Apologies for the delay in updating. I have been busy with a group of 11 Singaporean dentists who flew into Kathmandu a week ago. I've been volunteering with them, and I feel like I haven't had a break since I met them at the airport. Besides showing them around Kathmandu, I've been helping organize the 6 days of free dental clinics we are conducting around the villages of the Kathmandu valley. My job during the clinic has been to organize our volunteers, register our patients and do crowd control, which has been exhausting, but very rewarding. We have seen about 800 patients in four days.
The entire group of dentists (11 Singaporean, 2 Nepali) and volunteers at the Shenpen Dental Clinic 2007.
I also escorted the dentists to the Shivapuri National Forest north of Kathmandu on a holiday between our clinics in Boudha and Chapgaon. It was nice to get into nature in a vast forest filled with the blessings of previous Buddhas and years of meditating yogis.
The view from a meditation cave in the Shivapuri forest. Oh, the virtue of the happy life of the hermit!
Rhododendrons in full bloom in Shivapuri forest.
A tree-dwelling near the peak of Shivapuri, used by those looking for solitude in the forest.
SHOTS OF THE 2007 SHENPEN DENTAL CLINIC, CHAPAGAON:
A Nepali (Newari) villager in traditional dress getting his teeth cleaned.
A Nepali woman having minor dental surgery done behind our monastery in the village.
Another Nepali villager having her teeth worked on.
Dan Bahadur, the gate keeper at our Chapagaon monastery, smiling after getting a teeth cleaning.
Dan Bahadur's beautiful wife.
A beautiful village girl who came from her home nearby the monastery in Chapagaon for a teeth cleaning.
The beautiful village girl with her beautiful friend.
A local schoolgirl crying as she gets two of her heavily decayed lower molars extracted. Dentistry is pain!
Our smallest monk at the Chapagaon monastery getting his teeth checked by one of the Singaporean dentists, Cheung.
Elderly village men, in traditional attire, waiting for a checkup.
HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA, MARCH 2007:
A few images from my trip to India in the first two weeks of March, where I attended teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and visited
the reincarnation of Tulku Orgyen Rinpoche in Bir.
An abandoned bike rickshaw at the bus station in Paharganj, Punjab, India.
OM AH HUNG VAJRAGURU PADME SIDDHI HUNG! A mantra written on a stone at the Chokling Monastery in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India. Homage to Guru Rinpoche!
His Eminence the Neten Chokling Rinpoche conducting the Tsegar Drupchen, associated with Amitayus, the Buddha of Long Life, in his monastery in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India. He is the lama that made the
milarepa movie.
SHOTS OF CHAPAGAON MONKS:
My monk friend Tsultrim, who at the age of 17 pretty much runs the daily operations of the monastery in Chapagaon where I live.
Some Chapagaon monks smiling.
Some of the younger monks in Chapagaon in assembly for afternoon prayers.
Welcome to the old Nepal, open the door to Bungmati dental fun, below!
The famous (in the Kathmandu Valley) village of Bungmati, home of the compassionate Karunamaya (Rato Matsyendranath, a form of Lokeshwar or Avalokitesvara) who brought rain to Kathmandu back in the day. Still honored with the largest and most important festival here, which marks the beginning of the monsoon every year. This festival is in Patan next week, where I hope to hang out with some local friends to check it out.
A typical Newar style chaitya (more generally known as stupa, a reliquary mound) in Bungamati village.
Above chaitya from a different view, funny how much different everything is from a new perspective. I wonder if our consciousness stream works that way too? Whaddya say, Dignaga?
A local Newar i Bungmati getting his teeth looked at by Alice from Singapore.
I gave my camera to some cute local kids to play with, like I do sometimes with the monks in Chapagaon. My Olympus is made extra durable, so I'm not afraid of it getting broken. I myself have dropped it on rocks in Tibet from about 4 feet up and not a (big) scratch. I've learned that although a lot of the shots are worthless that they take (fingers over the lens, etc), many of them are great and uninhibited, and reflect a great amount of fun.
This local peasant farmer has the most badass Mardi Gras party skirt ever.
One of the very few non-Newari locals that came to the dental camp.
