His Holiness Karmapa Tours the Kitchens and Places to Eat

December 25, 2009, report by Michele Martin, photos taken by Karma Lekcho, Pema Orser Dorje

 

Right after completing the morning teachings, His Holiness began a tour of the Kagyu Monlam’s four kitchens and places to eat in order to make sure everything is being prepared well and also to give his blessing to the sites and the food.

His Holiness first went to the Mahayana Guest House, where year after year, the Kagyu Monlam has stored many things in the lower level of the building.  In the storage area, a group was preparing feast offerings for the Monlam, filling bags with fruit, biscuits, and sweets to be given to everyone.  Next door was the Norbulingka store with statues and Tibetan scroll paintings along with elegant clothes and hand-made household items.  His Holiness stopped to view the thangkas displayed in a small gallery together with several statues, and a small drawing on gold of Dorje Khachoma, all made by Tibetan artists.

 

Afterwards, he walked swiftly to the large tent restaurant in the back of the Mahayana Guest House where staff have their meals. After stopping to greet the servers and a few people who had come early, he walked down the row of dishes and then through the kitchen, and up the back stairs to the second kitchen.  Here food is prepared for the Friends of the Kagyu Monlam who come from many countries to support the prayer festival with donations and volunteer work.  His Holiness again viewed the variety of dishes and greeted the people who had already arrived from the stupa and were eating lunch.

 

In one of the booths, the center table had been removed and a small table with a white cloth and flowers had been set up for him.  The sunlight streaming in from a window behind him, he drank tea and shared a meal with the delighted guests. Standing and turning his mala of small beads in his left hand, he greeted among others, the monk who has been translating his talks into Hindi.

 

Returning to Tergar in his motorcade, His Holiness walked directly to the area behind the guest house where there are two kitchens: one is for VIPs who have come from afar, and the other is for the noon meal of the sangha.  Both kitchens are staffed by volunteers from Taiwan who bring special vegetarian food with them to prepare delicious meals. Moving along the row of VIP dishes, His Holiness picked up a small roll wrapped in tin foil and tried it out. He then walked a few meters to the large blue-roofed tent that serves as a temporary kitchen where many workers prepare the noon meal for the ordained sangha. Dressed in bright yellow head scarves and green vests, the cooks requested a group photo and His Holiness readily agreed.

 

On his way to the main shrine hall, he stopped at the medial clinic to speak with the Chinese nurse who is volunteering there. Then he circumambulated the shrine room and entered through a side door. The monks and nuns were sitting in long rows with their begging bowls set out in front of them on a red carpet. The bowls had a metal cover and beside them were two smaller bowls, one for water and one for yogurt and fruit. His Holiness circled the outside aisle of the shrine hall, observing how the monks were seated as they waited for the rest of the monks to arrive form the stupa. After a short period, His Holiness returned to his top floor residence while the monks and nuns enjoyed in complete silence their meal of rice, eggplant tempura, tofu, green leafy vegetables, potato and cauliflower, and soup, followed by yogurt and mixed fruit. It will be their last meal until breakfast tomorrow morning.