<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065</id><updated>2011-12-27T15:03:56.499-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Gesar's Footprint</title><subtitle type='html'>Updates From Sengdruk Taktse School in Golok, Eastern Tibet...and Other Stories</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>15</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-3910290684423684670</id><published>2011-12-27T14:25:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2011-12-27T15:03:56.512-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Tibet Trip 2011</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VmapBVUY1pI/TvpMj1akz8I/AAAAAAAAFxA/G8NTrbUCv28/s1600/3-Chengdu-Scene.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VmapBVUY1pI/TvpMj1akz8I/AAAAAAAAFxA/G8NTrbUCv28/s400/3-Chengdu-Scene.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690945257653718978" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Our trip began in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province. From Chengdu, one can drive steadily to higher altitudes and as the altitude gets higher one can notice the environment slowly changing into snowy mountains and the houses turning into traditional Tibetan homes.&lt;div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Chengdu is a massive city with possibly 14 million inhabitants. Our plan was to drive from Chengdu through Sichuan but afte&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;r hearing that many counties in Sichuan were currently closed to foreig&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4m03cZInP3A/TvpNI7sOGOI/AAAAAAAAFxM/VMVUlGCriL4/s400/4-Xining-Airport.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690945894993500386" /&gt;ners we decided to fly to Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province and the gateway to Amdo.&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Xining is an interest&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;ing city located at nearly 7,000 ft above sea level. It's climate is much different from Chengdu, it is dry like Arizona or Uta&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;h and the sun is intense. There are even red sandy clay rocks that resemble Utah.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8xo7-EqIfPc/TvpOAop62sI/AAAAAAAAFxY/8_RoIMnKCy0/s400/10-Xining-Market-Tibet-Alley.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690946851956251330" /&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8aez-G2O9wI/TvpOnhjMi2I/AAAAAAAAFxk/OwwLxxGIUso/s400/8-Xining-Market.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5690947520063900514" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-3910290684423684670?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/3910290684423684670'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/3910290684423684670'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2011/12/tibet-trip-2011.html' title='Tibet Trip 2011'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VmapBVUY1pI/TvpMj1akz8I/AAAAAAAAFxA/G8NTrbUCv28/s72-c/3-Chengdu-Scene.JPG' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-2589905379771415796</id><published>2008-11-20T15:41:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-11-20T15:42:05.918-08:00</updated><title type='text'>First Graders of Sengdruk Taktse School</title><content type='html'>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre; "&gt;&lt;object width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lI_XC4MB9sY&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lI_XC4MB9sY&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-2589905379771415796?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/2589905379771415796'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/2589905379771415796'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/11/first-graders-of-sengdruk-taktse-school.html' title='First Graders of Sengdruk Taktse School'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-6334041137361329396</id><published>2008-11-20T12:15:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-11-20T12:17:09.582-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Khentrul Jigme Kunzang Gyaltsen</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/SSXFYoiFezI/AAAAAAAABMU/WI5oh40QGXA/s1600-h/Tibet+2008+106.jpg"&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/SSXFYoiFezI/AAAAAAAABMU/WI5oh40QGXA/s320/Tibet+2008+106.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both; text-align:CENTER"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"&gt;P&lt;/a&gt;rincipal of Sengdruk Takstse School, Golok, Eastern Tibet&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-6334041137361329396?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6334041137361329396'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6334041137361329396'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post.html' title='Khentrul Jigme Kunzang Gyaltsen'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/SSXFYoiFezI/AAAAAAAABMU/WI5oh40QGXA/s72-c/Tibet+2008+106.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-6489486725006444265</id><published>2008-07-15T19:10:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2008-07-15T19:21:41.303-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Jigme Dawa - Raising the Victory Banner of Education in Golok</title><content type='html'>It's my great pleasure to announce that 9th grader Jigme Dawa has the distinguished honor of having the highest college placement test scores in all of Golok. In addition to this, his other classmates together have helped to make Sengdruk Taktse School the highest scoring 9th grade class in the entire region of Golok.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://jorufoundation.org/images/eighth_grade/jigme_dawa_small.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://jorufoundation.org/images/eighth_grade/jigme_dawa_small.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153); font-style: italic;" align="left"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;My name is Jigme Dawa. I am from Sangruma, Darlag County, Golok. When I was one and half years old, my mother became sick and passed away. When I was three years old, my father also died from an illness. My sister was nine years old when my father passed away. We lived together and she took care of me. We used to cry when nobody was around. Because of this situation, our principal Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen gave me permission to come to Sengdruk Taktse School. I am now in eighth grade. I have won awards for best student and excellence in Tibetan poetry. I always look forward to what we will study in the next semester.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jigme Dawa, and his other fellow 9th grade classmates are the first batch of graduates of Sengdruk Taktse School. The fact that they are placing the highest in all of Golok says alot about the quality of education they are receiving at Sengdruk Taktse School. It also says alot about how much potential there still is at Sengdruk Taktse School to acheive even more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The majority of these 9th grade students have no parents. If it weren't for Sengdruk Taktse School, these kids would probably never set foot in a school. However, being given the opportunity to study at Sengdruk Taktse School has completely reversed their fortunes in life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/eighth_grade.html"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;View the entire 9th grade class of Sengdruk Taktse School&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-6489486725006444265?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6489486725006444265'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6489486725006444265'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/07/jigme-dawa-raising-victory-banner-of.html' title='Jigme Dawa - Raising the Victory Banner of Education in Golok'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-1295488186124253285</id><published>2008-03-27T16:06:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-03-27T17:05:30.622-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Short Biography of Tulku Thubten Norbu Rinpoche</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-wwjAEcCnI/AAAAAAAAAcU/m3L5OJJdsP8/s1600-h/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_portrait.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-wwjAEcCnI/AAAAAAAAAcU/m3L5OJJdsP8/s320/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_portrait.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182570649068767858" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;The sublime Tulku Thubten Norbu was born in 1965 in upper Wangchen, Golok, to his father, Garwa Lhalo, and his mother Barza Gaglo.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="jv0:" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="tm9-" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="qw9_" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;From a young age, his personality was such that he would even give his own hat and clothing to those that are weak and with nobody to take care of them.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="v3.7" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Many people of high, middling, and low faith said he was the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="mev0" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="jl64" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;the display of the great awareness holder, Terton Tsechoe Rinpoche, who is considered to be an incarnation of Rigzin Godem. Kyabje Drubwang Karma Chopel Zangpo also agreed.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id="bdf4" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="eepi" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="nvbb" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="kzrv" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Nyanmo Gonpa in Dar Valley also recognized and enthroned him as the reincarnation of Choktrul Lozang Pagpa Phunstok. After completing his studies (at a normal school) he came back to Phonkor Monastery (the monastery of Terton Tsecho Rinpoche) where the hair cutting ceremony (became a monk) was performed by Khenchen Palden Yeshe.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Since then, he has received teachings from HH Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, Khenpo Munsel, Kyabje Drubwang Karma Chopel Zangpo, Kyabje Kenchen Choying Kyabdal, Kyabje Drubwang Trinley Norbu, Kyabje Drubwang Padma Norbu, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Dodrup Rinpoche, Namtrul Rinpoche Jigme Phuntsok (not to be confused with Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok), Khandro Tare Lhamo, Khenchen Jamyang Gyepay Loden. He received many teachings of sutra, tantra, and especially the three inner yogas. In particular, he received the ripening nectar of the terma and pure vision teachings of the pinnacle of the nine yanas, the Clear Light Great Perfection. The qualities of receiving teachings and understanding their meaning was born in his mindstream.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;From Namtrul Yabyum (Jigme Phunstok and Tare Lhamo), he received their own treasures, Khandro Ting Od Barma, and Pagmo Tuktik. Tare Lhamo and Jigme Phuntsok recognized Thupten Norbu as a holder of these teachings, and they wrote a long life prayer for him to carry out the enlightened activities of Padmakara.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Meanwhile, in accordance with the aspiration/desire of the Dharma King, The Wish Fulfilling Jewel, Khenpo Jigme Phunstok, he taught Sutra and Tantra for over one year at Sribda Dzogchen Gonpa to the students in the Shedra, and their understanding improved like never before. To more than 10,000 faithful monks and laypeople, he taught the swift path of Phowa and the teachings of the Six Bardos and he also taught the various dances that demonstrate virtue and non virtue. He also explained about the negative effects of smoking, drinking, and hunting and because of this many people stopped their harmful actions. Tulku Orgyan Tenzin of Sribda Gonpa wrote down everything that Thubten Norbu taught and accomplished and shared this with Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok. After learning of his activites, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok praised Thubten Norbu in the midst of more than 10,000 at a public teaching and explained all that he had done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-w2EAEcCrI/AAAAAAAAAc0/FPbeK5DMwVk/s1600-h/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_teaching.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-w2EAEcCrI/AAAAAAAAAc0/FPbeK5DMwVk/s320/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_teaching.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182576713562589874" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="bdf4" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="eepi" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="nvbb" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="kzrv" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;After this, he built Larung Teksum Choling (in Taiwan). Thubten Norbu is very reliable and honest and provides very much assistance to Larung Chode Chenmo (Larung Gar) in Golok. Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok bestowed many holy supports of body, speech, and mind to Thubten Norbu so that his activity would expand. Many scholars and Khenpos from Larung Gar composed many writings about Thubten Norbu and his life and activities, and compiled them all together in a book.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-wzOgEcCoI/AAAAAAAAAcc/BuXgqXCqnHk/s1600-h/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_tawain.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-wzOgEcCoI/AAAAAAAAAcc/BuXgqXCqnHk/s320/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_tawain.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182573595416332930" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="bdf4" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="eepi" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="nvbb" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="kzrv" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;In Tawain, Thubten Norbu also built a publishing house that prints many volumes of texts related to Buddhist view, meditation, and action. He provides these texts free of charge to practice centers and practitioners from both East and West. He also has performed many actions that have released beings from fear (the practice of saving lives). For his own monastery on Ponkor, he has provided many forms of assistance for both the Shedra and Drupdra.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;In Darlag, Golok, at the home of Ling Gesar, Kumkar Sengdruk Taktse, together with Katok Kentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen, Thubten Norbu decided that the best way to solve the problems of poor children and those living with poverty was to provide them with an education. After building Sengdruk Taktse School, the results were clearly evident, and many poverty stricken families and children have seen enormous benefit.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="bdf4" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="eepi" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="nvbb" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="kzrv" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-w0QwEcCqI/AAAAAAAAAcs/cMetYkm4k7A/s1600-h/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_sengdruk_taktse.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-w0QwEcCqI/AAAAAAAAAcs/cMetYkm4k7A/s320/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_sengdruk_taktse.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182574733582666402" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="bdf4" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: italic;"&gt;&lt;span id="eepi" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="nvbb" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="kzrv" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;Written by Larung Editorial Committe in August, 2002.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="bdf4" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="eepi" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="nvbb" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span id="kzrv" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;For more information, please visit&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/"&gt;http://jorufoundation.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-1295488186124253285?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/1295488186124253285'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/1295488186124253285'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/03/short-biography-of-tulku-thubten-norbu.html' title='Short Biography of Tulku Thubten Norbu Rinpoche'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R-wwjAEcCnI/AAAAAAAAAcU/m3L5OJJdsP8/s72-c/thubten_norbu_rinpoche_portrait.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-5494831408528089508</id><published>2008-02-27T16:21:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-02-27T16:37:12.367-08:00</updated><title type='text'>In Memory of Do-Ngak Dronmey</title><content type='html'>On February 15th, 2007, &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/dongak_dronme.html" target="_blank"&gt;Do-Ngak Dronme&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/dongak_dronme.html"&gt;,&lt;/a&gt; a 5th grader at Sengdruk Taktse School passed away. At age 13, he was a very bright, intelligent, and kind young boy. He suddenly fell ill after a Losar (New Year) party. He was rushed to the town of Darlag, but passed away en route. Ceremonies for his consciousness were performed immediately, and &lt;a href="http://www.spcare.org/practices/phowa.html"&gt;Phowa &lt;/a&gt;(transference of consciousness) was also performed. His younger brother, &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/dongak_nyima.html" target="_blank"&gt;Do-ngak Nyima&lt;/a&gt; is also a student at Sengdruk Taktse School in the 5th grade.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://jorufoundation.org/images/fourth_grade/dongak_dronme_small.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://jorufoundation.org/images/fourth_grade/dongak_dronme_small.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;For some time, Khenpo Kunzang has had the wish to build a medical clinic at Sengdruk Taktse School. This isn't an unreasonable wish, it is definitely something within reach. Khenpo Kunzang has also wanted to build a Tibetan medical clinic where the Tibetan medical tradition would be continued and preserved. Students from Sengdruk Taktse School who had the desire to become a Tibetan doctor could be trained at the clinic, and the people from surrounding villages could receive treatment at the clinic. There are many people living around the Darlag area who have to travel very far in order to receive medical treatment, so building a clinic at Sengdruk Taktse School makes perfect sense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Tibetan medical tradition is in danger of completely disappearing in Golok. While there are still doctors and clinics in Kham, Golok has fewer and fewer people who are trained in the Tibetan medical tradition. A well known Tibetan doctor from Dzogey, in Kham, has stated that he would be willing to be the primary instructor at Sengdruk Taktse School if a building and program were funded. Read more about this in the weeks to come...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-5494831408528089508?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/5494831408528089508'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/5494831408528089508'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/02/in-memory-of-do-ngak-dronmey.html' title='In Memory of Do-Ngak Dronmey'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-4553792158388735412</id><published>2008-02-16T22:46:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-02-16T23:14:24.278-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Where is Sengdruk Taktse School ?</title><content type='html'>A friend of mine,(who writes this blog:&lt;a href="http://onsausalcreek.blogspot.com"&gt;http://onsausalcreek.blogspot.com&lt;/a&gt; brought up a good point today. She noted that I had never really mentioned exactly where Sengdruk Taktse School was. I have been telling people it's in Golok, Eastern Tibet, which is actually quite a large area. I guess I never really got specific because I didn't think people would have any idea if I were to say "Sengdruk Taktse School is in Darlag, about 3 hours drive from Tawu". Am I right? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I thought it might be helpful to include this map here. By the way, if you don't have Google Earth (not Google Maps mind you), you really should download it. It is so fun to play with. You can see a lot of these Tibetan towns up close and even change perspective. It feels like you have your own little virtual airplane or something, and you can just fly over all the terrain and swoop down for closer looks. I highly recommend it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The map below has one point in the middle of the town of Darlag, with a line going out  to the West towards Sengdruk Taktse School. It is only about a 30 minute drive, or maybe 15 minutes on a fast motorcycle. Unfortunately, it appears as if the satellite imagery starts to fail as you get towards the actual location of Sengdruk Taktse School, so you can't make out much detail. I drew a shape over the general area where the school is located, thought it's a little difficult to tell exactly where it is using this map. Traling Gonpa is located not too far away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=h&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;msa=0&amp;amp;ll=33.754388,99.649816&amp;amp;spn=0.025726,0.057335&amp;amp;msid=111281996071092587193.00044655058ab44e43088&amp;amp;output=embed&amp;amp;s=AARTsJqlL3zKcjxKwZilVk5vQkALDclhNg"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;&lt;a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=h&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;msa=0&amp;amp;ll=33.754388,99.649816&amp;amp;spn=0.025726,0.057335&amp;amp;msid=111281996071092587193.00044655058ab44e43088&amp;amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left"&gt;View Larger Map&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can use the zoom in and out controls on the map to get a closer look, or zoom out to get an idea of where Sengdruk Taktse School is in relation to other places in Tibet and China.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-4553792158388735412?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/4553792158388735412'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/4553792158388735412'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/02/view-larger-map.html' title='Where is Sengdruk Taktse School ?'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-6262089025216398299</id><published>2008-02-15T12:00:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-02-15T12:20:24.022-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Some New Photos From Tibet</title><content type='html'>Here are some new photos of the students at Sengdruk Taktse School in Tibet. The weather is cold, but the sky is blue. The students are sporting their new uniforms, looking very sharp!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XyvFS847I/AAAAAAAAAZo/tNBuBWKw2ik/s1600-h/schoolphoto_lowergrades.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XyvFS847I/AAAAAAAAAZo/tNBuBWKw2ik/s400/schoolphoto_lowergrades.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167303038166950834" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7Xv71S846I/AAAAAAAAAZg/PPoZZHnTrbQ/s1600-h/groupphoto1.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7Xv71S846I/AAAAAAAAAZg/PPoZZHnTrbQ/s400/groupphoto1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167299958675399586" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7Xy71S848I/AAAAAAAAAZw/DyZE30EYvf8/s1600-h/groupphoto2.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7Xy71S848I/AAAAAAAAAZw/DyZE30EYvf8/s400/groupphoto2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167303257210282946" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XzDFS849I/AAAAAAAAAZ4/JPr2ThCRrHk/s1600-h/4thgrade.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XzDFS849I/AAAAAAAAAZ4/JPr2ThCRrHk/s400/4thgrade.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167303381764334546" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XzOFS84-I/AAAAAAAAAaA/xprylnNNdd0/s1600-h/group4.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XzOFS84-I/AAAAAAAAAaA/xprylnNNdd0/s400/group4.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167303570742895586" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And another picture of the snow at the school right now, with horses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XzV1S84_I/AAAAAAAAAaI/khTTEa9jzDQ/s1600-h/snowhorses.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XzV1S84_I/AAAAAAAAAaI/khTTEa9jzDQ/s400/snowhorses.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167303703886881778" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-6262089025216398299?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6262089025216398299'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6262089025216398299'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-new-photos-from-tibet.html' title='Some New Photos From Tibet'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R7XyvFS847I/AAAAAAAAAZo/tNBuBWKw2ik/s72-c/schoolphoto_lowergrades.JPG' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-1126982400245817979</id><published>2008-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-02-05T16:16:46.987-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Mother of My Dreams</title><content type='html'>&lt;object height="350" width="425"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WPcrWR5j3zE"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WPcrWR5j3zE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Words by Lholo Kar&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Music by Norbu Gon&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Performed by &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);" href="http://jorufoundation.org/kunzang_rigzin.html"&gt;Kunzang Rigzin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;When the youthful moon in the autumn night&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Appears from amidst the stars,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;I remember the mother of my dreams again and again&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;I remember the mother of my dreams again and again&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;When, from this human realm of happiness and sorrow,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;I remember my loving mother,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The eyes of this young long lost son fill with tears&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The eyes of this young long lost son fill with tears&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;In the realm of cyclic existence&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Karmic debts due to past actions are many,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;If I meet my mother, this human life will be happy&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;If I meet my mother, this human life will be happy&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-1126982400245817979?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/1126982400245817979'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/1126982400245817979'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/02/mother-of-my-dreams.html' title='Mother of My Dreams'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-2560571581739549235</id><published>2008-02-04T16:57:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-02-04T17:11:35.377-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Jigme Wangmo - Eighth Grader  at Sengdruk Taktse School - Golok, Tibet</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6e2Q8xuinI/AAAAAAAAAZA/ozyF3x8D6Lw/s1600-h/jigme_wangmo_small.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6e2Q8xuinI/AAAAAAAAAZA/ozyF3x8D6Lw/s320/jigme_wangmo_small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163295900112423538" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;blockquote style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;My name is Jigme Wangmo. I am from Ozer, Darlag County, Golok. I was born into a family of nomads. Since then, I have been studying day and night. These days, I choose to not blindly follow the false traditions that women sometimes follow, such as acting as a servant to someone else, and being overly polite. I feel that there is a great disparity between men and women. Therefore, I feel that now is our chance to try our hardest to reach the same level as men.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jigme Wangmo is in eighth grade at Sengdruk Taktse School. She is a girl with lots of spirit and will. She also studies very hard and is an excellent student. She has a health problem where she gets really bad headaches and can barely walk. Doctors have not been able to help her very much.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you would like to sponsor Jigme Wangmo for $15/month. Please feel free to visit:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/eighth_grade.html"&gt;http://jorufoundation.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For more information, feel free to contact me.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-2560571581739549235?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/2560571581739549235'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/2560571581739549235'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/02/jigme-wangmo-eighth-grader.html' title='Jigme Wangmo - Eighth Grader  at Sengdruk Taktse School - Golok, Tibet'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6e2Q8xuinI/AAAAAAAAAZA/ozyF3x8D6Lw/s72-c/jigme_wangmo_small.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-5433682492041282420</id><published>2008-01-31T15:16:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-01-31T16:04:06.120-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Beautiful, Sacred Place</title><content type='html'>&lt;object height="350" width="425"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bkF8Mq0X19s"&gt;&lt;embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bkF8Mq0X19s" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"&gt;Written by&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/karchen_drolma.html"&gt;Kargyen Drolma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"&gt;Music by Dartso&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"&gt;Performed by&lt;/span&gt; &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/tubten_drolma.html" target="_blank"&gt;Thupten Drolma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The white snow mountain, Machen,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Arises like a stupa of snow.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The snow lion with it's turquoise mane,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;is poised majestically on it's summit.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;&lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/images/sengdruk_rainbow.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;The Palace of Sengdruk Taktse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Is like a crystal canopy.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;At that joyous sacred place,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;the nectar of sublime dharma overflows.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Traling Gonpa, in the land of Ma (Golok),&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;like constellations in the heavens falling to earth,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;is the place where the Buddha's teachings&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;are upheld by many learned practitioners.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;&lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/kunzang_bio.html" target="_blank"&gt;Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Appeared as a Buddha in human form.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The name of &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/sengdruk.html" target="_blank"&gt;Kunpen Tsekyong Lobling (School that Lovingly Protects and Benefits All)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;is known throughout all directions.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The long &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/culture.html" target="_blank"&gt;Wall of Sutras&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;is like a turquoise dragon flying through the sky.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The blue &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/environment.html" target="_blank"&gt;Machu River&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;flows through the plains&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Being at the school's pleasant grove of lotuses&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;is like being transported to the land of the gods.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;There, the diligent study of the ten fields of knowledge&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;progresses like the waxing moon.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;The diligent study of the ten fields of knowledge&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;Progresses like the waxing moon&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-5433682492041282420?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/5433682492041282420'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/5433682492041282420'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/01/beautiful-sacred-place.html' title='Beautiful, Sacred Place'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-8365767471908421681</id><published>2008-01-18T10:47:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-01-18T19:10:12.905-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Statment by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok Regarding Sengdruk Taktse School</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R5FnIn1Bn8I/AAAAAAAAAXw/mKqx5n1WSeM/s1600-h/kjp.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R5FnIn1Bn8I/AAAAAAAAAXw/mKqx5n1WSeM/s320/kjp.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157016446143930306" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The following was written by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok after two of his students, Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen, and Tulku Thubten Norbu Rinpoche, built Sengdruk Taktse School, located in Golok, Eastern Tibet:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(41, 140, 197);"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Aspirations made previously have led to a great and auspicious appearance in this world - an excellent foundation for the teachings: In the Earth Tiger Year, the Monkey Month, on the 30th day my students Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen and Wangtod Tulku Tubten Norbu have carried out the most important practice from the &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Musical Clouds of Heart Advice &lt;/span&gt;(a work of writing by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok entitled snying gtam sprin gyi rol mo), and have built a new school, &lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(41, 140, 197);"&gt;Larung Sidsum Zilnon Ling, in Domey (Eastern Tibet), near the center of Tramo Ling (Traling Gonpa), at Kumkhar Sengdruk Taktse. It is a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;n excellent and auspicious beginning.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the future, this school will stabilize both ordinary and extraordinary cultural traditions and restore the incomparable and precious teachings of the Buddha, creating all-pervasive benefit and happiness for beings, increasing and expanding positive actions in all directions.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;- Written by Jigme Phuntsok  - Tibetan Earth Rabbit Year, 1st month, 13th day (January 13th, 1999)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The following was written by Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen, who along with Tulku Thubten Norbu Rinpoche, have founded Sengdruk Taktse School:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(41, 140, 197);"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R5FmdX1Bn7I/AAAAAAAAAXo/5sXoDJCjtf0/s1600-h/rinpoche_flowers.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R5FmdX1Bn7I/AAAAAAAAAXo/5sXoDJCjtf0/s320/rinpoche_flowers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157015703114588082" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;To the sublime, and loving protectors of all beings, I sincerely supplicate:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Generally, what is known as the snowland of Tibet has been described by Buddha as the realm of Noble Avalokiteshvara. During the span of thousands of years, the dharma and culture have flourished and expanded greatly here.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The people of the Tibetan snowlands are courageous, noble, learned, kind, and honest. There exists a very long history of the noble actions of the people of this land.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All over this world, Tibet is known as the pureland where dharma and secular affairs are one. Happier than the divine realms, more glorious and satisfying than the naga realm, joyful like an expanding summer lake. Everyone has come to know (of Tibet) in this way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, due to the power of various outer and inner circumstances, education here has now fallen behind. Attendance of children at school is sparse, especially that of children from poor families, and orphans are unable to attend school. Not only that, there are many people in the population who are illiterate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Due to reasons such as these, the prosperity, politics, and culture of this region have all been greatly impacted. If things continue in this way, there is a very great danger that this culture will disappear altogether.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, in order to restore culture, to advance the socio-economic and academic situation, to ensure that there will be many learned and intelligent people in Tibet's future, and especially in order to create a new happiness for children from poor families and children with no parents, the pure minded, altruistic, Choktrul Thubten Norbu Rinpoche, and myself Jigmed Kunzang Gyaltsen, with the permission of the government, have completed the building of a school that will protect nomad children, especially orphans and children from poor families.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Due to the poverty in this land, the condition of the schools have become extremely poor. Even if one only only gives one cent, that donation will definitely go to use. I am requesting from the bottom of my heart that those who are endowed with love and compassion please help in any way they can.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:85%;" &gt;- Written by Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen, Earth Tiger Year, 4th month, 1st day&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;To help this school, please visit &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/"&gt;http://www.jorufoundation.org&lt;/a&gt; and sponsor a student for only $15/month.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-8365767471908421681?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/8365767471908421681'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/8365767471908421681'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/01/statment-by-khenpo-jigme-phuntsok.html' title='Statment by Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok Regarding Sengdruk Taktse School'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R5FnIn1Bn8I/AAAAAAAAAXw/mKqx5n1WSeM/s72-c/kjp.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-117543074712956444</id><published>2008-01-16T10:56:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-01-19T23:13:33.214-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Gesar's Footprint - Enshrined at Sengdruk Taktse School</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45T-n1Bn0I/AAAAAAAAAWs/KZblZS7xR3A/s1600-h/joru_footrpint.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156150958694178626" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45T-n1Bn0I/AAAAAAAAAWs/KZblZS7xR3A/s400/joru_footrpint.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;I took this photo in the altar room of Sengdruk Taktse School. I was told that this was a footprint left in solid rock by a youthful Ling Gesar, at which time he was simply known by the name "Joru". This particular footprint, or &lt;i style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)"&gt;zhabjey &lt;/i&gt;in Tibetan, is a treasure, or &lt;i style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)"&gt;terma&lt;/i&gt;, revealed by Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Footprints, handprints, and impressions left in solid stone have a special significance in Tibetan Buddhism. Much more than simply "magic tricks", footprints and handprints are a display of the realization of the practitioner. It's a sign that they no longer have ordinary perceptions of the outer world as being something solid, permanent, and real, and instead they have realized all phenomena to be like an illusory display.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are countless stories in Tibetan Buddhism about great masters leaving imprints in rocks. If you want to see some good pictures, you can look at this blog, which has some great photos from Nepal: &lt;a href="http://seaninnepal.blogspot.com/"&gt;http://seaninnepal.blogspot.com/&lt;/a&gt;. Some masters never make outward displays such as handprints and footprints, while other masters choose to make these kinds of displays in order to inspire faith in others, and to encourage them in their spiritual practice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This footprint was made by Padmasambhava in a cave at Tso Pema, which is located in Himachel Pradesh, India, in the village of Rewalsar.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45vh31Bn2I/AAAAAAAAAW8/X1pYAxfK58w/s1600-h/guru_rinpoche_footprint.JPG"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156181251098517346" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45vh31Bn2I/AAAAAAAAAW8/X1pYAxfK58w/s400/guru_rinpoche_footprint.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tradition of leaving imprints on solid rock is not just limited to Tibetan Buddhism however. There are also examples of footprints in Southeast Asian countries that are said to belong to Buddha, such as these:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R455JH1Bn5I/AAAAAAAAAXU/CJFzIl69obk/s1600-h/buddhas_footprint_2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156191821013032850" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R455JH1Bn5I/AAAAAAAAAXU/CJFzIl69obk/s400/buddhas_footprint_2.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R454931Bn4I/AAAAAAAAAXM/h-BK-fgp0WM/s1600-h/buddhas_footprint_1.jpeg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156191627739504514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R454931Bn4I/AAAAAAAAAXM/h-BK-fgp0WM/s400/buddhas_footprint_1.jpeg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to the late Alex Wayman, Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit at Colombia University,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="COLOR: rgb(41,140,197); FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;In almost every country in Asia where Buddhism has prevailed there is at least one of the supposed impressions of the Buddha's foot. According to the Buddhist tradition of Ceylon, the Buddha was supposed to have impressed his footprint on the bank of the Narmada river in South India, on Mount Elumalei near Tirupati in South India, on Adam's Peak, Sri-Pada, in Ceylon, and in Yonaka-pura...&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.vedicbooks.net/untying-the-knots-in-buddhism-p-2182.html"&gt;&lt;i&gt;- Alex Wayman, Untying the Knots in Buddhism&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition to Joru's footprint, Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen also discovered this hoof-print made by Joru's horse. &lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45ecX1Bn1I/AAAAAAAAAW0/Ga7p1xTAyQk/s1600-h/joru_horse_print.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156162464911564626" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45ecX1Bn1I/AAAAAAAAAW0/Ga7p1xTAyQk/s400/joru_horse_print.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;For those of you who aren't familiar with Gesar, he was a Tibetan King and also considered to be an enlightened being and an emanation of Guru Rinpoche. The stories of Gesar are considered to constitute the worlds largest epic tale. These stories are often passed down orally from generation to generation and spoken or sung by bards, in some cases these stories are passed down from generation to generation in miraculous ways:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="COLOR: rgb(41,140,197); FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;In Tibetan culture, there exists an ancient tradition of drungpas and drungmas. These are the visionary bards who "discover" Gésar material as terma or spiritual treasure. In The Saltmen of Tibet (the prize-winning film by Ulrike Koch, Zeitgeist Films, 1997) the singer of the epic of Gesar of Ling is a drungma called Yumen. Her version was transmitted to her during a dream she had at a turning point in a serious illness when she was a 16 year-old herder. &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.khandro.net/langnlit_Gesar.htm"&gt;- quoted from http://www.khandro.net&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Gesar is often depicted in sacred Buddhist art as riding his horse, which is red in color. In the epic of Gesar, it is told that when Gesar was a young boy he inherited the Kingdom of Ling when he defeated his opponents in a horse race, to everyone's surprise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R453un1Bn3I/AAAAAAAAAXE/ev844CHfZnQ/s1600-h/gesar_statue.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156190266234871666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R453un1Bn3I/AAAAAAAAAXE/ev844CHfZnQ/s400/gesar_statue.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The photo above was taken at Gesar's Palace (Gesar Podrang), which is located next to &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/sengdruk.html"&gt;Sengdruk Taktse School&lt;/a&gt;. In a future blog I will show more pictures from inside the palace, there are statues depicting all of Gesar's ministers (and fellow warriors) as well. Also at the palace is an amazing museum of ancient artificacts such as helmets, bows, arrows, saddles, as well as ritual implements that actually belonged to Gesar himself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The footprint of Joru and the hoof-print of his horse are now enshrined in the small altar room at Sengdruk Taktse School. The students of the school sometimes gather in this shrine room to say prayers together. &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/kunzang_bio.html"&gt;Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen&lt;/a&gt;, who discovered the hand and hoof prints is the principal and co-founder of Sengdruk Taktse School, which is also his primary residence. He has dedicated his life to improving the situation in Tibet, and strongly feels that educating the most unfortunate children of Tibet is a crucial and essential endeavor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R46ZEn1Bn6I/AAAAAAAAAXc/SgbLfhtQQfE/s1600-h/giving_initiation.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5156226928075710370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R46ZEn1Bn6I/AAAAAAAAAXc/SgbLfhtQQfE/s400/giving_initiation.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="COLOR: rgb(192,192,192); FONT-STYLE: italicfont-size:85%;" &gt;              - Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you would like to help please visit &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/students"&gt;http://jorufoundation.org/students&lt;/a&gt; and sponsor a student from Sengdruk Taktse School for only $15/month.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-117543074712956444?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/117543074712956444'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/117543074712956444'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/01/gesars-footprint-enshrined-at-sengdruk.html' title='Gesar&apos;s Footprint - Enshrined at Sengdruk Taktse School'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R45T-n1Bn0I/AAAAAAAAAWs/KZblZS7xR3A/s72-c/joru_footrpint.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-3940330863224401472</id><published>2008-01-14T11:56:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-01-14T21:59:18.127-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Chonyid Drolma - Our First Sponsored Student</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://jorufoundation.org/images/first_grade/chonyi_drolma_small.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 5px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width:500px;" src="http://jorufoundation.org/images/first_grade/chonyi_drolma_small.jpg" border="0" alt="Chonyid Drolma - 1st Grader at Sengdruk Taktse School" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last month, a conscientious individual decided to take action and become the first &lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/students.html"&gt;sponsor&lt;/a&gt; of a student of Sengdruk Taktse School. The student she chose to sponsor was Chonyid Drolma. Translated from Tibetan, Chonyid Drolma literally means &lt;span style="font-style:italic;color:#C99917;"&gt;Liberator of the True Nature of Reality&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chonyid is only 7 years old, and she has already seen so much suffering in her life. Below is a brief account of her childhood before coming to Sengdruk Taktse School:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style:italic;color:#298CC5;align:center;"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Chonyi Drolma is from Sangruma, in Darlag County, Golok. At around the age of two her father was wounded in a gun shooting accident, and after a long period of pain and suffering he passed away. Twenty days after, her mother was stricken by heart disease (this is a literal translation from Tibetan, it may indicate a medical disorder, or possibly even a "broken heart") and became crazy, she wandered around aimlessly and went to a very high and cold place where she suffered from serious frostbite over her whole body. After this, the parts of her body that were frostbitten began to smell like a corpse. She was unable to go outside her room to the toilet, she lived this way for a few years. She had nobody except her young daughter and one young son.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;When she died she was full of suffering and was in tears. If one were to see this family of mother, son, and daughter it would not be possible to hold back one's tears. After their mother's death, these two orphans had nobody to take care of them and they had to fend for themselves, living as poor beggars. After hearing of this situation, Khentrul Kunzang Gyaltsen went to find these two and took them to Sengdruk Taktse School.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I remember how I felt when I first heard this story, it sent chills up my spine and my eyes welled up with tears. My friend Lakshey Zangpo told me the story, and other stories which I will be posting gradually on this blog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It made me so happy that Chonyid Drolma was the first student who was sponsored. Chonyid Drolma now lives at Sengdruk Taktse School and goes to class every day. She is well fed, has a warm bed to sleep on, and has many playmates at school. It's almost unbearable to imagine what her life would be like if she was still on her own with her little brother, living as a beggar.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are reading this blog, and you would like to sponsor a student, I would like to encourage you to take that extra step and turn your good thought into an action. Sponsoring a student is only $15/month (roughly half the cost of a tank of gas...if you live in California). If all these students can find a sponsor, their chances of receiving an education free of obstacles increases dramatically.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To see all the profiles of students at Sengdruk Taktse School, please go to:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://jorufoundation.org/students.html"&gt;http://www.jorufoundation.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-3940330863224401472?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/3940330863224401472'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/3940330863224401472'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/01/chonyid-drolma-our-first-sponsored.html' title='Chonyid Drolma - Our First Sponsored Student'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003984070293981065.post-6726781461908498765</id><published>2008-01-13T13:27:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-01-14T22:48:25.769-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Introduction to Sengdruk Taktse School</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://jorufoundation.org/images/second_grade/choying_paltso_small.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 500px;" src="http://jorufoundation.org/images/second_grade/choying_paltso_small.jpg" alt="Choying Paltso - 2nd Grader at Sengdruk Taktse School" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The picture above is of Choying Paltso, a student at Sengdruk Taktse School in Golok, Eastern Tibet. Choying is 9 years old. She has no father and when her mother remarried, she left Choying behind to live with her Grandmother. She was unable to afford the tuition to go to a normal school.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Choying was given the opportunity to get an education at Sengdruk Taktse School. Founded in 1999, Sendruk Taktse School currently provides education, food, and housing to nearly 300 children like Choying Paltso. Many have lost one or both parents, or come from extremely poor backgrounds.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I was in Tibet, I heard many amazing stories about Sengdruk Taktse School. In particular I remember the story about how the land on which the school is built was chosen:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(41, 140, 197);"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Towards the end of his illustrious life, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok went on a tour of Golok, giving empowerments, teachings, and blessings to thousands of monks, nuns, scholars, and meditators. While he was staying at Traling Gonpa, an important branch of Khatok, he informed a couple of his attendants about a vision he had. He told these two attendants to set out for a walk to see if they saw any interesting signs. They asked him to explain what kind of signs they would be looking for, and he simply told them that they would know when they come across them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So the two attendants began walking. They walked over the hill behind Traling Gonpa and noticed a bird flying over them. The bird stayed above, hovering and circling for a while, then continued flying. They decided to follow the bird to see if maybe the bird was leading them somewhere. They walked for a while until they came to an open valley. They could see the Machu (Yellow) River coiling gracefully around a flat area of land surrounded by rolling mountains on all sides. The surrounding land was covered in green grass, however there was one section of land, on a slight plateau, where the earth was dark, almost black, and there was no grass growing there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The two attendants noticed that the bird they had been following had landed on that piece of land. They walked closer and saw some very interesting white rocks on the dark piece of land. Neither of them had ever seen that kind of rock in this area, and the rocks seemed oddly out of place. They took these series of events to be some kind of sign, but they were not sure, so they went back and told Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok about what they had seen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok told them that these were the signs he was expecting. He then explained that on that dark piece of land is where Ling Gesar, the enlightened hero, once had a palace. Gesar used to live there with all his ministers and carry out enlightened activities. Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok later said that if a palace dedicated to Gesar was built on that spot that it would be very beneficial. In addition, if a school were to be built there, it would also be very beneficial, not only to Tibet, but to the whole world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eventually a palace was built on that piece of land. And in 1999, Sengdruk Taktse School was built there too. Interesting things started happening after the palace and school were built. For one thing, grass started growing where the earth was previously black and barren. The family that used to own that land, who generously donated their land in order for the school and palace to be built there, said that in all the years they owned that land, they could never get grass to grow there. Basically, it was a useless patch of land that none of their yaks could graze on. They were amazed to see that it was now covered in green grass. Many other people also began to notice that the land actually appeared to be expanding in size. Many people saw auspicious signs such as these.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qC1H1BnuI/AAAAAAAAAVU/Sw0Gf0LDmoc/s1600-h/sengdruk_rainbow_small.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qC1H1BnuI/AAAAAAAAAVU/Sw0Gf0LDmoc/s400/sengdruk_rainbow_small.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155076572625084130" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 204, 153);"&gt;Gesar's Palace, Golok, Tibet&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sengdruk Taktse School is run by Thupten Norbu Rinpoche, shown in the photo below,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qC8H1BnvI/AAAAAAAAAVc/89AFVkya2i0/s1600-h/tnr.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qC8H1BnvI/AAAAAAAAAVc/89AFVkya2i0/s400/tnr.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155076692884168434" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 204, 153);"&gt;Thupten Norbu Rinpoche&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and Khenpo Kunzang Gyaltsen, shown in the photo below walking with Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qDFn1BnwI/AAAAAAAAAVk/9Je8ro8L0iM/s1600-h/kjp_kk.png"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qDFn1BnwI/AAAAAAAAAVk/9Je8ro8L0iM/s400/kjp_kk.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155076856092925698" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Currently, Thupten Norbu Rinpoche lives in Taiwan, and Khenpo Kunzang Gyaltsen lives at Sengdruk Taktse School. I will write more about their lives in future blogs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Financial support is greatly needed for this school, so if you have the capacity, please consider sponsoring a student for only $15/month.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For more information go to:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.jorufoundation.org/"&gt;http://www.jorufoundation.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6003984070293981065-6726781461908498765?l=gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6726781461908498765'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6003984070293981065/posts/default/6726781461908498765'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://gesarsfootprint.blogspot.com/2008/01/introduction-to-sengdruk-taktse-school.html' title='Introduction to Sengdruk Taktse School'/><author><name>Jacob Archuletta</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14680909103061269717</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='31' height='21' src='http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R6LALsxuimI/AAAAAAAAAYs/esm7cy9XGgo/S220/me.png'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp1.blogger.com/_K3vCtU0Jp9E/R4qC1H1BnuI/AAAAAAAAAVU/Sw0Gf0LDmoc/s72-c/sengdruk_rainbow_small.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry></feed>
