31 Jan 2012
4 min 30 sec
Video Overview
Creators:
Unknown
Geshé Sopa discusses his childhood and how he was drawn to becoming a monk.
- Tsang
- Jose Cabezon: First, Geshe la, thank you for doing this.
- Jose Cabezon: And, maybe we can begin,
- Jose Cabezon: if you would say a little bit about your life story,
- Jose Cabezon: from the time you were a child through the time you were at Sera.
- Geshe Sopa: Mmm.
- Geshe Sopa: Well, I was born in Tsang,
- Geshe Sopa: called [the] province of Tsang,
- Geshe Sopa: it's Shum, born there,
- Geshe Sopa: and, I have the farmer's house, small...
- Geshe Sopa: my, the...I am only one child.
- Geshe Sopa: My father and mother only have one child, me.
- Geshe Sopa: so therefore...until [I was] close to ten, I was living in my home.
- Geshe Sopa: and mainly doing...
- Geshe Sopa: a lot of the children in the town mostly do the cows,
- Geshe Sopa: watching cows, [indecipherable], etc. during the summer that way.
- Geshe Sopa: So they...think that is roughly, some of the details...
- Geshe Sopa: When I was young, of course my parents only have one child.
- Geshe Sopa: Mother wants to keep me, without being a monk,
- Geshe Sopa: and wants to have her there,
- Geshe Sopa: and my father is a very religious person,
- Geshe Sopa: and he wants...he likes [for] me to be in the monastery,
- Geshe Sopa: if I want.
- Geshe Sopa: What I have at that time...very, very interested,
- Geshe Sopa: and even at a young age,
- Geshe Sopa: because I have two...what do you call... cousins or something, relatives,
- Geshe Sopa: two monks already in Ganden Chokor.
- Geshe Sopa: My first monastery is Ganden Chokor.
- Geshe Sopa: Then they are two monks,
- Geshe Sopa: they...especially the young one, comes every year down to home to visit my family,
- Geshe Sopa: and I know them and they like me.
- Geshe Sopa: So I often also go to...later to the monastery,
- Geshe Sopa: to visit them and stay there for some time.
- Geshe Sopa: And then when the monastery...everyday they have the assembly hall,
- Geshe Sopa: the puja hall, the prayer, and etc.
- Geshe Sopa: I go when they go to assembly,
- Geshe Sopa: I go to the balcony, on the top, balcony,
- Geshe Sopa: and watching down to the monks,
- Geshe Sopa: rows, rows, and they are chanting, etc.
- Geshe Sopa: I so much like [it],
- Geshe Sopa: and to the end of the rows, there are lots of children also,
- Geshe Sopa: and wearing those monk robes, etc.
- Geshe Sopa: So therefore, I so much like it.
- Geshe Sopa: I, all the time wanting to be like [a] monk,
- Geshe Sopa: and I go back to the home,
- Geshe Sopa: sometimes I have my towel, [a] little towel,
- Geshe Sopa: quite a few children, and those children, sometimes I collect them,
- Geshe Sopa: and seat them [a] little bit, rows and rows,
- Geshe Sopa: and I pretend to be monk, kind of [a] leader,
- Geshe Sopa: or something like that between there.
- Geshe Sopa: And even I tried to...piece of cloth,
- Geshe Sopa: red cloth, something to pretend to be [a] monk,
- Geshe Sopa: something like that.
- Geshe Sopa: So that kind of interest,
- Geshe Sopa: so they've always...my parents have not much choice,
- Geshe Sopa: I wanted to be [a] monk, like that.
- Geshe Sopa: So therefore, then close to ten, and then I became a monk.
Loading ... Collection:
Subcollection
- Religion in Tibet
- Monasteries
- Sera - Geshe Sopa Interview
- Sera Monastery
- Geshe Sopa Interview
Referenced Places
- Tsang
Recording Location
- Wisconsin
Language
- English
Interviewer:
Jose Cabezon
Contributing Interviewee:
Geshé Lhundub Sopa
Contributing Translator:
Eveline Yang
Publisher:
Tibetan and Himalayan Library
Data Entry:
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Shanti AV Id:
1423
thlib.org
1265
Versions:
Date Created:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Encoding Scheme:
mpeg-4 visual
File Size:
17920 (KB)
Data Rate:
483 (kbps)
Frame Size:
360x272
Format Id:
Format Id:
1_lunrl9dm
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