Paloma Lopez grew up at Rigdzin Gatsal in Williams, Oregon. At the age of two, she saw H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche for the first time during the construction of the Guru Rinpoche statue. Now twenty-one, she practices dharma, is learning the Tibetan language, and recently spent an extended period of time studying in Nepal. Since speaking with Lama Trinley, she has returned to Nepal.
Paloma: I had always thought it would be nice to learn Tibetan, but it wasn’t until three years ago, when I did a ngondro retreat, that I got serious about it. My mom [Drusilla Lopez] visited me in retreat, and as she was leaving, she said a prayer in Tibetan, which I didn’t recognize. I had been doing all my ngondro prayers in English. When I asked her what it was she replied, “That’s the refuge and bodhi-chitta prayer that you recite during prostrations.” And I thought, “Maybe I should learn it in Tibetan.” To me, there is an amazing blessing in the Tibetan language. If I can read a practice in Tibetan and understand the meaning, it is so profound it makes me cry.
Once I learned the ngondro prayers in Tibetan, the shift in my practice was obvious. I realized that learning Tibetan was something I wanted to seriously pursue. It began to look like the best way to do that would be to sit down with a group of Tibetans and immerse myself in the language. That isn’t exactly what happened, though, because the Tibetans in Nepal all wanted to learn English.
Paloma: It was really difficult. I had considered going to Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s shedra [dharma school] for Westerners, but Lama Sonam, the resident lama of Dechhen Ling in Oregon, thought I might get distracted. I was eighteen and still liked to party, so he sent me to Khetsun Zangpo Rinpoche, who lived about forty minutes from Boudha. Being in a monastery, where the monks wouldn’t talk to me, was like being in retreat. For three months I stayed in a room by myself. Khetsun Zangpo kindly gave me a teacher, but to really learn Tibetan you need to speak it and no one would talk to me, except in English. My teacher was a very nice older monk, but he would only read aloud from my book and say, “Do you understand?” The English was written below the Tibetan, so I would say, “Yes, I understand,” because I didn’t know enough Tibetan to ask questions. I became really frustrated, but the experience taught me to
discipline myself— to be alone, and just study and practice. Now I know how to study, whether I have a teacher or not, whether I’m around people or not. Although those three months were challenging and somewhat miserable, they were good for me. I did a lot of practice and contemplated the four thoughts, which was really powerful.
After that, I spent a couple of weeks in Boudha. I heard that Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche needed help, and I ended up working with him at his Ani Gonpa, translating faxes from the West into Tibetan. Every day there was a new fax. For two months, I worked with my dictionary, Tulku Sang-ngag, and a couple of nuns, and my Tibetan took off.
Once Tulku Sang-ngag left for the United States, I spent all my time at the Ani Gonpa. That was wonderful. I’ve never been so content. For about six months I stayed with the nuns and taught them English every day. I enjoyed doing tsok with them because they all had such melodious and vibrant voices. They do an amazing chod practice and a Chenrezig practice that is so beautiful.
Paloma: Speaking it is a little difficult since I’m not around Tibetans, but I listen to tapes and read every day, as well as study grammar and vocabulary. The most frustrating thing has been trying to find a good teacher. I met one the last month I was in Nepal and discovered mistakes I had been making for the past fifteen months— that was okay because I’ve learned from those mistakes.
The sentence structure of the Tibetan language is amazingly challenging. I am surprised at what I got myself into. But in talking with other Western translators, like Lama Chökyi Nyima and Eric Pema Kunzang, I’ve realized how much more difficult it was for them to learn Tibetan, considering how few texts had been translated. Chökyi said he had to sit down with a text and one of Herbert Gunther’s translations and translate word for word. But because of the work they’ve done, I’ve had an opportunity to learn much faster.
Tibetans stress the importance of spelling. For the first few years, kids in the monasteries don’t learn vocabulary. They just spell, read, and learn how to write. When I read, I don’t worry about what the words mean. Sometimes I’ll understand a whole page and sometimes I won’t understand anything. But slowly I’m starting to comprehend. Some day I’d like to try translating, although I won’t know how skilled I am until I try.
Paloma Lopez grew up at Rigdzin Gatsal in Williams, Oregon. At the age of two, she saw H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche for the first time during the construction of the Guru Rinpoche statue. Now twenty-one, she practices dharma, is learning the Tibetan language, and recently spent an extended period of time studying in Nepal. Since speaking with Lama Trinley, she has returned to Nepal.
Paloma: I had always thought it would be nice to learn Tibetan, but it wasn’t until three years ago, when I did a ngondro retreat, that I got serious about it. My mom [Drusilla Lopez] visited me in retreat, and as she was leaving, she said a prayer in Tibetan, which I didn’t recognize. I had been doing all my ngondro prayers in English. When I asked her what it was she replied, “That’s the refuge and bodhi-chitta prayer that you recite during prostrations.” And I thought, “Maybe I should learn it in Tibetan.” To me, there is an amazing blessing in the Tibetan language. If I can read a practice in Tibetan and understand the meaning, it is so profound it makes me cry.
Once I learned the ngondro prayers in Tibetan, the shift in my practice was obvious. I realized that learning Tibetan was something I wanted to seriously pursue. It began to look like the best way to do that would be to sit down with a group of Tibetans and immerse myself in the language. That isn’t exactly what happened, though, because the Tibetans in Nepal all wanted to learn English.
Paloma: It was really difficult. I had considered going to Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s shedra [dharma school] for Westerners, but Lama Sonam, the resident lama of Dechhen Ling in Oregon, thought I might get distracted. I was eighteen and still liked to party, so he sent me to Khetsun Zangpo Rinpoche, who lived about forty minutes from Boudha. Being in a monastery, where the monks wouldn’t talk to me, was like being in retreat. For three months I stayed in a room by myself. Khetsun Zangpo kindly gave me a teacher, but to really learn Tibetan you need to speak it and no one would talk to me, except in English. My teacher was a very nice older monk, but he would only read aloud from my book and say, “Do you understand?” The English was written below the Tibetan, so I would say, “Yes, I understand,” because I didn’t know enough Tibetan to ask questions. I became really frustrated, but the experience taught me to
discipline myself— to be alone, and just study and practice. Now I know how to study, whether I have a teacher or not, whether I’m around people or not. Although those three months were challenging and somewhat miserable, they were good for me. I did a lot of practice and contemplated the four thoughts, which was really powerful.
After that, I spent a couple of weeks in Boudha. I heard that Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche needed help, and I ended up working with him at his Ani Gonpa, translating faxes from the West into Tibetan. Every day there was a new fax. For two months, I worked with my dictionary, Tulku Sang-ngag, and a couple of nuns, and my Tibetan took off.
Once Tulku Sang-ngag left for the United States, I spent all my time at the Ani Gonpa. That was wonderful. I’ve never been so content. For about six months I stayed with the nuns and taught them English every day. I enjoyed doing tsok with them because they all had such melodious and vibrant voices. They do an amazing chod practice and a Chenrezig practice that is so beautiful.
Paloma: Speaking it is a little difficult since I’m not around Tibetans, but I listen to tapes and read every day, as well as study grammar and vocabulary. The most frustrating thing has been trying to find a good teacher. I met one the last month I was in Nepal and discovered mistakes I had been making for the past fifteen months— that was okay because I’ve learned from those mistakes.
The sentence structure of the Tibetan language is amazingly challenging. I am surprised at what I got myself into. But in talking with other Western translators, like Lama Chökyi Nyima and Eric Pema Kunzang, I’ve realized how much more difficult it was for them to learn Tibetan, considering how few texts had been translated. Chökyi said he had to sit down with a text and one of Herbert Gunther’s translations and translate word for word. But because of the work they’ve done, I’ve had an opportunity to learn much faster.
Tibetans stress the importance of spelling. For the first few years, kids in the monasteries don’t learn vocabulary. They just spell, read, and learn how to write. When I read, I don’t worry about what the words mean. Sometimes I’ll understand a whole page and sometimes I won’t understand anything. But slowly I’m starting to comprehend. Some day I’d like to try translating, although I won’t know how skilled I am until I try.
Paloma Lopez grew up at Rigdzin Gatsal in Williams, Oregon. At the age of two, she saw H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche for the first time during the construction of the Guru Rinpoche statue. Now twenty-one, she practices dharma, is learning the Tibetan language, and recently spent an extended period of time studying in Nepal. Since speaking with Lama Trinley, she has returned to Nepal.
Paloma: I had always thought it would be nice to learn Tibetan, but it wasn’t until three years ago, when I did a ngondro retreat, that I got serious about it. My mom [Drusilla Lopez] visited me in retreat, and as she was leaving, she said a prayer in Tibetan, which I didn’t recognize. I had been doing all my ngondro prayers in English. When I asked her what it was she replied, “That’s the refuge and bodhi-chitta prayer that you recite during prostrations.” And I thought, “Maybe I should learn it in Tibetan.” To me, there is an amazing blessing in the Tibetan language. If I can read a practice in Tibetan and understand the meaning, it is so profound it makes me cry.
Once I learned the ngondro prayers in Tibetan, the shift in my practice was obvious. I realized that learning Tibetan was something I wanted to seriously pursue. It began to look like the best way to do that would be to sit down with a group of Tibetans and immerse myself in the language. That isn’t exactly what happened, though, because the Tibetans in Nepal all wanted to learn English.
Paloma: It was really difficult. I had considered going to Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s shedra [dharma school] for Westerners, but Lama Sonam, the resident lama of Dechhen Ling in Oregon, thought I might get distracted. I was eighteen and still liked to party, so he sent me to Khetsun Zangpo Rinpoche, who lived about forty minutes from Boudha. Being in a monastery, where the monks wouldn’t talk to me, was like being in retreat. For three months I stayed in a room by myself. Khetsun Zangpo kindly gave me a teacher, but to really learn Tibetan you need to speak it and no one would talk to me, except in English. My teacher was a very nice older monk, but he would only read aloud from my book and say, “Do you understand?” The English was written below the Tibetan, so I would say, “Yes, I understand,” because I didn’t know enough Tibetan to ask questions. I became really frustrated, but the experience taught me to
discipline myself— to be alone, and just study and practice. Now I know how to study, whether I have a teacher or not, whether I’m around people or not. Although those three months were challenging and somewhat miserable, they were good for me. I did a lot of practice and contemplated the four thoughts, which was really powerful.
After that, I spent a couple of weeks in Boudha. I heard that Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche needed help, and I ended up working with him at his Ani Gonpa, translating faxes from the West into Tibetan. Every day there was a new fax. For two months, I worked with my dictionary, Tulku Sang-ngag, and a couple of nuns, and my Tibetan took off.
Once Tulku Sang-ngag left for the United States, I spent all my time at the Ani Gonpa. That was wonderful. I’ve never been so content. For about six months I stayed with the nuns and taught them English every day. I enjoyed doing tsok with them because they all had such melodious and vibrant voices. They do an amazing chod practice and a Chenrezig practice that is so beautiful.
Paloma: Speaking it is a little difficult since I’m not around Tibetans, but I listen to tapes and read every day, as well as study grammar and vocabulary. The most frustrating thing has been trying to find a good teacher. I met one the last month I was in Nepal and discovered mistakes I had been making for the past fifteen months— that was okay because I’ve learned from those mistakes.
The sentence structure of the Tibetan language is amazingly challenging. I am surprised at what I got myself into. But in talking with other Western translators, like Lama Chökyi Nyima and Eric Pema Kunzang, I’ve realized how much more difficult it was for them to learn Tibetan, considering how few texts had been translated. Chökyi said he had to sit down with a text and one of Herbert Gunther’s translations and translate word for word. But because of the work they’ve done, I’ve had an opportunity to learn much faster.
Tibetans stress the importance of spelling. For the first few years, kids in the monasteries don’t learn vocabulary. They just spell, read, and learn how to write. When I read, I don’t worry about what the words mean. Sometimes I’ll understand a whole page and sometimes I won’t understand anything. But slowly I’m starting to comprehend. Some day I’d like to try translating, although I won’t know how skilled I am until I try.
Paloma Lopez grew up at Rigdzin Gatsal in Williams, Oregon. At the age of two, she saw H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche for the first time during the construction of the Guru Rinpoche statue. Now twenty-one, she practices dharma, is learning the Tibetan language, and recently spent an extended period of time studying in Nepal. Since speaking with Lama Trinley, she has returned to Nepal.
Paloma: I had always thought it would be nice to learn Tibetan, but it wasn’t until three years ago, when I did a ngondro retreat, that I got serious about it. My mom [Drusilla Lopez] visited me in retreat, and as she was leaving, she said a prayer in Tibetan, which I didn’t recognize. I had been doing all my ngondro prayers in English. When I asked her what it was she replied, “That’s the refuge and bodhi-chitta prayer that you recite during prostrations.” And I thought, “Maybe I should learn it in Tibetan.” To me, there is an amazing blessing in the Tibetan language. If I can read a practice in Tibetan and understand the meaning, it is so profound it makes me cry.
Once I learned the ngondro prayers in Tibetan, the shift in my practice was obvious. I realized that learning Tibetan was something I wanted to seriously pursue. It began to look like the best way to do that would be to sit down with a group of Tibetans and immerse myself in the language. That isn’t exactly what happened, though, because the Tibetans in Nepal all wanted to learn English.
Paloma: It was really difficult. I had considered going to Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s shedra [dharma school] for Westerners, but Lama Sonam, the resident lama of Dechhen Ling in Oregon, thought I might get distracted. I was eighteen and still liked to party, so he sent me to Khetsun Zangpo Rinpoche, who lived about forty minutes from Boudha. Being in a monastery, where the monks wouldn’t talk to me, was like being in retreat. For three months I stayed in a room by myself. Khetsun Zangpo kindly gave me a teacher, but to really learn Tibetan you need to speak it and no one would talk to me, except in English. My teacher was a very nice older monk, but he would only read aloud from my book and say, “Do you understand?” The English was written below the Tibetan, so I would say, “Yes, I understand,” because I didn’t know enough Tibetan to ask questions. I became really frustrated, but the experience taught me to
discipline myself— to be alone, and just study and practice. Now I know how to study, whether I have a teacher or not, whether I’m around people or not. Although those three months were challenging and somewhat miserable, they were good for me. I did a lot of practice and contemplated the four thoughts, which was really powerful.
After that, I spent a couple of weeks in Boudha. I heard that Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche needed help, and I ended up working with him at his Ani Gonpa, translating faxes from the West into Tibetan. Every day there was a new fax. For two months, I worked with my dictionary, Tulku Sang-ngag, and a couple of nuns, and my Tibetan took off.
Once Tulku Sang-ngag left for the United States, I spent all my time at the Ani Gonpa. That was wonderful. I’ve never been so content. For about six months I stayed with the nuns and taught them English every day. I enjoyed doing tsok with them because they all had such melodious and vibrant voices. They do an amazing chod practice and a Chenrezig practice that is so beautiful.
Paloma: Speaking it is a little difficult since I’m not around Tibetans, but I listen to tapes and read every day, as well as study grammar and vocabulary. The most frustrating thing has been trying to find a good teacher. I met one the last month I was in Nepal and discovered mistakes I had been making for the past fifteen months— that was okay because I’ve learned from those mistakes.
The sentence structure of the Tibetan language is amazingly challenging. I am surprised at what I got myself into. But in talking with other Western translators, like Lama Chökyi Nyima and Eric Pema Kunzang, I’ve realized how much more difficult it was for them to learn Tibetan, considering how few texts had been translated. Chökyi said he had to sit down with a text and one of Herbert Gunther’s translations and translate word for word. But because of the work they’ve done, I’ve had an opportunity to learn much faster.
Tibetans stress the importance of spelling. For the first few years, kids in the monasteries don’t learn vocabulary. They just spell, read, and learn how to write. When I read, I don’t worry about what the words mean. Sometimes I’ll understand a whole page and sometimes I won’t understand anything. But slowly I’m starting to comprehend. Some day I’d like to try translating, although I won’t know how skilled I am until I try.
Paloma Lopez grew up at Rigdzin Gatsal in Williams, Oregon. At the age of two, she saw H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche for the first time during the construction of the Guru Rinpoche statue. Now twenty-one, she practices dharma, is learning the Tibetan language, and recently spent an extended period of time studying in Nepal. Since speaking with Lama Trinley, she has returned to Nepal.
Paloma: I had always thought it would be nice to learn Tibetan, but it wasn’t until three years ago, when I did a ngondro retreat, that I got serious about it. My mom [Drusilla Lopez] visited me in retreat, and as she was leaving, she said a prayer in Tibetan, which I didn’t recognize. I had been doing all my ngondro prayers in English. When I asked her what it was she replied, “That’s the refuge and bodhi-chitta prayer that you recite during prostrations.” And I thought, “Maybe I should learn it in Tibetan.” To me, there is an amazing blessing in the Tibetan language. If I can read a practice in Tibetan and understand the meaning, it is so profound it makes me cry.
Once I learned the ngondro prayers in Tibetan, the shift in my practice was obvious. I realized that learning Tibetan was something I wanted to seriously pursue. It began to look like the best way to do that would be to sit down with a group of Tibetans and immerse myself in the language. That isn’t exactly what happened, though, because the Tibetans in Nepal all wanted to learn English.
Paloma: It was really difficult. I had considered going to Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s shedra [dharma school] for Westerners, but Lama Sonam, the resident lama of Dechhen Ling in Oregon, thought I might get distracted. I was eighteen and still liked to party, so he sent me to Khetsun Zangpo Rinpoche, who lived about forty minutes from Boudha. Being in a monastery, where the monks wouldn’t talk to me, was like being in retreat. For three months I stayed in a room by myself. Khetsun Zangpo kindly gave me a teacher, but to really learn Tibetan you need to speak it and no one would talk to me, except in English. My teacher was a very nice older monk, but he would only read aloud from my book and say, “Do you understand?” The English was written below the Tibetan, so I would say, “Yes, I understand,” because I didn’t know enough Tibetan to ask questions. I became really frustrated, but the experience taught me to
discipline myself— to be alone, and just study and practice. Now I know how to study, whether I have a teacher or not, whether I’m around people or not. Although those three months were challenging and somewhat miserable, they were good for me. I did a lot of practice and contemplated the four thoughts, which was really powerful.
After that, I spent a couple of weeks in Boudha. I heard that Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche needed help, and I ended up working with him at his Ani Gonpa, translating faxes from the West into Tibetan. Every day there was a new fax. For two months, I worked with my dictionary, Tulku Sang-ngag, and a couple of nuns, and my Tibetan took off.
Once Tulku Sang-ngag left for the United States, I spent all my time at the Ani Gonpa. That was wonderful. I’ve never been so content. For about six months I stayed with the nuns and taught them English every day. I enjoyed doing tsok with them because they all had such melodious and vibrant voices. They do an amazing chod practice and a Chenrezig practice that is so beautiful.
Paloma: Speaking it is a little difficult since I’m not around Tibetans, but I listen to tapes and read every day, as well as study grammar and vocabulary. The most frustrating thing has been trying to find a good teacher. I met one the last month I was in Nepal and discovered mistakes I had been making for the past fifteen months— that was okay because I’ve learned from those mistakes.
The sentence structure of the Tibetan language is amazingly challenging. I am surprised at what I got myself into. But in talking with other Western translators, like Lama Chökyi Nyima and Eric Pema Kunzang, I’ve realized how much more difficult it was for them to learn Tibetan, considering how few texts had been translated. Chökyi said he had to sit down with a text and one of Herbert Gunther’s translations and translate word for word. But because of the work they’ve done, I’ve had an opportunity to learn much faster.
Tibetans stress the importance of spelling. For the first few years, kids in the monasteries don’t learn vocabulary. They just spell, read, and learn how to write. When I read, I don’t worry about what the words mean. Sometimes I’ll understand a whole page and sometimes I won’t understand anything. But slowly I’m starting to comprehend. Some day I’d like to try translating, although I won’t know how skilled I am until I try.
