreds of motorbikes following the entourage, people packed like sardines at the back of huge trucks that circumambulated our  4-wheel drive vehicles and Gar Monastery lamas on horseback to welcome Rinpoche home.

Arrival at Gar Monastery

Taken from the rooftop of the monks' quarters.

After Yushu/Kyeku on July 18, we stopped at the cave where Achi met her husband, Amir Tsultrim and where they celebrated their wedding. It was quite a hair-raising experience walking the side of the cliff to reach the cave, but Garchen Rinpoche was like a mountain goat, he moved so fast. He told us to touch our foreheads to the back wall of the large cave which was pitch dark and then he directed that we should take a group photo there at the entrance all the while singing the White Tara mantra.

It was great to meet Lho Bongtul Tenzin Nyima, Lho Kunzang, Lho Chen and Minam Rinpoches again. Lho Kunzang Rinpoche had organized a very grand welcome in his Monastery for Garchen Rinpoche, complete with a lion dance. 

From the road leading up to the Upper Monastery

24 hour turning prayer wheel

Gar Monastery is spread out over a vast area.The Lower Monastery, where we stayed at, was at 4580 meters or about 15,000 feet above sea level and the Upper Monastery, where the 24 hr turning prayer wheel is located, the Shedrak or monks' Institute and the sky burial ground are between 15,000-17,000 feet. The nunnery is located on another mountain 30 minutes by road and about 45-60 mins of trekking up a steep slope. There are 2 very holy caves there, one is above the kitchen where Garchen Dharma Surya accomplished 200 million Chakrasamvara mantras for the protection of the area and now there is a huge 1000 arm Chenrezig in the cave and most of the 70 nuns there have finished 200 Nyungnays. As soon as I entered the cave I felt tears come to my eyes. Water droplets fell on top of my head, and I was told that this was a sign of blessings.  The other cave was further away and  it contained a stupa with the remains of Langchen Palgye Senge, one of the 25 disciples of Guru Rinpoche, and we circumambulated it. Bu Nima told us that once a terminally ill man with cancer came for a month and circumambulated it for 10,000 times and he was cured. Again, water droplets fell on some of our heads.

In the room of the retreat master who is doing her 3rd round
of the 3-year retreat on Yangzab. When completed,
she would have gone through 9 years of retreat.

Retreat hut used by Garchen Rinpoche when he was younger

The 3 year retreat centre for nuns is normally out of bounds. So, we trekked up just to see the exterior. But, when we arrived, 2 Drukpa Kagyu Rinpoches who had attended the 7-day Drubchen that had ended the day before, were blessing the centre and wonder of wonders, we were allowed in. We stayed for 2 hours, being shown around the place, their retreat rooms and and we in turn showed them our photos and they chatted mostly with Bu Nima. There were 14 nuns in retreat and all of them were practicing the Yangzab. They gave each one of us, there were only 5 of us foreigners as 14 others had already left, a cassette of either their Yangzab Dharmapala or Chod practices. When I showed them the 1st photo of Garchen Rinpoche, they burst out in tears. I was alarmed at first, thinking that I had made them cry, but I quickly realized that they were crying out of devotion. One of the Drukpa Rinpoches told us that we had accumulated a great deal of merit to be able to come into a 3 year retreat centre. Outwardly, it had seemed a coincidence that we arrived just when they were blessing the place. The nuns, before allowing us in, brought out a bumpa vase of holy water for us to rinse our mouths, spit it out and then the next round to drink it.

The Upper Monastery is built on the side of a mountain where the Yeshe Tsogyal cave is located. The path to it is no longer accessible, unfortunately. To the left of it is a figure of a huge Guru Rinpoche mapped out on the cliff face. The day that Garchen Rinpoche was busy at the Institute the day before we left, Gar Mingyur Rinpoche brought the 3 of us around, as it so happened. That morning, I felt that I had to visit the Upper Monastery for the last time, so 3 of us walked all the way up. We met Mingyur Rinpoche outside the temple just as a monk was opening its doors, another coincidence. He showed us his and Garchen Rinpoche's private rooms complete with shrine and the statues in Garchen Rinpoche's shrine were exquisite and we were told that although there was a bed in his room, Garchen Rinpoche never slept in it. He would spend all his nights sitting on his meditation chair. When we were in Gar Monastery, Garchen Rinpoche stayed in his large room at the Lower Monastery where we stayed. Then later, we walked with Mingyur Rinpoche leisurely to the Institute on the other side about a mile away and we bumped into Garchen Rinpoche who was heading towards the monks' 3 year retreat centre and he told us that we could not go in there and instead had a young monk show us the sky burial ground and the retreat hut that he used when he was very young. The monk told us that the hut was out of bounds to all of them but Garchen Rinpoche had directed him to show us the place and it was even higher up than the Institute and we were all huffing and puffing all the way up there. But the scenery along the way was the most breath-taking of all.
 

When we were in Gar Monastery, there was a 7-day Thukje Sangdup Red Chenrezig Drubchen from the Ratna Lingpa terma. This was another great experience, Garchen Rinpoche dressed up in a black hat with a complete costume to dance round the mandala, and every night, there would be a very lively lama dance around the mandala by other monks. As our rooms were just next to the gompa, the wake-up call of the gyaling or trumpets outside our rooms on the rooftop ensured that we were in the Drubchen by around 7.30am every morning, and we would be there until bedtime at about 10.45-11pm every night. Unknown to us, the wakeup call on the last day of the Drubchen was an hour earlier and when I sat in my usual seat in the Gompa and looked at my watch, I thought it had stopped because it showed the time as 6.15am. The empowerment had already started before I came in. The Drubchen ended before lunch, and I felt disorientated for a short while, not knowing what to do, but it quickly passed as the sun came out and the weather became perfect. The past 7 days had been wet and cold. Connie from Hong Kong had said to me that what was the height of summer there was the equivalent to the depths of winter in HK.

Jamgon (Rinpoche's Brother) & Garchen Rinpoche

This wonderful trip would not have been possible without a great deal of effort and expense on the part of Garchen Rinpoche, his family, friends, devoted disciples and loyal supporters. It is with much appreciation and thanks to Jamgon, Rinpoche's brother and his family and the nuns that we had good food to eat, endless topping up of our thermal flasks with hot water by our favorite old Ani, comfortable beds to sleep in and a safe 4-day journey home.

H.E. Garchen Rinpoche & Pheng Chong Chew

 

Pheng Chong Chew 

Malaysia