Top photo by Marvin Ross.

Left photo: Prayer Flags

Surmang Villagers Flock to the Sakyong

Over 1,000 people turned out to pay homage to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on Friday, 1 October 2004, as he toured each of the fourteen villages in the Surmang valley.

At each village the Sakyong performed the classical hair-cutting ceremony for those
wishing to enter the educational stream of Surmang Dudsti-til monastery. In many cases families asked the Chabje Sakyong to accept their young sons and daughters.

An astonishing 255 men, women, and children had a lock of their hair cut by the Chabje Sakyong, who gave them dharma names, a protection cord, and a photograph sealed with his fingerprint in red.

Nothing like it had occurred in this remote valley since the destruction of the monastery complex in the late 1950's. The Vidyadhara described the fate of Surmang in detail in his autobiographical work "Born in Tibet." It seems no effort was spared to destroy Surmang. Today, many of the buildings that were dynamited remain in ruins.

The elder of Rechap village, sixty-one-year-old Gendu, told the Sakyong that his village had received letters from the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche many years previously. Trungpa Rinpoche had told them that his eldest son, knowm at that time as the Sawang, Osel Rangdrol, would be his heir as lineage holder of the Surmang Kagyu lineage and would come to visit them.

"We have waited all this time," he said. "You are the heart of Surmang.  Please don't go back."

Speaking to the assembled villagers, Surmang Khenpo Tsering Gyurme said, "The Chabje Sakyong is the holder of the Surmang Kagyu lineage, a responsibility given to him by his father and which he fulfills by propagating his father's teachings. He is undertaking the rebirth of Surmang by building the new shedra. But a building is not enough. We need people to bring it to life. People of all ages, men and women, are welcome. If you wish your children to join, they, like everyone else, will be educated under the guidance, care, and protection of the Chabje Sakyong."

The Sakyong said he felt the best way to protect and support the people of Surmang -- who live in conditions of extreme poverty -- was to offer them education. "Through the monastery they could learn basic skills of reading and writing, as well as benefit from structured learning of the dharma. They would also need to be taught about the world so they could deal effectively with the impact of materialism -- both Western and Chinese," he said.  "Knowledge is the best wealth," he said. "Once you have knowledge, you need have no fear. With knowledge you can achieve so many other things. I decided this has to be the source of what is needed at Surmang. As the lineage
holder, this is what I can offer."

The Sakyong said his connection with Surmang was, "blood and bone." Surmang has always had a "culture of dignity," he said. Conditions have made it a "memory of the past." "Now," he said, "it is an aspiration for the future."