We Celebrated His 5th Year Anniversary

Yesterday we joined with others to celebrate the Five-Year Anniversary of Venerable Lama Gyaltsen Tamang at the Maui Dharma Center.

Lama Gyaltsen is such a sweet, beautiful soul, and we've grown very fond of him. I photographed him yesterday inside the Temple, and then he performed an unusual act which made my S.O. and me giggle. Instead of individually putting a kata (the long white blessings scarf) around our necks as it is usually done, he put it around both of us to "renew our vows." We told him we would take turns sharing it!

D is for the Dalai Lama On Maui

Sorry to make you wait about the "D" word, but it's been a crazy last two days with the historic visit of the Dalai Lama to Maui. I've risen early both mornings and have had long days at events. I posted about this visit of the Dalai Lama on another of my blogs: Who's Yo Mama, and I plan to post more today!

Short story: Four of us were invited to have a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama last year (2006), and we traveled to the Dalai Lama's home in McLeod Ganj (Dharmasala) India to experience a 45 minute audience with him. At the time, I was asked to invite the Dalai Lama to visit Maui which he had never done before by Georgiana, the main lady who runs the Maui Dharma Center in Paia along with Lama Gyaltsen.

I did as I was asked, and lo and behold...one year and one month later, here is the Dalai Lama on Maui which is probably the biggest event which has ever happened to Maui. My emotions have been bubbling over with bliss! Can you tell I'm a huge fan?

The visit of the Dalai Lama to Maui was accompanied by many rules: no cameras, cellphones, videorecorders, etc....all of which I obeyed. However, I noticed many people breaking the rules of cameras, and so they photographed him and didn't get busted. However, I played by the rules, and thus, I don't have any photos of him on Maui. Oh well....

The photo was taken at the Main Temple at McLeod Ganj (Dharmasala) India in March 2006. It is an intricate butter carving, and I think it's amazing.

The Venerable Lama Gyaltsen

I recently asked Lama Gyaltsen if he would pose for a photo for me.

Lama Gylatsen is the head of the Maui Dharma Center
the island on which I live. My family was also closely connected to the late Lama Tenzin who passed away in 2001. A small group of us made a pilgrimage to Tibet with Lama Tenzin in 1998, and a film was made of this adventure. Lama Tenzin hadn't seen his family for 40 years since his escape into India, and so his reunion with his family was very touching. Below is a photo of the late Lama Tenzin.