Some days ago I had the precious possibility to enter the room in Rumtek where the golden stupa with 16th Karmapas ashes is standing. I was there with Claire from France which was a nice surprise as I found out that she came for some days. As she has lived there in Rumtek for one and a half year to learn the traditional metal work she was a good guide. So we got up at 5 am and went up the hill to the Rumtek Monastery. Normallly nowadays you have to pay entrance fee- whoever this may get! Anyway at 5 am there was nobody. We waited for some minutes and a monk apeared to open the room for filling the bowls. So we had plenty of time to meditate in front and finally make some coras around. The buddhs statues around the golden stupa are an exitement for itself. I felt totally blessed afterwards and I made wishes for all my friends especially those who asked me personally.
Today I am in Gangtok and in some houres I will go on to Tashiding in West Simkkim. A very old monastery of the Nyingmapas, it has a stupa besides which is known as a very special blessing: it removes all imprinmts of bad karma just by looking at it:)

For nearly a week I am now in Sikkim and I feel much better here. Though it is quite cold and I have no heater in my room I enjoy the beautiful nature (wild x mas stars, bamboo trees, hibiscus and a lot of plants we just now from pots in the flats) grow here. The hills and mountains are green, the people are more honest and clean! and after India it is really a relaxing zone. Today I am at Gangtok, the new and modern capital of Sikkim and we celebrated x mas here. Funny enough all the shops in town are decorated like X Mas and people are wishing us merry X mas. There was even a santa claus yesterday and the babtist church had a public coral in the pedastrian zone!!!
Tomorrow there will be lama dances in the old monastery of Rumtek: Mahakala and they are celebrating Sikkimeas New Year called Lossong.
I stay at a guest house were some years ago Ole was also staying and they told me some stories of this time. But the atmosphere at the new monastery is really strange and I felt not like going in there.
In a week I will travel on to west Sikkim. There are many holy places like a cave of Guru Rinpoche and hot springs. Looking forward to that.
So I wish you all a happy new 2009!!

Back in Delhi cause I wanted to help Tashi for his Visa at the German ambassy as he asked me for this. But actually I couldn' t help him at all. They want to do an interview with the people applying for Visa to check if all is correct. I had a feeling like in the former East German police station. Unpolite and top down. They didn't believ anything he was saying. If they would proof all people like that who want to come to Germany I wonder how anyone can make it in. But Tashi later told be that they work very well on bakshish. That explaines a lot.
So we have to wait some days wether he has made it or not. I went to see Karmapa before so that he has us in mind at the time we are at the ambassy. So I don't worry:)
Anyway I am staying this time in the very north of Delhi at the new Tibetan camp called Maju Ka Tilla far away from the KIBI. But it feels better here. Not so much like India. I am fed up of Indians and looking forward to going north to Sikkhim and Nepal.
I will take a train tomorrow and go more that 24 hours to Silliguri and take a jeep from there to Rumptek. As there is nearly no internet connection this might be the last report for two or three weeks.
Everyone a merry x mas and happy new year!

The Moenlam finished on Sunday with something like a little party under the bodhi tree: monks throwing their katas on the branches of the tree and everybody cheerde and was happy.
I was able to bring Karmapa a little offering and I got a big blessing from this noble man.
On Monday there was than a Milarepa puja at the Karma Temple with Beru Kyentse and his sun Jamgun Kontrul Rinpoche. The rest of the evening I spend with a very nice sangha from Beru Kyentse from Budapest.

On Tuesday Silke and me tried to leave this place at 7 am but we had obsticals. Our bus broke down before it reacherd Bodhgaya to pick us up and than we took the train. But on this day there was a big train collision somewhere and the system broke half down. What to say: in India you stay cool and take it like it is. We were lucky because we reached Varanasi at 8 pm. Others were travelling for 30 hours and others had to spend the night at the station because of train cancellation!

So finally we are in the essential town of India and I have to confess that I am possitivly surprised. It is not half as dirty as Bodhgaya, nearly no baggers, most places at the Ganges are very calm and even quite. For India an exeption!
Today we were at a Hindu Puja at the Ganges and it was a traditional show of the bramans. It is really impressive to see how all posible situation, life style, people and behaviors can exist here at the same time and space. Animals of all kind, including huge cows as monkeys as goats and so on and not to forget the all presentive dogs and people of all ages, gender and background live side by side.

So to be honest I spend most of the Moenlam in bed because I am ill. First I got finally cought by the local bacteria and had my Indian toilet experience and now I got the heavy flue like mostly everyone at the Moenlam (for all my non buddhist friends: Moenlam is a recitation of wishes for the good of all beings under the bodhi tree which is supposed to be the place where Buddha Shakjamuni got enlighted).
The other purification is because of the Indian daily life with poluted air, animals and people who eat and shit at the same place.... A real adventure and work with ones mind.
But I wanted it. So Sharmapa came to the Moenlam two days ago and it is like a big family having a get together. I just had contact with them in Europe and there it is more difficult and crowded when you want to meet them to get a blessing.
Tomorrow is the last day and maybe I have the chance to be there a full day.
On Monday I will go to Varanasi as I have to go back to Delhi anyway because of Tashi's Visa.

It started. And for all my friends first: I am alive. Everything is fine here. Moslems but no bombs!!!

Today the Kagyu Moenlam started in the morning with Karmapa and all the high Rinpoches. Unfortunately all the text books for the non tibetan speakers got lost, so it was more an exercise in sitting and listening. but Karmapa was giving blessing all the time, people could make fotos and all was very easy. It is really true that in Asia the whole relationship between lays and monks is much more relaxed than I discovered it in Europe before.
I also met a lot of French people and I went out in a tent restaurant with them for Tibetan food and right now I am sitting in a projet for farming people. Meaning the money I spend right now to write my blog goes all to a womens supporting program. And while I am writing here I here French people in my back. So I really have a karmic connnection:))

Now I am nearly 2 weeks in India and and I met quite a lot of people. In the train to Gaya we met a very nice young couple with their kids and Niko and I we were quite impressed by the way they were treating their kids: very generous and free. So they treated us. But this is middle class India of big town. Here in Bodhgaya we are in the country side and people behave very different. As it is tourist place you have the feeling above your head is a big sign: bank, ask for money or for the kids: ask for cookies.
We learned that money is a game here. Cheating is normal and has nothing to do with friendship or dislike.

The Europeans on the other side here are a funny species. we met a danish guy, a student of Ayan Tulku, from whom Ole got the Phowa transmission. They try to build a monastery right beside our guest house - Indian style meaning without permission. He lives here for 12 years and I think to a certain point you must be crazy to do so.

I also met a nice girl from actually Germany but more from all over the place. A real gypsy. We share a room and she is asking me all the time something about dharma:)))

Karmapa is coming in 2 days and I am really excited to see him. But to be honest if there wouldn' t be the Kagyu Moenlam I would have left Bodhgaya already. I am looking forward to going to Sikkim and the north. I am happy for every Tibetan I see instead of Indians!!!

So finally I arrived at Bodhgaya. We had some purifications on the way as we missed the train we have booked, paided nearly double to get here but than we stayed two nights in Karmapas temple and guest house here. Yesterday I also met some monks and nuns from le Bost who arrived and helped to do the thousands of Tsatsas for the Moenlam.
Bodhgaya itself is really a tourist place. Prices are higher especially now before he Moenlam, a lot of touts try to beg for money - mostly children and the place is nousy and dirty. But you can escape if you go to the Mahabodhy Temple to meditate or visit the places of the Tibetan refugees here. There is a different energy.
For me to be honest I am not really attracted by this sweet and confused mixture of all kinds of buddhism and the guilt-give-it-to-the-poor approche of a lot of westeners. And here you also find very often- too often places with the wrong Karmapa. But I see it as a teaching for my mind, view and all the barganing as a game:) This works.
The Moenlam will start in some days and I am really lookin g forward to.

It is incredible: I am for the first time in India, in Delhi and the KIBI and Karmapa is also here. I was sitting right next to him yesterday and got a big blessing, could ask him directly about some things concerning thangka painting and got some interesting teachings:))
Today I had the next experience by trying to get a visa for Tashi Gyaltsen a thangka painter from Dharamsala who is invited by the EC and was proposed from Ole as a master.
They are very strict and funny about rules here. Got their lessons from the English Government and mixed it with Indian style. Unfortunately they took the worst from both sides...
I feel so blessed: today I saw Karmapa again and had an interview. Afterwards I bought my ticket for Godhgaja and Tashi passed by again: he is so kind. I am shure that people in Europe will love him. It' s just a shame that I cannot be here.
Anyway on Friday I will move on to Bodhgaya. More than:)

From November 17th 2008 until March 16th 2009 I will travel through India, Nepal and Sikkim for the first time in this life. I have reanimated this blog for all my friends who want to follow my experiences and share them with me.
If it´s possible I will also try to ad some pictures here but I don´t know yet about the technical possiblities on this tour.

My first destination will be the KIBI in Delhi where I will stay some days and meet a thangka master Ole proposed me as a new master after I have broke up the student teacher relationship with Norbu this summer.
The name of my possible new master is Tashi Gyaltsen, he is from east Tibet and I am very curious to meet him finally.

I will for shure be at the Kagyu Mönlam in Bodh Gaja this year from December 1rst until 7th. I want to see Ole in Katmandu on January 27th and I want to be back at KIBI in the beginning of March next year to see Karmapa.

Everything in between is very open. I don´t want to travel like a tourist but mostly use local buses or even walk. If I think of me in India I see myself walking.

For shure I will try to go to Kalinpong to visit Karmapa at home. I will try to see my thangkapainting friends in Sikkim where they are working in one of the monasteries of Rumtek this year and I want to see Dawa in Katmandu if he is at home- but it is also possible that he wil lbe in Kamra Gön/Spain this year.

We will see. Hope to see some of you in India this year or maybe next year on some courses with Ole.

Have fun and enjoy your life;)