31 Jan 2012
5 min 49 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
Geshé Sopa discusses how he was attracted to Sera Monastery and how he traveled from Tsang to Lhasa.
- Sera Monastery
- Tsang
- Jose Cabezon: Okay, so we finished that you had studied a little bit of dura ("Collected Topics"; Tib. bsdus grwa)
- Geshe Sopa: Dura...
- Jose Cabezon: ...at Ganden Chokor.
- Geshe Sopa: ...and then from there I went to Sera, Sera Monastery.
- Geshe Sopa: My teacher is one of those two monks earlier, my uncle called...
- Geshe Sopa: So he was not himself a philosophical [scholar]...
- Geshe Sopa: but he also introduced...because I was [from] a young age
- Geshe Sopa: kind of... I don't know, among the children, [having] good conduct and
- Geshe Sopa: also a sharp mind or something like that, [I was] considered some of those
- Geshe Sopa: so and then, [they saw a] potential to have good scholar or something
- Geshe Sopa: and should to send to Lhasa, Sera Monastery.
- Geshe Sopa: So one of my teachers, philosophy teacher, also suggested
- Geshe Sopa: and mainly again there, I was so interested.
- Geshe Sopa: From Sera, some of the scholars studied down there several years,
- Geshe Sopa: then they came [back], and they were so especially inspiring,
- Geshe Sopa: and they conduct behave, and they have their debating form,
- Geshe Sopa: and everything so...so I was so much again attracted.
- Geshe Sopa: And asking them many sometimes [in] conversation,
- Geshe Sopa: What does [it] look like, Sera Monastery? What is the daily schedule? How [do] they do and....
- Geshe Sopa: huge...Sera Monastery has 5,500 monks.
- Geshe Sopa: Among [them] they are debating the form
- Geshe Sopa: and the scholars from all...from Tsang, Kham, Amdo, everywhere
- Geshe Sopa: comes in these classes and really wonderful things,
- Geshe Sopa: I was just excited, I want to go there! [laughs] at that time
- Geshe Sopa: because children are always excited.
- Geshe Sopa: So then, my teacher, uncle, [was] kind of were really strict.
- Geshe Sopa: But then I tell him often, and my philosophy teacher also suggested.
- Geshe Sopa: And he tested me how, if I stay, how long I am able to stay.
- Geshe Sopa: Always he has to go some monastery,
- Geshe Sopa: some duty to go several...fall season or some spring or some season,
- Geshe Sopa: he has to go somewhere and he leaves me alone to the, in the monastery in here.
- Geshe Sopa: So [at] that time, he will leave me food and...[say] do this, do this, and this is for your things.
- Geshe Sopa: So I just carefully [stayed] there, how to live, learned not [to be] wild,
- Geshe Sopa: clean, and food is not all eaten and making everything...
- Geshe Sopa: just quiet, very very nice way.
- Geshe Sopa: One way my philosophy teacher taught me also,
- Geshe Sopa: "Don't do such and such when your uncle is not there."
- Geshe Sopa: So based on that I listened and
- Geshe Sopa: he [was] always surprised when he come, returned.
- Geshe Sopa: Certain foods or certain money, etc. I never used.
- Geshe Sopa: [laughs] So that way, anyway, he was convinced.
- Geshe Sopa: So therefore faraway to go [to] Lhasa, Sera,
- Geshe Sopa: and then down there, he has to support [me],
- Geshe Sopa: from Tsang, sometimes to send some little money or some tsampa or etc.
- Geshe Sopa: So finally he decided, so finally he himself took me to Lhasa.
- Geshe Sopa: He and another two monks, we went to...thirteen days it [was] taking, with the...carrying things,
- Geshe Sopa: he carries food and everything,
- Geshe Sopa: and the other two monks they have,
- Geshe Sopa: and I have my own things and he sewed this dress,
- Geshe Sopa: a new dress, also that was wrapped and my carrying was that all!
- Geshe Sopa: All [the] rest of all things he carried.
- Geshe Sopa: So thirteen days' journey and so went...
- Jose Cabezon: How old were you then?
- Geshe Sopa: At that time, eighteen.
- Jose Cabezon: Eighteen.
- Geshe Sopa: Eighteen years old, yeah.
- Geshe Sopa: So and the road is...
- Geshe Sopa: there is no car,
- Geshe Sopa: walking...and the whole mountain pass, you have to pass...
- Geshe Sopa: it's a lot, it's a lot, it's very hard.
- Geshe Sopa: Sometimes [the] mountain pass, from beginning to that day, you cannot be able to pass.
- Geshe Sopa: Up, up, up, up, up...
- Geshe Sopa: and somewhere [you] have to sit there, stay to night,
- Geshe Sopa: and earlier collect some water or fuel,
- Geshe Sopa: then some...little bit [of a] cave or some small places, stay there.
- Geshe Sopa: Like that a couple of times, [we] have to do like that.
- Geshe Sopa: It is a hard journey, anyway, so that way I went to Lhasa.
Loading ... Collection:
Subcollection
- Religion in Tibet
- Monasteries
- Sera - Geshe Sopa Interview
- Sera Monastery
- Geshe Sopa Interview
Subject
- Sera Monastery
Referenced Places
- Sera Monastery
- Tsang
Recording Location
- Wisconsin
Language
- English
Interviewer:
Jose Cabezon
Contributing Interviewee:
Geshé Lhundub Sopa
Contributing Transcriber:
Eveline Yang
Publisher:
Tibetan and Himalayan Library
Data Entry:
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Shanti AV Id:
1424
thlib.org
1260
Versions:
Date Created:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Encoding Scheme:
mpeg-4 visual
File Size:
23244 (KB)
Data Rate:
486 (kbps)
Frame Size:
360x272
Format Id:
Format Id:
1_j7ob1wli
Format Id Source:
Kaltura.com
Annotation:
LANGUAGE INFO Speech Type: Interview Situation Method: interviews MASTER TAPE INFO Master Tape Label: NDRP Master 1 Recorded: 1969-01-01