Favorite Blogs

These Girls of Golok are some of the great people you can meet in the Blogosphere

I got turned on to blogs at first by reading travel blogs to Eastern Tibet; Kham, Golok and Amdo. Actually, my favorite ones are by the westerners who live there.  then you get a realistic idea of the experience in these areas that spawned most of the 19th and 20th century meditation adepts who grace our lineage trees.  A mostly pastoral area of nomads and monasteries, it is an area of intense contradictions.  Impoverished materially, abundant spiritually; it is an area of little literacy, and yet also the matrix of the brilliant scholars of the 19th century nonsectarian movement, and the 18th century self-educated genius and meditation master Jigme Lingpa. Great female yoginis, such as Sera Khandro and Ayu Khandro (in the 20th century) emerged there in what remains a strongly patriarchal setting even today.

I like to read about Rekong--where Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's father came from.  I've never heard Rinpoche express an interest in the place, but I have always been fascinated by this area, traditionally inhabited by families of Yogis, who integrate practice and retreat with worldly life, like we do.   This school teacher doesn't know anything about that, but I find Toffa a good read.

When she is on the road, Wangmo keeps one heck of a great blog.  I'll tell you right from the get go that her lama--Jean Kirkpatrick's son Stuart--is a controversial figure, and the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama warns people away from his group.  But he doesn't figure much in her sincere accounts of life in Golok.  Particularly, a man she knows has started a program for young girls--who are just abandoned by the side of the road with some regularity. 

  

If you want to go to Kham check this out, and for permit info check this out.

Now the best overall blog I know, actually comes out of Mongolia most of the time.  It is by my favorite Western monk--who I have never me--Konchok Norbu. He actually inspired me to start my blog, and I'll tell you how.  He proved that being unrelentingly positive and uplifting, and motivated solely by the impulse to help others, can be really interesting.  He can even make birdwatching interesting!  So, hence cometh this blog, which I will try to keep free of my mounting anxiety over chemtrails and the island of discarded plastic the size of Texas in the Pacific ocean. 

In India we find Joy documenting the lives of herself, Lama Lena, and Nyondo, an intrepid lesbian trio who serve Lama Wangdor and the people in his community near Tso Pema.  I will warn you ahead of time, you will end up making a donation by paypal to help them out, once you read it there is no choice, Paypal calls.  Here is Nyondo's blog--she is a computer industry person.  These three are from the Bay Area originally.  Unfortunately my only real personal contact with them caused Lena to have an allergic reaction.  Lama Wangdor Rinpoche gave an empowerment at my old shrine room, and Lena was allergic to my rug.

I removed my final blog recommendation on 1/10.