Ven. Rinzin Dorjee

Rinzin Dorjee was born in Minyak, Tibet, a town that lies in far eastern Tibet very close to China. Rinzin is the oldest of eight children. The rest of the family remains in Tibet where his parents are farmers. He telephones them regularly, and they miss him very much. Rinzin left Tibet in 1991, having been a member of a small Gelug monastery in Minyak since he was eight years old.

He was most likely 12-13 yrs. old when he made the difficult passage over the Himalayas and down into Nepal (Tibetans are very relaxed about birthdays and dates of birth.) He left Minyak and traveled westward to Lhasa where he joined a group of forty Tibetans who were attempting to escape Tibet and emigrate to Nepal. Such groups make regular passage over the Himalayas and down into Nepal or Bhutan, and they are led by guides who have become adept at negotiating the forbidding terrain and weather while avoiding the Chinese authorities who would imprison them immediately if captured. These guides are indeed heroic, and they ask only that their fellow Tibetans pay them what they can afford.

Rinzin's journey, beginning in Lhasa, lasted over a month. Typically they traveled at night to avoid detection, but if the weather cleared and there seemed to be no Chinese around, they pushed on for twenty-four hours or longer, sleeping in caves, under trees and rocks, or in animal barns on the slopes and valleys. Rinzin's group was stranded on a mountain top for over two days as a snow-storm passed through. They traveled light to maximize their efficiency and speed, and their provisions included dried meat and tsompa (a Tibetan staple made from roasted barley). For water, they melted snow or drank from the high streams. Rinzin crossed one passage at 19,000 feet.

Everyone in his group, he happily reports, survived the passage without severe injury: often appendages such as toes or feet are lost to frostbite, and the elderly or infirm will often die of exposure. They were jailed in Nepal briefly upon arrival because they had no visas, but Tibetan authorities arrived very quickly with the relevant paperwork, and all of them were given access to travel in the country. Rinzin joined Geshe's monastery in South India and became one of his students.

Rinzin has been chanting since he was eight years old, and has received special instruction in the art ever since then. His chanting comes from the lowest area of the abdomen around the navel; others chant from the chest or the throat, and if asked, Rinzin can demonstrate these kinds of chants as well. But it is the lowest chant that requires the most discipline and practice, and it is in this area that Rinzin is most accomplished. He is also a gifted artisan, sewing and carving many forms of Tibetan sacred art. He is also a wonderful cook. Because he has cooked in the monastery, he has helped to prepare good food for hundreds, even thousands of people; and his cooking is nutritious, inexpensive, spicy, and quickly--in his hands, at least--prepared.

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