Images of the Wildman Inside and Outside Europe

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By Forth, Gregory | December 27, 2007

Abstract Originally a figure of folklore, the European wildman gained prominence as a literary and artistic figure in the late Middle Ages, and in this form has commonly been interpreted as exercising a definite influence on later European representations of non-western peoples, non-human primates, and pre-sapiens hominids. Comparing the European image with wildman images encountered among indigenous peoples outside of Europe, this essay comprises a critical review of such arguments. Focusing on physical and behavioural attributes, consideration is first given to similarities and differences between European and non-European wildmen, paying particular attention to images recorded among small-scale societies in Asia. Turning to the reconstructions of paleoanthropology and the objects of cryptozoology, it is then shown how reducing representations of ancient humans and modern wildmen to a discursive survival of the European mediaeval figure obscures both the radical transformation of the European image in later centuries and the independent existence of comparable non-western images.

 

Introduction:

In 2004, palaeoanthropologists working on the island of Flores announced the discovery of hominid remains they interpreted as a new species, Homo floresiensis. Dating to as recently as twelve thousand years ago, the creature was apparently contemporary with modern humans in this part of Indonesia (Brown et al. 2004; Morwood et al. 2004). One effect of this startling find was a refocusing of anthropological attention on the figure of the “wildman”-a reference to physically primitive and characteristically hairy hominoids reputed to lead a cultureless existence in deep forests and mountain caves. More particularly, it was claimed that Homo floresiensis bears a significant resemblance to such figures, and especially to the “ebu gogo,” sub-human creatures that the Nage people of central Flores claim were exterminated by their ancestors about two centuries ago (see Forth 1998; 2005). [1]

Although more directly derived from cryptozoology (the investigation of putative animal species not recognised by western zoology), the use of “wildman” (or “wild man”) for creatures like the Nage ebu gogo recalls a far older usage. For this was the name given to a figure of European folklore that, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, developed as a prominent allegorical device in late mediaeval literature and art. Not long before the discovery of Homo floresiensis, the European wildman had received anthropological attention in another context, as a figure that has influenced, perhaps unduly, palaeoanthropological theories of pre- sapiens hominids (see Corbey and Theunissen 1995; Stoczkowski 2002). Corresponding to these two interests, the present essay has two objectives. The first is to review features of the European wildman and consider how far these correspond to features of similar figures in other parts of the world, paying particular attention to categories recognised by small-scale rural societies in Asia and elsewhere. Although these non-western categories obviously cannot be treated comprehensively in a single paper, it should be emphasised that the images to which they refer are indeed indigenous, and not a simple product of contact with Europeans. While historians and others have treated figures such as the Himalayan “yeti,” the North American “sasquatch” (or “bigfoot”), and the Sumatran “orang pendek” as artefacts of western imagination and products of European colonial history, reputed sightings by westerners of all these figures have counterparts in the putative local experience and folk zoology of nonwestern peoples.

Concerning the broader question of how far the image has been a continuous factor of European cultural experience since the Middle Ages, my second objective is to consider critically the hypothetical influence of the wildman on earlier western understandings of non- western peoples and non-human primates, and ultimately on modern palaeoanthropological reconstruction and on cryptozoology. In this connection I argue that the image of the wildman has influenced palaeoanthropological models only indirectly, by way of ethnographic and primatological analogies and earlier understandings of primates and “primitives” more directly influenced by the mediaeval figure. As will become apparent, western and non-western images of the wildman share many features, thereby suggesting variants of a pan- human archetype likely to find expression independently of individual cultures and histories. In so far as both may be traced to the same source in human cognition, such apparent universality challenges historical continuity as an explanation of similarities between late mediaeval wildman imagery and, for example, the imagery of human palaeontology or figures occasionally reported in modern ethnographies. Notwithstanding the resemblances, however, European and non-European wildmen differ in important ways, as do non- western images among themselves. Also, whatever the force of a culturally undetermined proclivity to construct essentially identical images, similar representations encountered in culturally diverse places could be attributed to their reflecting similar empirical referents-if not surviving or recently surviving hominids, then experience of non-human animals, including monkeys and apes. I do not expect to resolve all of these issues in the present paper. Nevertheless, it should become clear how cross-cultural evidence and several methodological problems need to be addressed if these resemblances are to be explained.

 

The Wildman Within and Without Europe

There is now a considerable canon devoted to the European wildman (for example, Dudley and Novak 1972; White 1978; Husband 1980; Bartra 1994). Most useful for comparative purposes, however, is the art historian Richard Bernheimer’s comprehensive review (1952) of physical and behavioural attributes of the wildman, particularly as a figure of both European folklore and late mediaeval art and literature. As Bernheimer notes, if there is one definitive feature of wildmen beside their generally hominoid form, it is a hirsute body (1952, 1). Indeed, a hominoid form combined with a hairy body defines wildmen everywhere. However, an important difference between European wildmen and their counterparts in other parts of the world may be registered straightaway. Informing and in a sense constituting Asian, African, and American hominoids are reports of reputed sightings-by local people or Europeans-either of the creatures themselves or their traces (for example, footprints and hair). In the case of the Florenese ebu gogo (Forth 1998, 2005) and the “nittaewo” of Sri Lanka (Nevill 1886), one has quasi-historical traditions of the creatures existing in the not-too-distant past. By contrast, few if any European wildmen were the subject of contemporary observations; as Shackley has remarked, if any wildmen were sighted during the Middle Ages, “verbatim descriptions have not survived” (1983, 27). [2]

Consistent with this apparent paucity of phenomenological evidence, the wildman of late mediaeval Europe has so far been investigated almost entirely by humanists, mostly historians and students of art or literature, who have treated the figure as mythical, or entirely imaginary. Archaeologist and cryptozoologist Myra Shackley shares this view, asserting that “until proved otherwise the European wild man … remains a creature of legend” (Shackley 1983,27). Indeed, the image has a long lineage in European literary tradition, drawing on a variety of sources, including depictions of hairy wild creatures from classical antiquity (some of them emanating from Asia, as for example in the Alexander Romance), the Bible, Greek and Roman divinities (such as Pan and the satyrs), and even contemporary reports of primates reaching Europe (Bernheimer 1952, 91-7). It is therefore difficult to disagree with a view of the European wildman as an artefact constructed from a plurality of mostly ancient images. Nevertheless, as Bernheimer (1952) has demonstrated, the wildman of late mediaeval urban and court culture finds a more direct precedent, and a more immediate source, in the lore of European rural folk. In fact, as a category existing independently of literary and artistic fashion, the wildman of folklore survived as a character of local tales and village performances until the nineteenth century and even into the twentieth century.

This older wildman has sometimes been interpreted as a religious category, a divinity of local pre-Christian religion genetically also connected with “figures in the Roman pantheon” (Bernheimer 1952,21 and 41-4). [3] Yet some image of hairy manlike beings living a rough, uncultured existence in desolate places has considerable antiquity also in more northerly and westerly parts of Europe. The image underwent a significant reconstruction in the hands of late mediaeval Christianity, when the wildman became reinterpreted as a feral man, whose condition resulted from separation from Christian civilisation and God’s grace. If the pre-Christian, or folkloristic, wildman was conceived as being much like a natural species-and possibly also a supernatural being, but in any case as a creature whose nature was determined by God-the mediaeval wildman was a degenerate, the model of a lost soul, for whom it was also possible to forsake wildness and regain the civilised, human condition. In the mediaeval view, this degeneration could result from a “loss of mind,””upbringing among wild beasts,” or “outrageous hardships” (Bernheimer 1952, 9-10). Even the wildman’s coat of hair was represented as a result of an acquired state of wildness, not a natural inheritance (ibid. 17). As this should suggest, both in mediaeval and earlier folk representations, wildmen were associated with wild places beyond areas of normal human habitation, most notably forests and mountainous regions, where they are frequently depicted as inhabiting caves. During the Middle Ages, vast stretches of forest were “alive with unfortunates,” including “lunatics, eccentric recluses, criminals, and organised maquis.” At this time, wildness and insanity were almost interchangeable terms, so that forest-dwelling social outcasts could be regarded as “a kind of wild man” (Bernheimer 1952, 12 and 16). Discernible in these circumstances is a kind of empirical support for the image in contemporary experience. The observation also suggests parallels with non-European representations. For example, a hairy hominoid recognised on the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba is named “makatoba” (“demented person”) or “makatoba omangu” (“forest madman”). In various parts of Asia, the existence of putative hominoids also draws regular support from reputed observations by local people venturing into mountains and jungles. In southern Sumatra, twentieth-century sightings by local cultivators of the orang pendek (“short person”), a short hairy bipedal hominoid, have sometimes been interpreted as reflecting encounters with food- collecting forest peoples, such as the Kubu (Brasser 1926; De Wals 1937). Others have attributed the sightings to experience of known or unknown primates, unusual encounters with ground-dwelling orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), or an undiscovered, largely bipedal ape perhaps related to gibbons and siamangs (Rijksen and Meijaard 1999; Martyr et al. n.d.). At the same time, it is virtually certain that most footprints attributed by Sumatrans to orang pendek actually belong to the Malayan sun-bear (Helarctos malayanus; see Dammerman 1924).

In view of the evident antiquity of the mediaeval image of the wildman, however, and the variety of other sources on which it has drawn, one can hardly trace the origin of the European figure solely to insane, criminal, or eccentric denizens of mediaeval forests-or, in other words, to an aspect of contemporary society. One must further question whether European consumers of artistic and literary representations of wildmen were convinced of their local existence. As Bernheimer suggests, if wildmen had a contemporary existence it was not in Europe, but in lands far away, including, perhaps significantly, Asia (1952, ch. 4). Whether illiterate peasants, of the Middle Ages or earlier, ever reported encounters with hairy hominoids can no longer be known. Although wildmen may have survived as “the subject of credulous peasant belief” until the nineteenth century (ibid. 22), owing to a paucity of records documenting rural experience it is difficult to determine the ontological status of the wildman in rural culture, for example, as a sort of spirit or as a kind of mundane animal.

Paralleling non-western traditions identifying wildmen with specific regions, the wildman of rural European folklore has maintained a definite geographical aspect into the twentieth century. In mediaeval literature and graphic art, wildmen were depicted as quite widely distributed, inhabiting lowlands as well as highlands, including places close to human habitations. By contrast, the wildmen of folklore inhabit relatively well-defined mountainous areas. Their centre is the mountains of central Europe, especially the Alps, “the remotest and least accessible parts of Europe” (Bernheimer 1952, 23). Legendary non-European hominoids inhabit precisely the same sorts of environments. Apart from the obvious examples of the yeti and sasquatch, the orang pendek is best known from the Barisan range of southwestern Sumatra, including the area about Mount Kerinci. Similarly, hominoidal creatures from Flores, including the now extinct ebu gogo, reputedly occur, or occurred, in the remotest and least settled parts of this generally rugged and mountainous island (Forth 1998).

In terms of physical and behavioural features as well, it is particularly the wildman of European folklore-a genre that is probably “closer … to the sources of wild man mythology than much that is preserved in the more sophisticated literature and art of the Middle Ages” (Bernheimer 1952, 22)-that bears comparison with non-European wildmen. While the European figures are frequently depicted as huge, they are sometimes “conceived as possessed of moderate physical proportions,” even occurring as dwarfs (ibid. 23 and 45). Hairy hominoids from other parts of the world also display the same bimodal variation. A review of literature on the yeti, sasquatch, and wildman of China reveals that all include varieties that are respectively larger and smaller than local humans. It is of course the larger varieties of yeti and sasquatch (or “bigfoot”) that are familiar to the western public. Yet even the giant sasquatch has far smaller cousins, for example in the shape of hairy hominoids known to the Bella Coola Indians as “boqs” (Mcllwraith 1992). In addition, while the Sumatran orang pendek and the ebu gogo and similar hominoids of Flores are smaller than local humans, a larger variety of eastern Indonesian wildman is encountered on the island of Sumba (Forth 1981,111-13).

Generally, the European wildman is depicted as a naked creature covered in hair, with only the face, feet and hands (and in some cases the knees, elbows, or breasts) remaining bare (Bernheimer 1952,1 and 23). In mediaeval art, European wild folk are commonly shown with head hair much longer than body hair. This feature is also common elsewhere, although non-Europeans sometimes describe wildmen as possessing head and body hair of the same length, much like nonhuman primates. Hairy hominoids reported from Southeast Asia are sometimes described as lighter skinned than local humans, but are more often darker. “Zana,” a Caucasian female wildman reputedly captured in the nineteenth century, possessed a very dark complexion (Tchernine 1971,155-9). Mediaeval romances similarly depict the European wildman as dark-skinned, but more specifically as turned “black” in consequence of the wild state (apparently by the agency of the sun and wind; Bernheimer 1952,15). On the other hand, whether wild characters of European folklore typically possessed a dark skin, either as a natural or acquired trait, remains unclear.

While the wildman of the Middle Ages is given a generally human form, and females especially are often rendered “distinctly human, even moderately attractive” (Bernheimer 1952, 39), the facial features of folkloristic wildmen are less clearly discerned. A giant female figure from the Tyrol and Bavarian Alps named “faengge” is, however, characterised as a “colossal ogre of great strength” demonstrating “appalling ugliness.” Similarly, festival masks depicting wildmen were made “as ugly as possible” (ibid. 39 and 82). Smaller wild women of Bavaria and central and northern Germany, further distinguished from the Alpine ogresses as “modest” and “retiring,” are described as having “creased and oldish faces” (ibid. 33), while yet another female wild figure from tJiirteenth- century Germany possesses, in addition to a hunchback, a “huge black head,” a flat nose, and big teeth (ibid. 38). Arguably, these several descriptions mostly closely approach something resembling a non-human primate or an archaic hominid. Yet in the absence of further specifics, such likeness is difficult to confirm.

A physical attribute of the European wildman deserving special mention is quite specifically feminine. These are long or pendulous breasts, described by Bernheimer in a language also commonly encountered in local descriptions of Asian figures as “so long they can be thrown over her shoulders” (1952,33,38,39, 131 and 157; see also Mazur 1980, 8-9). Asian representations that incorporate prominent breasts include the yeti (Oppitz 1968), Chinese wildman (Zhou 1982, 20), wildmen of Central Asia (Tchernine 1971, 58), and the Florenese ebu gogo (Forth 1998). Some accounts of the North American sasquatch have also described the females as heavy breasted. Not surprisingly, among European exemplars the appendages appear to be associated with larger female figures rather than smaller wild women. As Bernheimer indicates, such breasts contribute to the female creature’s ugliness, a point not always clear from representations of wildmen elsewhere, but which is obviously contrary to any interpretation of large-breasted females as symbols of fertility.

Other widely attested attributes of the wildmen of European folklore include an inability to speak. The creature’s aforementioned strength is not simply extreme; it is “supernatural,” enabling them to uproot trees and conquer large animals. And combined with such power is a “savage temper” (Bernheimer 1952, 23). European wildmen are often depicted as carrying a heavy club or mace. Folklore also credits them with knowledge of medicinal plants, and of the ways of animals. Coupled with their tremendous strength, this knowledge, as well as their “sympathy” and “kinship” with wild beasts, makes the wildman a “master of animals” (ibid. 23, 24, 25 and 26). Similarly consistent with their association with raw nature (and evidently paralleling their violent tempers), wildmen rejoice when storms and thunder occur but disdain fine weather (ibid. 24 and 31-2).

European wildmen are characteristically anthropophagous, with a special liking for the flesh of children (Bernheimer 1952, 23 and 33). A similar habit is attributed to some Asian wildmen. However, in Southeast Asian instances, the notion of catching and eating infants is explicitly linked with a use of wildmen as bogeys. This may equally apply to the European representation, since parents employed stories of wildmen as “pedagogical functions to frighten obstreperous children into obedience” (ibid. 24). According to a belief found in the Italian Tyrol and Switzerland, wildmen will abduct infants and replace them with their own wild offspring (ibid. 23). The idea strongly recalls practices attributed to fairies in the British Isles (Silver 1999); it is also comparable with the reputed habit of hairy hominoids recognised in parts of Flores, on Sumba, and also in Madagascar (Decary 1950, 207). Adult women, too, can be the objects of abduction for European wildmen (Bernheimer 1952,23), as apparently can Amerindian women for the sasquatch (or at any rate, possible Amerindian prototypes of the current Euro- American figure). Conversely, European wild women are depicted as attempting to entrap, or “captivate,” human males (ibid. 34), just as counterparts on Sumba (eastern Indonesia) might occasionally try to take a human mate. However, only European wild women, like European witches, employ an ability to change shape in order to satisfy their lusts, appearing to men as a beautiful young woman but later changing back into a “libidinous hag” (ibid. 34 and 35-7). This erotic prochvity, moreover, appears to be a development peculiar to the mediaeval representation, in contrast to wild figures of European folklore. If wildmen are often depicted as capturing humans, the reverse also applies. A common theme in both mediaeval iconography and seasonal dramatic performances is the hunting and capture of a wildman, or a person impersonating such a figure (Bernheimer 1952,50-6). Similarly, European folk traditions describe the pursuit and capture of a wild woman (ibid. 27). These representations, too, reveal intriguing parallels with non-European figures. In various parts of Asia, one encounters stories, often quite specific with regard to time and place, of the capture of single specimens, with some even finding their way into local newspapers (Forth 2006, 345).

 

Differences and Similarities

In several respects, the European wildman bears an obvious resemblance to hairy hominoids reported from other parts of the world; however, so striking are some similarities that differences can too easily be overlooked. For example, owing to an absence of detail in folkloristic representations, it is difficult to say whether the European wildman corresponds to any of the Asian exemplars in terms of morphologically primitive features (particularly of the face, feet, and limbs). As regards the pendulous breasts (a feature that is not at all primitive), the wildman of Europe resembles a number of non-European figures quite precisely. But the feature’s distribution is actually discontinuous. In Southeast Asia, the breasts are mentioned only for some wildmen of Flores and Sumba (neighbouring islands of eastern Indonesia) and are absent from African, Oceanic, and Australian representations. Also, the breasts are not always reported for the sasquatch or the yeti, in the second instance featuring more in folktales than mundane descriptions of the creatures (Oppitz 1968).

Other resemblances require similar qualification. The European idea that wildmen will attempt to abduct humans for sexual or marital purposes recalls Sherpa tales about yeti (Oppitz 1968), the “umang” of northern Sumatra (Steedly 1993), and the Sumbanese wildman (under the name of “meu rumba”; Wielenga 1913,264). Yet it is not prominent in other non-western representations. [4] In fact, while certain aspects of the mediaeval wild figure reveal distinctly erotic overtones (to which Bernheimer devotes an entire chapter), most Asian and African images appear to lack these altogether, as do modern accounts of the North American sasquatch. Similarly, while the European wildman is anthropophagous, the characteristic of man- eating is attributed only to the “almas” of Mongolia (Tchernine 1971, 58), the yeti (Oppitz 1968, 140), and some eastern Indonesian figures (Forth 1981, 111; 1998,103). In these Asian cases, moreover, the attribution is irregular or confined to folktales, and is often contradicted in mundane accounts of the same categories. Eastern Indonesians thus qualify the idea that wildmen eat people as a fiction linked with their present deployment as bogeys. The indigenous North American figure called “zonokwa” is described as capturing and consuming human children; yet the sasquatch, a mostly Euro-American derivative of zonokwa and other native figures, is not. The nittaewo, reputedly extinct hairy hominoids of Sri Lanka, also did not eat humans, even though they were given to killing them (Nevill 1886).

The mediaeval theme of hunting and capturing wild folk may find an echo in the reputed capture of hairy hominoids elsewhere, for example in Central Asia (Tchernine 1971, 43) and the Caucasus. Nevertheless, Asian stories of wildman capture mostly concern single incidents involving specimens incidentally encountered, or accidentally caught in traps set for other animals. Exemplified by legends from Flores and Sri Lanka, and Himilayan tales featuring yeti, other non-European traditions incorporate the theme of exterminating wildmen entirely or in large numbers. But, while mock killing may be included in dramatic performances, extermination forms no obvious part of the European representation.

Other resemblances between European and non-European wildmen are either more specific or less widespread. For example, like apparent counterparts in the Himalayas, Central Asia, China, and possibly eastern Indonesia, European wildmen evidently have a liking for alcoholic beverages, and so can be captured by first being made drunk (Bernheimer 1952,25). Yet the European figure differs in more general ways from otherwise comparable Asian figures. Whereas the mediaeval image concerns a human being made wild by separation from civilisation, interpretations of wildmen as feral humans are elsewhere uncommon. Also, while the European figure lacks speech, some Asian exemplars are credited with linguistic ability (see, for example, Colarusso 1980; Forth 1981), albeit of a rudimentary or imperfect kind. Being less naturaUstically represented, wildmen of both European folklore and late mediaeval culture possess a greater number of fantastic, or seemingly “spiritual,” attributes than do most Asian counterparts. Their strength is unearthly and, like spirits everywhere, they are able to change shape. Paralleling the European wildman’s power over animals are Sumatran and central African beliefs according to which local hominoids herd wild pigs (Westenenk 1932; Heuvelmans 1980). Nevertheless, in this respect the European figure is equally reminiscent of Indonesian nature spirits, like the “nitu” of Flores, represented as the owners of wild animals (Forth 1998). The European wildman’s violent temper signals another difference from both the hairy hominoids of Asia and the sasquatch of North America, mostly described as shy, reclusive, and unaggressive.

One respect in which European wild folk appear less fantastically conceived than non-European figures concerns the inverted feet attributed to the Sumatran orang pendek, the Malagasy “kalanoro” (Decary 1950,207) and, according to one account, the Australian “yahoo” or “yowie” (Groves 1988, 124), but not to European counterparts. Such inversion, however, is by no means exclusive to wildman images, being associated with a broad class of spirits (including witches) the world over. In some instances where such feet are attributed to wildmen, the attribution may moreover have an empirical basis in footprints of animal or human origin. For example, primatologists have linked the supposedly inverted feet of the orang pendek with tracks of orang-utans (Rijksen and Meijaard 1999, 62-3) or sun-bears (MacKinnon 1974,114-15).

On the whole, then, European and non-European wildmen differ considerably. Contrary to expectation, the European figure reveals no greater resemblance to hominoids of the Caucasus and Central Asia than it does to wildmen elsewhere in Asia or on other continents, even though the former occurred as a character in village festivities in proximate parts of eastern Europe and Turkey at least until the mid-twentieth century (Bernheimer 1952, 73-4). This discontinuity seems consistent with the absence of reported sightings of wildmen in Europe (at least for hundreds of years) as compared with the continuity of claimed sightings of Caucasian hominoids well into the twentieth century. It might even be thought to point to a real difference in the experiential bases of the two representations, such that only the Caucasian figure is grounded in recent experience of some zoological reality. Otherwise, what might account for the difference is unclear.

While European and non-European wildmen are comparable in general outline, the dissimilarities, both substantive and circumstantial, counter attempts to reduce indigenous non-European categories to an artefact of colonialist or other western ideology (for example, orang pendek according to Gouda 1995; or the yeti according to Dudley and Novak 1972). The wildman might be deemed an archetype; yet its expression from place to place varies considerably. The core image comprises a generally human physical form combined with a hairy body and lack of clothing or other material technology, but particular instances incorporate other, rather more variable features. By the same token, the archetype can be called “synthetic” (Needham 1978). Whatever other elements may locally accrete to it, the core image is certainly widespread, and universal in regard to its occurrence in many very different and historically unrelated cultures. As a figure to which human thought naturally tends but does not invariably or continuously represent, the image of the wildman is likely to be triggered by a range of empirical experiences, some of which will correspond closely to the archetype (perhaps an unfamiliar ape, for example) or will correspond to this partly or minimally (for example, a bear or even a physically indistinguishable member of a disparaged ethnic group). There can be little doubt that a hypothetical encounter with an Australopithecine or Homo erectus, say, would (unless the observer was educated in paleoanthropology) evoke a representation identifiable as an instance of the wildman image. The representation would not need to be a completely accurate description; it could even be fantastically elaborated in one or more particulars and still remain fundamentally true to the universal image. The Metamorphosis of the European Wildman

As should by now be clear, speaking of the wildman in the singular, whether with reference to European or non-European images, is mostly an expository convenience. If the mediaeval figure represents a transformation of a preChristian folk image, since the Middle Ages the concept has undergone further metamorphoses. Following a common interpretation, the literary and artistic figure was appropriated by an emerging scientific cosmology, reappearing as the “caveman”-and eventually (and more exactly) as “prehistoric man”- and also as contemporary “primitive man.” The first stage in this hypothetical “naturalisation,” as it may be called, was a Renaissance revision of the wildman as an extinct creature identifiable with past populations, and more specifically with the aboriginal inhabitants of various European countries (Bernheimer 1952, 120). Not much later, “wild men” were discovered outside of Europe, including the New World, when an equation of non-European “savages” with the European figure resulted in misattribution of certain physical traits to the former. Thereafter, the wildman achieved another partial reincarnation as a contemporary natural species in Linnaeus’s classification of 1735, where “homo ferus” is listed as a subdivision of Homo sapiens (Hodgen 1964: 424-5). About the same time, the figure came to be identified, or conflated, with anthropoid apes.

In 1884, employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway working near the town of Yale in southwestern British Columbia encountered, and subsequently captured, a hairy humanlike creature with a height of 1.4 metres. According to the newspaper report, their captive resembled a gorilla. Dubbed “Jacko,” an epithet ultimately derived from a West African name for the chimpanzee, the evidently ape-like creature’s actual identity remains a mystery to the present day. Initially, the railwaymen thought the hirsute creature might be a “demented Indian” (The Daily Colonist, Victoria, B.C., 4 July 1884). Although proposed in the late nineteenth century, this hypothetical identification, rejected after the specimen was inspected at close range, reflects a far older attribution to North American Indians of hairy bodies, as well as practices of eating raw meat and cannibalism (Dickason 1980). (Interestingly enough, it was recommended that Jacko not be fed “raw meats” lest these make him “savage.”) An even more recent echo of this representation is discernible in the twentieth-century designation of large, hairy bipedal creatures reputedly encountered in the interior of the large eastern Canadian island of Newfoundland, as “wild Indians” (Taft 1980). Jacko subsequently became incorporated into sasquatch lore, as a supposedly young specimen of this category. In fact, he is the one instance interpreted as a real animal by bigfoot debunker David Daegling (2004), although Daegling dismisses the creature, somewhat disingenuously, as an escaped chimpanzee.

As pernicious as the identification of American natives with hairy wildmen may have been, the late mediaeval humanisation of the pre-Christian wildman as a feral man nevertheless capable of civilisation and redemption had a more beneficial effect. Not only did it facilitate a view of Amerindians as similarly human, but it paved the way for their alternate representation as “noble savages,” free of the ills of civilised society (compare White 1978,168 and 183ff). A positive evaluation of wild folk, however, involving as its converse a critique of civilisation, has a long history in Europe, going back to the Greeks and Romans (Bernheimer 1952, 102- 4). It therefore does not reflect a specifically mediaeval development. At the same time, the critical attitude towards human society arguably reflects an individualistic and even anti-social impulse that would barely be intelligible to many non-Europeans. Accordingly, while the wildman of Europe might in certain respects be construed as a symbolic expression of a facet of western individualism, the construction can scarcely apply to comparable hairy figures in other parts of the world, and least of all to ones recognised by villagers in places like Nepal, rural China, southern Sumatra, or eastern Indonesia.

Not just in North America, but also in Australia and Africa, expanding Europeans construed non-western peoples they encountered as wild, sometimes explicitly designating them for example as “wild tribes.” They also described them as hairy. Australian aborigines and Central African pygmies may, inadvertently, have lent some credence to this evaluation by being noticeably hirsute, even by European standards (Birdsell 1993)-in contrast to the typically glabrous Amerindians. Smith (1989) has made a good case for the yahoo, a hairy hominoid reputedly encountered by rural Euro- Australians in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as a partial reflection of relatively hirsute Australian aborigines (Smith 1989). In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thus about the same time as Europeans were constructing an image of non- western peoples as “wild” humans, they also began acquiring more direct familiarity with anthropoid apes-animals they initially perceived as wild creatures with exaggerated human qualities. The ironic result was that apes were effectively humanised in a similar degree to that in which non-western peoples were de-humanised. The extent of primate humanisation can be judged by a series of eighteenth-century illustrations reproduced in Yerkes and Yerkes (1929,18-23) that show anthropoid apes holding staves or clubs, a technology earlier attributed to the wildman and later to the “caveman.” In fact, this graphic provision of wooden accessories to the animals continued until well into the nineteenth century-see the illustration of a male orang-utan from Mivart (1873), reproduced as Figures 1-6 in Maple 1980-just as a perception of some non- westerners as “ape-like” continued into the twentieth century (see for example, Johnston 1902). [5]

As a further irony, it may be recalled how ancient literary images-found for example in the accounts of Pliny, Hanno and Agatharchides, and interpreted as precedents of the mediaeval wildman-were themselves likely based on apes (Bernheimer 1952, 87- 8). [6] Just as probable, however, other images reflected “primitive” humans, such as African pygmies. For his part, Edward Tyson, in his monograph on the dissection of a “pygmie”-the name he applied to a chimpanzee-endeavoured to prove that the “pygmies” of classical antiquity (like the satyrs, cynocepheli, and other fabulous entities) were themselves derived from ancient experience of primates (Tyson 1699). Buffon, on the other hand, thought the existence of pygmies was “founded in error or in fable,” and that people of diminutive stature were found “only by accident, among men of the ordinary size” (1870,147). He was of course proved quite wrong by the European discovery of African pygmies in the nineteenth century. [7]

If the European wildman does not explicitly appear in Tyson’s treatise, this is because, by the end of the seventeenth century, the figure had all but disappeared from literary and popular discourse. Nevertheless, Tyson’s “pygmie” (a chimpanzee) was depicted as standing erect and supported by a stick. Recently, such representations have been construed as indicative of continuity in European wildman imagery, and as a “projection” of the mediaeval figure onto non-western peoples and non-human primates (Stoczkowski 2002, 81). However, advancing knowledge of apes-initially conceived as kinds of humans, albeit wild onesrevised previous conceptions of the wildman beyond recognition. Culminating in a late-eighteenth century perception of apes and humans as radically different kinds of beings (Wahrman 2004, 130-53), increasing European familiarity with primates from the sixteenth century to the present sealed the fate of the late mediaeval figure once and for all. Recent reappraisals of the intellectual and technological abilities of apes, resulting in a view of chimpanzees, especially, as bearers of culture, and even as a variety of human being (Cavalieri and Singer 1993; McGrew 2004), might seem to challenge this conclusion. [8] For in regard to the hairiness and great physical strength of these new- found “humans,” this recent, implicitly postmodern, understanding brings some great apes very much closer to both European and non- European conceptions of the wildman. Yet, as a reasonable inference from the latest scientific evidence, interpreting such views as a survival, or revival, of the older figure of European folklore and late mediaeval culture would be quite unwarranted.

A less equivocal persistence of wildman imagery may be discernible in modern paleoanthropology. Stoczowski (2002, 78-82) traces several features of the “caveman,” the earliest modern conception of prehistoric hominids, directly to the European image. One feature, of course, is the cave itself; that is, the view of ancient humans-like the stereotypical wildman-inhabiting caves. Another is the club, an implement that, as just shown, was also credited to seemingly bipedal apes; recently, the implement has turned up in the ubiquitous illustration depicting the newly minted chrono-species, Homo floresiensis (created in 2004 by Peter Schouten) as a male equipped with what appears to be a cudgel or club. The hairy body might be another feature the caveman owes to the wildman. Yet, one can reasonably infer hairiness from the evolutionary fact that ancient hominids were closer to apes, which are incontrovertibly hairy. And further qualification is required in regard to nineteenth-century romantic views of ancient cave- dwelling humans as glabrous and generally resembling fair-skinned and fully modern Europeans (Leakey and Slikkerveer 1993, 113; and see also 119, which shows Emile Bayard’s 1870 painting “Primitive man”). Not only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but in classical antiquity as well, extinct peoples of the distant past were conceived as hairy humans lacking in civilisation (Bernheimer 1952, 85-6). So too were “fabulous races” inhabiting faraway lands and, closer to home, certain spiritual beings or divinities. Evidently, then, this is another idea with a long western lineage. Yet modern views of human prehistory are fundamentally different from these earlier representations, particularly as they include beings that are not fully human (namely, pre-sapiens hominids) and, more importantly, because of their grounding in a theory of evolution. In both respects, it is worth recalling that the mediaeval wildman, for all his deficiencies, was still a man, who, although combining human and animal traits, never sank “to the level of an ape” (Bernheimer 1952,1). As Bernheimer has argued, owing to the absence of an evolutionary framework, this figure could not really be conceived as a “missing link.” Christian belief in the “unique metaphysical dignity of man,””the purity of all created species,” and the Great Chain of Being (ibid. 7) also excluded any modern conception of zoologically transitional forms.

These points obviously challenge Stoczkowski’s characterisation of the mediaeval wildman as a “missing link” (2002, 81). By the same token, they qualify his suggestion that the intermediate character of the wildman facilitated the “projection” of this image onto prehistoric man and contemporary “primitives.” Precisely because the mediaeval figure was ambiguous in relation to prevailing definitions of humanity and animality, the wildman was an object of ambivalence in mediaeval thought (see Bernheimer 1952, 5-6 and 7). In this respect, the figure differed, for example, from the current representation of Homo erectus, a species that is decidedly not ambiguous in the context of modern palaeoanthropological theory. [9] In fairness to Stoczkowski, it should be noted that his critique of palaeoanthropological research, as overly influenced by non- scientific and often ancient ideas concerning early humans, focuses primarily on causes and processes-for example, of the evolution of bipedalism and tool manufacture. Certainly, he does not deny palaeontological evidence for primitive cranial and skeletal morphology. Nevertheless, the extent to which the physical image of the European wildman continues to be reflected in scientific discourse on ancient hominids, if not negligible, is far less than this author seems to suggest.

Confirming the completeness of the wildman’s modern transformation into something like a natural species are reactions to the discovery of Neanderthal man in 1856. Had the Neanderthal remains been unearthed five hundred years earlier, say, they might have been attributed to a wildman. Yet, for contemporary interpreters, including the anthropologist Rudolf Virchow, they were the relicts of a pathological modern individual, a rickety saddle- weary Mongolian Cossack who had died pursuing Napoleon’s army in 1814 (Trinkhaus and Shipman 1993, 58-9). [10] It is true that Schaafhausen and Fuhlrott, who described the original skeleton in 1857, speculated that the remains may have belonged to “one of the wild races of North-western Europe, spoken of by Latin writers,” or to autochthones who preceded German immigrants (ibid. 50); but these categories are at best historical derivatives of the wildman of the Middle Ages, and not the mediaeval figure itself that, in a sense, was contemporaneous with its mediaeval propagators. In a purely hypothetical scenario, if modern Germans were somehow to encounter a Neanderthal, it is unlikely, to say the least, that they would associate it with the earlier figure of the wildman. In all probability, our hypothetical observers would identify it as a “caveman” or, indeed, a “Neanderthal man.”

 

The Wildman and Cryptozoology

The last speculation nicely introduces another field of modern enquiry, the marginal science of cryptozoology. As an enterprise closely bound up with a largely popular belief in crypto-species, including ones consumable as “ape-men,” cryptozoology might appear a more promising arena for the persistence of European wildman imagery. But in this case too, the influence has been neither simple nor direct. For one thing, the majority of hominoids investigated by cryptozoologists are ultimately folk categories maintained, as we have seen, by non-European peoples. To be sure, the North American sasquatch and Australian yahoo have reputedly been observed by Europeans, and mostly it would seem by people of British rather than continental European extraction. But it is to say the least unlikely that many of these are familiar with the wildmen of European folklore or of mediaeval literature and iconography. Nor, typically, do such people possess a scientific background. Although many probably subscribe to popular versions of scientific ideas, such as “humans evolving from apes” and “missing links,” there is also the question of how far these vernacular notions might affect the perception of people who claim actually to have seen a sasquatch. Obviously, exposure to the ideas cannot by itself produce experiences of encountering a creature. Hence some authors have sought further explanation in disorientation in lonely places or, in regard to nineteenth-century reports, exposure to novel environments (Halpin 1980a, 18-20), sometimes combined with misinterpreted encounters with temporarily upstanding animals (such as bears).

Whatever one thinks of these explanations, none relies decisively on the European wildman. Rather, a more probable source of the modern New World and antipodean images is vulgarisations of palaeoanthropology and evolutionary theory. One source of the sasquatch-the Euro-American representation that mostly developed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-may have been popularised knowledge and images, including photographs and other graphic depictions, of great apes. Especially during the twentieth century, however, an equally likely source has been images, appearing in school textbooks and other print media, of ancient hominids. It is conceivable that western visual images of apes have also affected non-western conceptions of wildmen (for example, local depictions of the yeti or the Sumatran orang pendek); local people, it should be recalled, mostly describe these as more simian than the European figure (see Halpin 1980b, 212). However, palaeoanthropological images are much less likely to have informed Asian and African categories of wildmen. Only in the past few decades have such images become available, in any medium, to nonEuropeans, and then far less to the rural exponents of local hominoidal images than to urban people.

It is not only archaic hominids that cryptozoologists have proposed as the referents of unidentified hominoids reported by non- western peoples. As noted, primatologists-who in this context have been de facto cryptozoologists-have interpreted the Sumatran orang pendek as a non-human primate, known or unknown. The yeti, too, has been interpreted as reflecting an orang-utan or an unknown species of large ape. Other writers have explained putative wildmen as misidentifications of culturally or phenotypically distinctive modern humans; for example, the forest-dwelling Kubu in the case of the orang pendek, and Australian aboriginals in the case of the yahoo. Nevertheless, cryptozoological interpretations of such figures focus more commonly on supposedly extinct hominids. Primate biologists John Napier (1972) and W. C. Osman Hill (1945) have thus proposed Gigantopithecus and Homo erectus, respectively, as empirical referents for the sasquatch and Sri Lankan nittaewo, and Vernon Reynolds (1967,102) suspects the yeti may be Gigantopithecus. Similarly, cryptozoologist Heuvelmans (1980, 1995) construes a series of mysterious African hominoids mostly as reflections of surviving Australopithecines. He takes other African exemplars to be Neanderthals, an interpretation that Shackley (1983) proposes for Central Asian wildmen.

Clearly, then, palaeoanthropology is the most usual source of cryptozoological theorising in respect of putative hominoids, just as it is one probable source of partly European constructions like the sasquatch. In as much as primatology and ethnology have played a supplementary part, this is only because their subjects, at least in the earliest development of these disciplines, have been represented similarly to palaeoanthropological ones. If the European wildman has inspired modern interpretations of wildmen encountered outside of Europe-in North America, Australia, or even in Sumatra (in the case of Dutch colonial reports of the orang pendek)-its influence has been indirect. In the first place, the mediaeval figure informed pre- palaeontological representations of ancient peoples (including the “caveman”). These in turn have left traces-although perhaps not so many as some authors have supposed-in more recent theories concerning the evolution of the Hominidae. And, finally, these theories, with their attendant graphic reconstructions, have facilitated cryptozoological interpretations of various putative hairy hominoids as relict populations of pre-sapiens Homo, Australopithecines, or Gigantopithecus. This complex relationship clearly contradicts a simpler view, exemplified by a characterisation of the “abominable snowman” as a creature of “modern journalism” and a “debased survival” of the wildman of early European literature transformed by the writings of philosophers and early scientific writers (including Linnaeus) into a natural, but equally imaginary category (Dudley and Novak 1972, x). This view not only overlooks the role of evolutionary theory and palaeontology in more serious forms of cryptozoology (among whose practitioners may be counted established scientists like Hill and Napier). It also betrays ignorance of the fact that figures like the Himalayan yeti- the aforementioned “snowman”-are ultimately not European creations, but the categories of non-western peoples. Some of these categories, moreover, are less reminiscent of the wildman of the Middle Ages than they are of the hominids of palaeoanthropology. To be sure, the modern sasquatch is largely the product of a European-derived culture, as possibly to an even greater extent is the Australian yahoo; accordingly, traces of the European wildman are discernible in both figures. Yet the sasquatch is partly rooted in Amerindian representations of hairy hominoids, even though the relationship between these, which are often described as small, and the giant sasquatch of the popular Canadian and American imagination is hardly straightforward (Suttles 1972).

 

Conclusion

Virtually all scientific concepts are partly derivative of non- scientific ideas. Representing modern crypto-species, or for that matter the categories of palaeoanthropology, as a simple survival of the European wildman obscures both the radical transformation of the mediaeval figure and the emergence of approaches that, engaging with evolutionary biology and other scientific disciplines, provide evidence against the existence of crypto-species, as well as evidence in support. The view also overlooks the fact that most wildman images are non-European. For this reason, it will undoubtedly require the efforts of folk zoologists and cultural anthropologists to explain the often quite remarkable resemblances found among non-western representations of hairy hominoids. These resemblances obviously count against an interpretation of the images as by-products of values or institutions of particular cultures and social systems. So too might the close correspondence between claimed European sightings of the Sumatran orang pendek (Van Herwaarden 1924; Westenenk 1932) and pre-existing native images and putative experience. The sociological interpretation, which derives images of all sorts from social interests, institutions, and relationships, probably represents the view of most anthropologists. Yet, in so far as anthropologists have addressed the question of wildman figures at all, this dominant position, which tends to identify wildmen from the outset as “spiritual beings,” has typically been assumed rather than advanced or defended. Accordingly, precious little attempt has been made to show how exactly particular hominoidal images are formed or the sorts of purposes they might serve in non-western societies. This is not to say that such essentially functionalist interpretations have no validity, only that they remain undeveloped.

A concomitant suggestion, that hominoids everywhere are as fantastical (or, perhaps, “spiritual”) as the mediaeval wildman, also takes no account of the revelation that hominids very similar to modern humans, yet morphologically and behaviourally distinct from Homo sapiens, have certainly existed, and-as in the case of Neanderthals-have at times been contemporaneous with our own species. In this respect, one could even argue that modern science attests to the reality of wildmen, although it has for the most part situated them in a distant past. To return to my point of departure, one significance of Homo floresiensis is the way its interpretation as a new chrono-species has, as it were, made this past appear much less distant. Indeed, some have gone so far as to construe the subfossil remains so labelled as the first real evidence for the grounding of a wildman image, one maintained by the indigenous people of Flores, in human experience of a contemporary non-sapiens hominid (see, for example, Gee 2004). But while this can be deemed a possibility, how probable it is, and what alternative explanations might be ranged against it, are much larger issues that must await separate treatment elsewhere. [11]

 

Acknowledgements

Fieldwork concerning eastern Indonesian wildman images has formed part of more general ethnographic investigations conducted by the author between 1984 and 2005 and sponsored by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and Nusa Cendana and Artha Wacana Universities in Kupang. Library research was facilitated by a McCalla Research Professorship (2004-5) awarded by the University of Alberta and a sabbatical appointment (2005-6) as Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies in Leiden, The Netherlands. Funding has been provided from grants awarded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the British Academy. The author is grateful to all of these bodies for their considerable support and assistance. Some of the ideas presented here were explored in a paper delivered in October 2005 at the University of Kent at Canterbury where the author was British Academy Visiting Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and in a “Masterclass” conference entitled “Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia,” which the author convened at the International Institute of Asian Studies in February 2006.

 

Notes

[1] In zoological usage, “hominoid” denotes a super-family that includes humans and apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans, and gibbons). In this paper, I use “hominoid” to refer to putative humanlike creatures not currently recognised by modern science, thus essentially as a synonym of “wildman.””Hominid,” by contrast, denotes recognised species of the genera Homo, Australopithecus, and Paranthropus. In a recently proposed taxonomy, it further includes the great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang-utans), Homo, then, being more exclusively assigned to the “hominini” (or “hominins”). In regard to Homo floresiensis, the type skeleton-the only individual for which complete cranial evidence exists-has been interpreted by, among others, the Indonesian palaeoanthropologist Teuku Jacob Jacob et al. 2006), as the remains of a microcephalic modern human. Published between 2005 and 2007, other analyses of the remains, comprising as many as nine individuals, appear to support the interpretation of a new species. However, as is common in palaeoanthropology, it will probably be a long time before the matter is fully resolved.

[2] Possibly qualifying this assessment are literary accounts seemingly describing particular encounters in northern Europe mostly in later centuries. Citing Pierre Boaistuau (Histories of Wonderfull Secrets in Nature. Translated from the French by Edward Fenton. London: Henry Bynneman [printer], 1569, 110 and 111), Jeffrey refers to two reports dating to 1409 and 1531, respectively, of the sighting and in one case the killing and capture of wildmen in Norway and Saxony (1980,60-2). Other than a human face, however, these accounts include few details of the creatures concerned; and in one case where a hirsute body is indicated, the creature is further described as possessing a tail and reptilian or birdlike feet.

[3] A connection with Roman divinities is suggested by names for wildmen in European languages. Referring more specifically to a wild woman, one name is “fangge” or “faengge,” which Bernheimer (1952, 41- 4) associates with the Latin “faunus” (compare the Greek “Pan”).

[4] The hairy hominoids called “boqs” by the Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia are supposed to have long penises; these they employ to engage unsuspecting women at a distance (Mcllwraith 1992, 60-3), a mythological theme encountered the world over. With regard to the Chinese wildman, the possibility of mating with humans is implicit in the notion that deformed infants, called “monkey babies,” result from the rape of a human female by a male wildman (Poirier and Greenwall 1992, 72).

[5] According to a complementary interpretation, depicting apes holding on to lengths of wood reflects an eighteenth-century view of these creatures as bipedal, but imperfectly so; hence the wooden implements shown in the illustrations may be understood simply as props (Spencer 1995, 15 and 17). At the same time, recent studies of what has been called “chimpanzee culture” have documented the extent to which chimpanzees do indeed employ lengths of wood as tools (see McGrew 2004, 111-14).

[6] As Janson has shown, in late mediaeval iconography wildmen were sometimes opposed to “apes,” as when the latter, depicted as chivalrous knights, were shown rescuing a human damsel abducted by the wild figure. These “apes,” however, were not anthropoid apes, but monkeys (the tails make this clear), creatures far more familiar to Europeans, as captive animals, since classical antiquity. Underscoring the contrast, Janson suggests that an anthropoid ape finding its way into mediaeval Europe might have been construed in several ways, one of which is “a wild man covered with hair” (1952, 261-2, 332 and 349 note 25).

[7] Somewhat paralleling what I have called the “naturalisation” of the European wildman, the nineteenth-century discovery of pygmies gave rise to interpretations of European fairies as empirical beings descended from small humans comparable to the diminutive Africans (Silver 1999). [8] Geneticists Watson, Eastall and Penny (2001) have proposed that chimpanzees and gorillas be placed in the same genus as humans.

[9] The palaeoanthropological comparison may require qualification. Homo erectus could be considered “ambiguous” in regard to the contrast of “human” and “animal,” or the question of whether members of this species were “fully human.” But these questions are ultimately philosophical, not palaeoanthropological. Taxonomically, erectus is securely assigned to both the genus Homo and to a species other than sapiens. As the distinction illustrates, “human” is not a fully scientific category

[10] It is interesting how this opinion parallels Teuku Jacob’s counter-interpretation of the type specimen of Homo floresiensis as a microcephalic modern human (see note [1]). Jacob, however, appears no longer to contest the date for this individual of eighteen thousand years before present, proposed by the discovery team (Jacob et al. 2006).

[11] Possible connections between the Flores hominid and local representations like the ebu gogo form the point of departure for a book project I am currently completing which comprises a comparative study of Southeast Asian wildman categories.

Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1195650/images_of_the_wildman_inside_and_outside_europe/

 

 


 

National Geographic American Paranormal – Bigfoot


This documentary contains an excellent explanation on the Patterson-Gimlin footage of Bigfoot dubbed Patty. It goes through scientific methods to prove the image on the film is authentic. Please watch and be convinced finally. I’ve always believed the footage was genuine. Mr. Gimlin in all the interviews I’ve watched seemed very genuine and suffered tremendously as a result of the footage.

 

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The humble student and devoted Personal Assistant to H.E. Tsem Rinpoche, Seng Piow considers himself extremely fortunate to live a life witnessing all the things a Bodhisattva does for mankind which the world does not see.

Not only does Seng Piow bring his experience and skills as an engineer to support his Lama's work in furthering the growth of Dharma, but he also writes on his Lama's blog to share his incredible experiences with Rinpoche, both on and off the throne, with others.
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5 Responses to Images of the Wildman Inside and Outside Europe

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  1. Pastor Adeline on Nov 28, 2018 at 8:30 am

    Curious about the legendary Yeti? Not sure what to believe? Here is an article that explores a range of sources, from folktales to newspaper reports, detailing sightings and encounters with the elusive creature, who has been a part of the very fabric of various Himalayan communities for thousands of years. Read about religious beliefs, myths, fables and stories by scholars and travellers alike, and realise that there is more to the Yeti than you previously thought.

    Imagining-the-Wild-Man-Yeti-Sightings-in-Folktales-and-Newspapers.pdf

  2. Samfoonheei on Jul 31, 2018 at 10:49 am

    Interesting …..something new to me I have not heard or read of any European wildman before. The European Wildman is said to be the traditions of hairy bipedal animals . Whether it is inside or outside of Europe, is all depend on how people thinks , see and describe in a way. Still plenty to learn and understand about this Wildman.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Loh for this sharing.

  3. Pastor Shin Tan on Jul 30, 2018 at 8:39 am

    This is a real awesome documentary on bigfoot. One of the best – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp5eV9nIEjk&feature=youtu.be

  4. Beatrix Ooi on Mar 10, 2018 at 5:03 pm

    In 1967, Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson stumbled across an incredible sight whilst out in Bluff Creek, in the California wilderness. At a creek which had been freshly washed-out by recent floods, they witnessed a female Bigfoot swiftly traverse the rugged landscape. Since their filmed encounter with the Bigfoot, who has since been nicknamed Patty, many have disputed the authenticity of their recording but no one has been able to successfully prove that it is a fake.

    Credits for this video goes to entirely to windvale for the original footage. ?

  5. Sean Wang on Sep 22, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    Wow! The wildman seems interesting. I think I will look into him further as the vocabulary is rather heavy by the writer. Thank you for sharing this wonderful article, Rinpoche.

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  • Brent
    Tuesday, Mar 26. 2024 04:47 PM
    Living with my wife, whose world is meticulously painted with the hues of OCD, is a journey that intertwines the essence of love with the complexities of the human mind. Her relentless pursuit of cleanliness and order, transforming even the most negligible corner into a testament of organization, often dances on the fine line between admiration and frustration. The sight of her steering clear from trash bins as if they were labyrinths of chaos, serves as a poignant reminder of the battles she fights within. Yet, it’s through these very battles that I’ve learned the profound language of patience and the unspoken strength of support. Therapy, in its gentle embrace, has been a beacon of light for her, guiding her through the stormy seas of OCD. It has not only offered her solace but has also unveiled the strength of her spirit, teaching us both the beauty of resilience. As she journeys through the pathways of healing, I stand by her, a testament to the power of love and the enduring promise of hope. Together, we navigate the complexities of her world, discovering that within the challenges lie opportunities for growth, understanding, and an unbreakable bond. https://www.mindfullyaliveonline.com/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:31 PM
    Venerable Ajahn Chah was a Thai Buddhist teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. Well respected and loved as a man of great wisdom, he was also instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West. Interesting life story, how he chose to leave the settled monastic life and became a wandering ascetic. Walking across Thailand, lived in forests, caves and cremation grounds while learning from the meditation monks of the Forest of various monasteries. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He even lived in tiger and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to the true meaning of life. After years of wandering, Venerable Ajahn Chah established a monastery where he taught simple, practice-based form of meditation, and attracted a numerous of students including western foreigners. He was one of the greatest Dhamma teachers of the modern era. His wise teachings have continued to guide thousands of people along the path of Dharma. Venerable Ajahn Chah’s teachings of the Thai Forest Tradition gradually spread across all over the world. Several of Ajahn Chah’s Western students have since established monasteries throughout the world. Just in Thailand itself, there are more than 300 branch monasteries in Ajahn Chah’s tradition. Ven erable Ajahn Chah used his ill health as a teaching point, emphasizing that it was a living example of the impermanence of all things and reminded people to endeavour to find a true refuge within themselves. The legacy of Venerable Ajahn Chah’s teachings and legacy continues into the modern age.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/great-lamas-masters/venerable-ajahn-chah-the-forest-monk.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:30 PM
    Wonderful blog written on the practice of Kalarupa for us to understand better. As an emanation of Manjushri, Kalarupa’s practice helps us to destroy ignorance and to develop wisdom overcoming our anger and suffering . Awesome Kalarupa manifested in multiple forms to help sentient beings who personifies enlightenment by the conquest of anger. Kalarupa also regard as one of the three main Dharma protectors of the Gelugpa is extremely fierce and ugly, and tames all kinds of spiritual ugliness. The fierceness of his iconography teaches us to remind ourselves that all the causes and effects of anger arising from ignorance are dreadful and distorted.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Pastor Antionette for this detailed sharing,

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/kalarupa.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:27 PM
    Nepal is a very spiritual country, having a huge Dorje Shugden mural in Kathmandu, is indeed a big achievement for Kechara. Located on Charkhal Road in Dilli Bazaar, the mural can be found midway between our two Dorje Shugden chapels which are in Putalisadak and Chabahil. It is also very close to one of Kathmandu’s largest shopping malls. Many locals , tourist will be able to connect them to a powerful deity that is so closely associated with their culture. Well the mural not only beautiful but also full of symbolism and everyone merely by seeing it is blessed. Thanks to those talented artists and generous sponsors making it a success.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/travel/spectacular-dorje-shugden-mural-in-kathmandu-nepal.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Friday, Mar 15. 2024 07:24 PM
    All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. Letting go helps us to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. A reminder for us all to go of attachment and meditating on impermanence and emptiness. We are to relinquish the domination of our ego and its habits to transform ourselves. A great reminder not to waste our previous life.
    Quoted Ceasing to do evil, Cultivating the good, Purifying the heart .
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a meaningful teachings with folded hands.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/pointing-the-staff-at-the-old-man.html
  • james belich
    Friday, Mar 8. 2024 09:43 PM
    Winning the lottery was part of my dreams, I tried so hard to win big but all to no avail, until I came across Dr Lucas online who made my dreams come through and made me win 10 million dollars. I was a logistics manager who lives in Lancaster, S.C. and works about an hour’s drive away, in Charlotte, N.C., I stopped at a store to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket during my lunch break, because Dr Lucas gave me all the assurance that the numbers are not going to fail after I did all he asked me to do. Dr lucas is a powerful Dr that is on a mission to eradicate poverty from people’s lives and i have confirmed that by winning $10 million with the numbers he provided for me, it is my promise to tell the world about my experience with Dr Lucas and that’s what I’m doing now, you can win the lottery fast with the help of Dr Lucas he is tested and trusted Email: Drlucasspelltemple@gmail. com or WhatsApp +234 904 794 3567 he will help you.
  • james belich
    Friday, Mar 8. 2024 09:42 PM
    Winning the lottery was part of my dreams, I tried so hard to win big but all to no avail, until I came across Dr Lucas online who made my dreams come through and made me win 10 million dollars. I was a logistics manager who lives in Lancaster, S.C. and works about an hour’s drive away, in Charlotte, N.C., I stopped at a store to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket during my lunch break, because Dr Lucas gave me all the assurance that the numbers are not going to fail after I did all he asked me to do. Dr lucas is a powerful Dr that is on a mission to eradicate poverty from people’s lives and i have confirmed that by winning $10 million with the numbers he provided for me, it is my promise to tell the world about my experience with Dr Lucas and that’s what I’m doing now, you can win the lottery fast with the help of Dr Lucas he is tested and trusted Email: Drlucasspelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp +234 904 794 3567 he will help you.
  • lee
    Thursday, Mar 7. 2024 07:06 PM
    We are members of the Buddhist Temple in Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur and we have been issued membership by the president (DATUK YIP KUM FOOK), we are very sad because we are the foundation of this Temple

    Now we can know who is always messing with people, and he always cheats money and women, he even uses Buddhism to find money.

    Also, need to be careful with his brother-in-law (Simon Low Kok Meng) because he is a spy (CID) for DATUK YIP KUM FOOK and we will write some letters to AGONG SULTAN IBRAHIM IBN ALMARHUM SULTAN ISKANDAR as soon as possible.

    From Jesmond Yap, Kepong Baru…Kuala Lumpur
  • Phoenix the Shaman Elder
    Thursday, Mar 7. 2024 01:40 AM
    The matriarchal cultures of the grandmothers have specific symbolism of animism shamanism, such as the horse, especially the blue horse, and the deer. These are two main symbols of a shaman woman and you can find them in many cultural folk lore, especially the Russian, Slavic, Siberian, Nordic, Finland, and Norway. It’s nice to see the Matriarchal Shaman Animism diety represented in Chinese.
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:59 PM
    An inspiring act of a selfless Lama feeding strays whether its night or day. Truly an example for us all to feed those lonely strays . Yes I do agree compassion starts with feeding strays. Reading this blog again to refresh myself to do more. Strays animals generally lead a life of poor welfare on the street. Feeding strays is a compassionate act.
    Thank you Rinpoche and Anila for this sharing.


    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/one-minute-story/rinpoche-through-my-eyes-compassion-starts-with-feeding-strays
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:56 PM
    nteresting revisit this blog again as truly inspiring reading over and over again . There’s so many inspiring nuns and female practitioner coming from different back ground, leading a more spiritual life. They are practitioners dedicated their life to religious observance and their path is illuminated by the light of compassion. Going against all odds to become one. Their devotion radiates like a thousand stars in the night sky. Here at Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong Pahang we too have inspiring practitioners .
    Thank you Rinpoche for this great sharing.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/inspiring-nuns-and-female-practitioners.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:55 PM
    H E Tsem Rinpoche’s Sungbum project aim to preserve the teachings and practices that have been passed from teacher to disciple in an unbroken line beginning with Lama Tsongkhapa himself . History has taught us the importance of preserving Buddha’s stainless teachings. Its important to preserve and safeguard the Buddhist tradition for future generations.
    Tsem Rinpoche is a clear and effective teacher where his stories and teachings are endlessly entertaining and inspiring. The preservation is very much needed. We are so fortunate given a chance to be involved in such a meritorious project .
    Thank you.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/the-tsem-rinpoche-sungbum-project.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:55 PM
    Demons are disembodied spirits, supernatural being or spirit and unseen beings. We know they do exist and I believe they do. They have no physical form to them whatsoever. Demons do definitely exist. They are intelligent beings who are evil malicious spirits and are all dangerous entities. Valak is not to be summoned capriciously by anyone as they are dangerous beings when we invoke them having to face a heavy consequence. There are spiritual practices that we can ask for help a ritual of the wrathful Manjushri in the form of Trakze. Having a doing the practice daily without fail, consistently, as this Trakze practice has been proven to be efficacious to break the hold the Valak and other spirits. All thanks to our Guru bringing this practice to Kechara Forest Retreat, Bentong Malaysia.
    Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing for us to understand better.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/valak-the-conjuring-2-demon.html
  • Samfoonheei
    Monday, Mar 4. 2024 06:53 PM
    Wow ,reading all these powerful quotes had me realised much better of giving even I have little. May H E Tsem Rinpoche’s sincere advice to reach the far shore of liberation to everyone reading this blog. The most truly generous people are those who give silently without asking any in return. There is no exercise better than reaching and lifting people up. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. Well creating and lighting for others we naturally light our own way. Helping others especially those unfortunate ones, make us feel more positive about our own circumstances.
    Thank you Rinpoche for sharing all these powerful quotes.

    https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/the-power-of-giving-18-quotes-from-tsem-rinpoche.html
  • Aarati Bhatt
    Wednesday, Feb 28. 2024 12:47 AM
    I have tried mine and my friend’s horoscope and it results same in both of our case, and not just that I have tried this on various friends and this horoscope is showing same for maximum date of birth, I think this is a bug.

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · »

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I must thank my dharma blog team who are great assets to me, Kechara and growth of dharma in this wonderful region. I am honoured and thrilled to work with them. I really am. Maybe I don't say it enough to them, but I am saying it now. I APPRECIATE THESE GUYS VERY MUCH!

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The Unknown

The Known and unknown are both feared,
Known is being comfortable and stagnant,
The unknown may be growth and opportunities,
One shall never know if one fears the unknown more than the known.
Who says the unknown would be worse than the known?
But then again, the unknown is sometimes worse than the known. In the end nothing is known unless we endeavour,
So go pursue all the way with the unknown,
because all unknown with familiarity becomes the known.
~Tsem Rinpoche

Photos On The Go

Click on the images to view the bigger version. And scroll down and click on "View All Photos" to view more images.
According to legend, Shambhala is a place where wisdom and love reign, and there is no crime. Doesn\'t this sound like the kind of place all of us would love to live in? https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=204874
4 years ago
According to legend, Shambhala is a place where wisdom and love reign, and there is no crime. Doesn't this sound like the kind of place all of us would love to live in? https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=204874
108 candles and sang (incense) offered at our Wish-Fulfilling Grotto, invoking Dorje Shugden\'s blessings for friends, sponsors and supporters, wonderful!
4 years ago
108 candles and sang (incense) offered at our Wish-Fulfilling Grotto, invoking Dorje Shugden's blessings for friends, sponsors and supporters, wonderful!
Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture and their practice is widespread throughout the Buddhist world - https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=193645
4 years ago
Dharmapalas are not exclusive to Tibetan culture and their practice is widespread throughout the Buddhist world - https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=193645
One of our adorable Kechara Forest Retreat\'s doggies, Tara, happy and safe, and enjoying herself in front of Wisdom Hall which has been decorated for Chinese New Year
4 years ago
One of our adorable Kechara Forest Retreat's doggies, Tara, happy and safe, and enjoying herself in front of Wisdom Hall which has been decorated for Chinese New Year
Fragrant organic Thai basil harvested from our very own Kechara Forest Retreat farm!
4 years ago
Fragrant organic Thai basil harvested from our very own Kechara Forest Retreat farm!
On behalf of our Puja House team, Pastor Tat Ming receives food and drinks from Rinpoche. Rinpoche wanted to make sure the hardworking Puja House team are always taken care of.
4 years ago
On behalf of our Puja House team, Pastor Tat Ming receives food and drinks from Rinpoche. Rinpoche wanted to make sure the hardworking Puja House team are always taken care of.
By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. - http://bit.ly/LuangPhorThong
4 years ago
By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. - http://bit.ly/LuangPhorThong
It\'s very nice to see volunteers helping maintain holy sites in Kechara Forest Retreat, it\'s very good for them. Cleaning Buddha statues is a very powerful and effective way of purifying body karma.
4 years ago
It's very nice to see volunteers helping maintain holy sites in Kechara Forest Retreat, it's very good for them. Cleaning Buddha statues is a very powerful and effective way of purifying body karma.
Kechara Forest Retreat is preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. This is our holy Vajra Yogini stupa which is now surrounded by beautiful lanterns organised by our students.
4 years ago
Kechara Forest Retreat is preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. This is our holy Vajra Yogini stupa which is now surrounded by beautiful lanterns organised by our students.
One of the most recent harvests from our Kechara Forest Retreat land. It was grown free of chemicals and pesticides, wonderful!
4 years ago
One of the most recent harvests from our Kechara Forest Retreat land. It was grown free of chemicals and pesticides, wonderful!
Third picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
Third picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
Second picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
Second picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
First picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal.
Height: 33ft (10m)
5 years ago
First picture-Standing Manjushri Statue at Chowar, Kirtipur, Nepal. Height: 33ft (10m)
The first title published by Kechara Comics is Karuna Finds A Way. It tells the tale of high-school sweethearts Karuna and Adam who had what some would call the dream life. Everything was going great for them until one day when reality came knocking on their door. Caught in a surprise swindle, this loving family who never harmed anyone found themselves out of luck and down on their fortune. Determined to save her family, Karuna goes all out to find a solution. See what she does- https://bit.ly/2LSKuWo
5 years ago
The first title published by Kechara Comics is Karuna Finds A Way. It tells the tale of high-school sweethearts Karuna and Adam who had what some would call the dream life. Everything was going great for them until one day when reality came knocking on their door. Caught in a surprise swindle, this loving family who never harmed anyone found themselves out of luck and down on their fortune. Determined to save her family, Karuna goes all out to find a solution. See what she does- https://bit.ly/2LSKuWo
Very powerful story! Tibetan Resistance group Chushi Gangdruk reveals how Dalai Lama escaped in 1959- https://bit.ly/2S9VMGX
5 years ago
Very powerful story! Tibetan Resistance group Chushi Gangdruk reveals how Dalai Lama escaped in 1959- https://bit.ly/2S9VMGX
At Kechara Forest Retreat land we have nice fresh spinach growing free of chemicals and pesticides. Yes!
5 years ago
At Kechara Forest Retreat land we have nice fresh spinach growing free of chemicals and pesticides. Yes!
See beautiful pictures of Manjushri Guest House here- https://bit.ly/2WGo0ti
5 years ago
See beautiful pictures of Manjushri Guest House here- https://bit.ly/2WGo0ti
Beginner’s Introduction to Dorje Shugden~Very good overview https://bit.ly/2QQNfYv
5 years ago
Beginner’s Introduction to Dorje Shugden~Very good overview https://bit.ly/2QQNfYv
Fresh eggplants grown on Kechara Forest Retreat\'s land here in Malaysia
5 years ago
Fresh eggplants grown on Kechara Forest Retreat's land here in Malaysia
Most Venerable Uppalavanna – The Chief Female Disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni - She exhibited many supernatural abilities gained from meditation and proved to the world females and males are equal in spirituality- https://bit.ly/31d9Rat
5 years ago
Most Venerable Uppalavanna – The Chief Female Disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni - She exhibited many supernatural abilities gained from meditation and proved to the world females and males are equal in spirituality- https://bit.ly/31d9Rat
Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns~ https://bit.ly/2Z1C02m
5 years ago
Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns~ https://bit.ly/2Z1C02m
Mahapajapati Gotami – the first Buddhist nun ordained by Lord Buddha- https://bit.ly/2IjD8ru
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami – the first Buddhist nun ordained by Lord Buddha- https://bit.ly/2IjD8ru
The Largest Buddha Shakyamuni in Russia | 俄罗斯最大的释迦牟尼佛画像- https://bit.ly/2Wpclni
5 years ago
The Largest Buddha Shakyamuni in Russia | 俄罗斯最大的释迦牟尼佛画像- https://bit.ly/2Wpclni
Sacred Vajra Yogini
5 years ago
Sacred Vajra Yogini
Dorje Shugden works & archives - a labour of commitment - https://bit.ly/30Tp2p8
5 years ago
Dorje Shugden works & archives - a labour of commitment - https://bit.ly/30Tp2p8
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha.
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha.
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha. She was his step-mother and aunt. Buddha\'s mother had passed away at his birth so he was raised by Gotami.
5 years ago
Mahapajapati Gotami, who was the first nun ordained by Lord Buddha. She was his step-mother and aunt. Buddha's mother had passed away at his birth so he was raised by Gotami.
Another nun disciple of Lord Buddha\'s. She had achieved great spiritual abilities and high attainments. She would be a proper object of refuge. This image of the eminent bhikkhuni (nun) disciple of the Buddha, Uppalavanna Theri.
5 years ago
Another nun disciple of Lord Buddha's. She had achieved great spiritual abilities and high attainments. She would be a proper object of refuge. This image of the eminent bhikkhuni (nun) disciple of the Buddha, Uppalavanna Theri.
Wandering Ascetic Painting by Nirdesha Munasinghe
5 years ago
Wandering Ascetic Painting by Nirdesha Munasinghe
High Sri Lankan monks visit Kechara to bless our land, temple, Buddha and Dorje Shugden images. They were very kind-see pictures- https://bit.ly/2HQie2M
5 years ago
High Sri Lankan monks visit Kechara to bless our land, temple, Buddha and Dorje Shugden images. They were very kind-see pictures- https://bit.ly/2HQie2M
This is pretty amazing!

First Sri Lankan Buddhist temple opened in Dubai!!!
5 years ago
This is pretty amazing! First Sri Lankan Buddhist temple opened in Dubai!!!
My Dharma boy (left) and Oser girl loves to laze around on the veranda in the mornings. They enjoy all the trees, grass and relaxing under the hot sun. Sunbathing is a favorite daily activity. I care about these two doggies of mine very much and I enjoy seeing them happy. They are with me always. Tsem Rinpoche

Always be kind to animals and eat vegetarian- https://bit.ly/2Psp8h2
5 years ago
My Dharma boy (left) and Oser girl loves to laze around on the veranda in the mornings. They enjoy all the trees, grass and relaxing under the hot sun. Sunbathing is a favorite daily activity. I care about these two doggies of mine very much and I enjoy seeing them happy. They are with me always. Tsem Rinpoche Always be kind to animals and eat vegetarian- https://bit.ly/2Psp8h2
After you left me Mumu, I was alone. I have no family or kin. You were my family. I can\'t stop thinking of you and I can\'t forget you. My bond and connection with you is so strong. I wish you were by my side. Tsem Rinpoche
5 years ago
After you left me Mumu, I was alone. I have no family or kin. You were my family. I can't stop thinking of you and I can't forget you. My bond and connection with you is so strong. I wish you were by my side. Tsem Rinpoche
This story is a life-changer. Learn about the incredible Forest Man of India | 印度“森林之子”- https://bit.ly/2Eh4vRS
5 years ago
This story is a life-changer. Learn about the incredible Forest Man of India | 印度“森林之子”- https://bit.ly/2Eh4vRS
Part 2-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
5 years ago
Part 2-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
Part 1-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
5 years ago
Part 1-Beautiful billboard in Malaysia of a powerful Tibetan hero whose life serves as a great inspiration- https://bit.ly/2UltNE4
The great Protector Manjushri Dorje Shugden depicted in the beautiful Mongolian style. To download a high resolution file: https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
5 years ago
The great Protector Manjushri Dorje Shugden depicted in the beautiful Mongolian style. To download a high resolution file: https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
The Mystical land of Shambhala is finally ready for everyone to feast their eyes and be blessed. A beautiful post with information, art work, history, spirituality and a beautiful book composed by His Holiness the 6th Panchen Rinpoche. ~ https://bit.ly/309MHBi
5 years ago
The Mystical land of Shambhala is finally ready for everyone to feast their eyes and be blessed. A beautiful post with information, art work, history, spirituality and a beautiful book composed by His Holiness the 6th Panchen Rinpoche. ~ https://bit.ly/309MHBi
Beautiful pictures of the huge Buddha in Longkou Nanshan- https://bit.ly/2LsBxVb
5 years ago
Beautiful pictures of the huge Buddha in Longkou Nanshan- https://bit.ly/2LsBxVb
The reason-Very interesting thought- https://bit.ly/2V7VT5r
5 years ago
The reason-Very interesting thought- https://bit.ly/2V7VT5r
NEW Bigfoot cafe in Malaysia! Food is delicious!- https://bit.ly/2VxdGau
5 years ago
NEW Bigfoot cafe in Malaysia! Food is delicious!- https://bit.ly/2VxdGau
DON\'T MISS THIS!~How brave Bonnie survived by living with a herd of deer~ https://bit.ly/2Lre2eY
5 years ago
DON'T MISS THIS!~How brave Bonnie survived by living with a herd of deer~ https://bit.ly/2Lre2eY
Global Superpower China Will Cut Meat Consumption by 50%! Very interesting, find out more- https://bit.ly/2V1sJFh
5 years ago
Global Superpower China Will Cut Meat Consumption by 50%! Very interesting, find out more- https://bit.ly/2V1sJFh
You can download this beautiful Egyptian style Dorje Shugden Free- https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
5 years ago
You can download this beautiful Egyptian style Dorje Shugden Free- https://bit.ly/2Nt3FHz
Beautiful high file for print of Lord Manjushri. May you be blessed- https://bit.ly/2V8mwZe
5 years ago
Beautiful high file for print of Lord Manjushri. May you be blessed- https://bit.ly/2V8mwZe
Mongolian (Oymiakon) Shaman in Siberia, Russia. That is his real outfit he wears. Very unique. TR
5 years ago
Mongolian (Oymiakon) Shaman in Siberia, Russia. That is his real outfit he wears. Very unique. TR
Find one of the most beautiful temples in the world in Nara, Japan. It is the 1,267 year old Todai-ji temple that houses a 15 meter Buddha Vairocana statue who is a cosmic and timeless Buddha. Emperor Shomu who sponsored this beautiful temple eventually abdicated and ordained as a Buddhist monk. Very interesting history and story. One of the places everyone should visit- https://bit.ly/2VgsHhK
5 years ago
Find one of the most beautiful temples in the world in Nara, Japan. It is the 1,267 year old Todai-ji temple that houses a 15 meter Buddha Vairocana statue who is a cosmic and timeless Buddha. Emperor Shomu who sponsored this beautiful temple eventually abdicated and ordained as a Buddhist monk. Very interesting history and story. One of the places everyone should visit- https://bit.ly/2VgsHhK
Manjusri Kumara (bodhisattva of wisdom), India, Pala dynesty, 9th century, stone, Honolulu Academy of Arts
5 years ago
Manjusri Kumara (bodhisattva of wisdom), India, Pala dynesty, 9th century, stone, Honolulu Academy of Arts
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Videos On The Go

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  • Pig puts his toys away
    4 years ago
    Pig puts his toys away
    Animals are so intelligent. They can feel happiness, joy, pain, sorrow, just like humans. Always show kindness to them. Always show kindness to everyone.
  • Always be kind to animals-They deserve to live just like us.
    5 years ago
    Always be kind to animals-They deserve to live just like us.
    Whales and dolphins playing with each other in the Pacific sea. Nature is truly incredible!
  • Bodha stupa July 2019-
    5 years ago
    Bodha stupa July 2019-
    Rainy period
  • Cute Tara girl having a snack. She is one of Kechara Forest Retreat’s resident doggies.
    5 years ago
    Cute Tara girl having a snack. She is one of Kechara Forest Retreat’s resident doggies.
  • Your Next Meal!
    5 years ago
    Your Next Meal!
    Yummy? Tasty? Behind the scenes of the meat on your plates. Meat is a killing industry.
  • This is Daw
    5 years ago
    This is Daw
    This is what they do to get meat on tables, and to produce belts and jackets. Think twice before your next purchase.
  • Don’t Take My Mummy Away!
    5 years ago
    Don’t Take My Mummy Away!
    Look at the poor baby chasing after the mother. Why do we do that to them? It's time to seriously think about our choices in life and how they affect others. Be kind. Don't break up families.
  • They do this every day!
    5 years ago
    They do this every day!
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    5 years ago
    She’s going to spend her whole life here without being able to move correctly. Like a machine. They are the slaves of the people and are viewed as a product. It’s immoral. Billions of terrestrial animals die annually. Billions. You can’t even imagine it. And all that because people don’t want to give up meat, even though there are so many alternatives. ~ Gabriel Azimov
  • Our Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir speaks so well, logically and regarding our country’s collaboration with China for growth. It is refreshing to listen to Dr. Mahathir’s thoughts. He said our country can look to China for many more things such as technology and so on. Tsem Rinpoche
    5 years ago
    Our Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir speaks so well, logically and regarding our country’s collaboration with China for growth. It is refreshing to listen to Dr. Mahathir’s thoughts. He said our country can look to China for many more things such as technology and so on. Tsem Rinpoche
  • This is the first time His Holiness Dalai Lama mentions he had some very serious illness. Very worrying. This video is captured April 2019.
    5 years ago
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    5 years ago
    This dog thanks his hero in such a touching way. Tsem Rinpoche
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    5 years ago
    Join Tsem Rinpoche in prayer for H.H. Dalai Lama’s long life~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYy7JcveikU&feature=youtu.be
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    5 years ago
    These people going on pilgrimage to a holy mountain and prostrating out of devotion and for pilgrimage in Tibet. Such determination for spiritual practice. Tsem Rinpoche
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    5 years ago
    Beautiful new casing in Kechara for Vajra Yogini. Tsem Rinpoche
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    5 years ago
    Get ready to laugh real hard. This is Kechara’s version of “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!” We have some real talents in this video clip.
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    5 years ago
    Recitation of Dorje Dermo‘s mantra or the Dharani of Glorious Vajra Claws. This powerful mantra is meant to destroy all obstacles that come in our way. Beneficial to play this mantra in our environments.
  • Beautiful
    5 years ago
    Beautiful
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    5 years ago
    My little monster cute babies Dharma and Oser. Take a look and get a cute attack for the day! Tsem Rinpoche
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    5 years ago
    Plse watch this short video and see how all sentient beings are capable of tenderness and love. We should never hurt animals nor should we eat them. Tsem Rinpoche
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    5 years ago
    Cruelty of some people have no limits and it’s heartbreaking. Being kind cost nothing. Tsem Rinpoche
  • SUPER ADORABLE and must see
    5 years ago
    SUPER ADORABLE and must see
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    5 years ago
    Cute!
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  • Uncle Wong
    5 years ago
    Uncle Wong
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  • Tsem Rinpoche’s Schnauzer Dharma boy fights Robot sphere from Arkonide!
    5 years ago
    Tsem Rinpoche’s Schnauzer Dharma boy fights Robot sphere from Arkonide!
  • Cute baby owl found and rescued
    5 years ago
    Cute baby owl found and rescued
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  • Nice cups from Kechara!!
    5 years ago
    Nice cups from Kechara!!
    Dorje Shugden people's lives matter!
  • Enjoy a peaceful morning at Kechara Forest Retreat
    5 years ago
    Enjoy a peaceful morning at Kechara Forest Retreat
    Chirping birds and other forest animals create a joyful melody at the Vajrayogini stupa in Kechara Forest Retreat (Bentong, Malaysia).
  • This topic is so hot in many circles right now.
    6 years ago
    This topic is so hot in many circles right now.
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    BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN NEW YORK STATE-AMAZING.
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    Leonardo DiCaprio takes on the meat Industry with real action.
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    6 years ago
    Lovely gift for my 52nd Birthday. Tsem Rinpoche
  • This 59-year-old chimpanzee was refusing food and ready to die until...
    6 years ago
    This 59-year-old chimpanzee was refusing food and ready to die until...
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  • Bigfoot sighted again and made it to the news.
    6 years ago
    Bigfoot sighted again and made it to the news.
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    6 years ago
    Casper is such a cute and adorable. I like him.
  • Dorje Shugden Monastery Amarbayasgalant  Mongolia's Ancient Hidden Gem
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    Dorje Shugden Monastery Amarbayasgalant Mongolia's Ancient Hidden Gem
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    6 years ago
    Don't you love Hamburgers? See how 'delicious' it is here!
  • Such a beautiful and powerful message from a person who knows the meaning of life. Tsem Rinpoche
    6 years ago
    Such a beautiful and powerful message from a person who knows the meaning of life. Tsem Rinpoche
  • What the meat industry figured out is that you don't need healthy animals to make a profit.
    6 years ago
    What the meat industry figured out is that you don't need healthy animals to make a profit.
    Sick animals are more profitable... farms calculate how close to death they can keep animals without killing them. That's the business model. How quickly they can be made to grow, how tightly they can be packed, how much or how little can they eat, how sick they can get without dying... We live in a world in which it's conventional to treat an animal like a block of wood. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer
  • This video went viral and it's a must watch!!
    6 years ago
    This video went viral and it's a must watch!!
  • SEE HOW THIS ANIMAL SERIAL KILLER HAS NO ISSUE BLUDGEONING THIS DEFENSELESS BEING.
    6 years ago
    SEE HOW THIS ANIMAL SERIAL KILLER HAS NO ISSUE BLUDGEONING THIS DEFENSELESS BEING.
    This happens daily in slaughterhouse so you can get your pork and Bak ku teh. Stop eating meat.

ASK A PASTOR


Ask the Pastors

A section for you to clarify your Dharma questions with Kechara’s esteemed pastors.

Just post your name and your question below and one of our pastors will provide you with an answer.

Scroll down and click on "View All Questions" to view archived questions.

  • March 28, 2024 05:40
    Jason asked: Continuing from the previous answer, how do we liberate ourselves from samsara if it’s impossible to not create further karma while existing in samsara? If we create karma just be existing, that means that we will keep reincarnating over and over again so it seems like we’re stuck in the cycle
    pastor answered: Dear Jason, You've asked a very interesting follow-up question. Generally speaking, yes if you are in samsara, then you are always creating more karma. That's why the goal of Buddhists is to be liberated from samsara. The Buddha and other enlightened beings achieved this and the practice of Dharma itself is geared towards achieving this. I'll try to explain it here, hopefully I can do so in such a short space. So, normally there is no way out of samsara, but when you practice the Dharma there is. Remember in my previous reply to you, I mentioned that there are differing levels of severity of karma? Some are heavier, some lighter, etc. When practising the Dharma, you reduce the amount of karma that you produce. When you have less effects of karma, due to less negative karma itself, you can focus more on the spiritual practices that lead to liberation. I'll take the examples of the Refuge vows. There are 10 of them, split into three categories related to the body, speech and mind. First is the body, which includes to abstain form killing, as killing creates negative karma. The in the speech section, it includes to abstain from lying. This is harder to do. What is easier - to abstain from killing another human being, or lying to another person. The easier one is not to kill. Hence, you train yourself in this manner, working from those actions that are easiest to avoid, working up to those that are harder. For example in the mind section, one of the vows is not to covet something that another person has. But this is harder to do than either not lying or not killing. In other words, in our spiritual practice, we reduce the karma that we create though the actions of our body, speech and mind. Since we have less karma, we suffer less. And then finally, we are get to really subtle levels of karma, which are like residue in our mindstreams. But it's still there. In order to get out of samsara, you need to realise what we call emptiness (which is way to complicated to talk about here). In other words, the very path of the Dharma is to reduce the karma we create, starting with the easiest and working up to the hardest, which is where it becomes the easiest to understand emptiness. This who journey is a process, that's why teachings such as the Lamrim are indesipensible as it shows us the actual way to practice. Normally, we are stuck in Samsara. But when we practice the Dharma and ultimately realise emptiness (there are many, many steps in between) we are able to get out of samsara completely. This may sound confusing, which is why in Buddhism study, understand and practice is very important. We have Dharma classes available, where you can learn and find out more: https://www.kechara.com/learn/dharma-classes/ I hope this helps.
  • March 27, 2024 06:10
    Jason asked: People-especially family put certain expectations on us and when we refuse, it causes them a lot of stress and anger and we make them suffer…. my family wants me to marry and have kids but I don’t want to be tied down to Samsara any further and just explaining that I want to shave my head drives my mom crazy and she starts speaking to me in a very loud and forceful manner saying that she doesn’t care what I have to say and that she knows better than me so she will do whatever it takes make me have a family even if she ends up becoming a villain in my eyes because it’s for my own good so that I won’t be alone and lonely when I’m old. When we say no to people, especially to people who care about us and want the best for us, do we accumulate negative karma from causing them emotional turmoil and pain
    pastor answered: Dear Jason, Thank you for your question. In essence, any action that causes another person harm or suffering whether physical or emotional generates negative karma. But karma is complicated and not as simple as we usually think about it. There are differences in level of severity of karma created, some can be very light and some can be heavy. These are due to the variables when creating karma, such as motivation, the actions, your feelings after it, etc. This can all be found in teachings that talk about karma, especially the Lamrim teachings. In Buddhism we teach that we need to avoid the creation of negative karma for sure. But simply by being stuck in samsara, there is actually no way out of creating karma. That is why Buddhists seek to be free from samsara altogether. Only when we are free from samsara, are we free from the creation of karma. In relation to your situation, if you are young and rely on your parents, for now you should try not to do things that are create division or disharmony within the family environment. That itself if the practice of the Dharma. Then later, when you are independent you can make more of an informed choice about what you want to do. Even in your current situation, you can practice the Dharma, it is not necessary to become a monk or nun to progress on your spiritual path. Dharma can be practiced in any environment, and actually practising towards our family is the best. When we transform our minds and our behvariours and they see just how beneficial this transformation is, this is the best way to show them that Dharma is good. This was a piece of advice that Tsem Rinpoche used to tell people in family situations all the time. I hope this helps you.
  • March 26, 2024 02:28
    Rojal Poudel asked: How can I meet my guru? Does one need a guru for initiation for tantra and other stuff on the path to enlightenment? Does one need a guru to attain enlightenment?
    pastor answered: Dear Rojal, Thank you for your question. In regards to meeting your guru, there are many different ways. These days you can meet your guru online as well. For example, many people did not meet Tsem Rinpoche personally, but they consider him to be there guru. You may find this article interesting: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/the-guru-protocol-a-guide-to-knowing-who-your-guru-is.html In regards to tantra, yes, one definitely needs a qualified guru to bestow initiation and teach us the path of practice once you have initiation. In regards to our tradition, it is also considered necessary to have a guru to attain full enlightenment. Hope this helps. The article lined above will definitely help to answer some of your questions on a deeper level. Thank you.
  • March 25, 2024 10:35
    Rojal Poudel asked: How can you deepen your spiritual progress while sleeping? I heard some people can go to pure lands and get teachings directly from Buddha’s, Bodhisattva’s, and Dharma Protecters. Are these possible from Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection?
    pastor answered: Dear Rojal, Thank you for your questions. It's always nice to see you here wanting to learn more. Yes it is definitely possible to deepen your practice in your sleep. This is done during practice of Highest Yoga Tantra, after receiving initiation and progressed along generation stage practice. This would obviously include everything before receiving such iniation such as having a basis and grounding in the Three Principle Aspects of the Path and the Lamrim teachings. In this practice you are able to use sleep to engage in meditation. This would need you to be able to lucid dream before hand. The ability to lucid dream itself can be developed a number of ways, but the most common is single-pointed mediation concentration during waking life. This is also known as Shamatha meditation. But in this case, the object of your meditation should be a mental one, rather than a physical one. The best would be a visualisation of the Buddha. All of this is outlined in the Lamrim teachings in the section on developing concentration. In terms of Astral Travel, yes it is definitely possible, and again there are different methods to go about this. Again this should be done only after having received the appropriate intiations and teachings from your guru. However, there are quite a few dangers involved with this. As Tsem Rinpoche mentioned before, the two main ones is that your consciousness is not able to return to your body and two that a spirit can take possession of your body if your protection is not strong and you have not invoked a Dharma protector to help with protection aspects. Another thing about astral travel, is that even if learn how to do it, it is not necessary that you can actually visit pure lands or receive teachings, etc. This is because, to do this, would require a lot of merit. So there are many things and practices to develop merit before you should engage in it. Often times, people who claim that they have received teachings or visited purelands, actually haven't though they may think that they did. It could simply be a projection of one's mind and in some serious cases perhaps even due to spirits mascarading. If you would like to learn lucid dreaming, please look into the teachings of single-pointed concentration normally. The ability of lucid dreaming comes naturally for those who progress in their shamatha meditation. As for astral travel practices, I would advise not to engage in such practices unless you receive the appropriate initiations, teachings from and under the strict supervision of a qualified guru. Hope this helps.
  • March 24, 2024 01:17
    Dirji asked: How can I see my kaytsa
    pastor answered: Dear Dirji, We are sorry, but we do not understand your question. Perhaps because you asked using the english phoenetics of the word. If possible, please post again using either the English translation of the word or using the Tibetan script, so that we can help you properly. Thank you.
  • March 23, 2024 12:11
    Marc asked: What is the direct translation of Tsem Rinpoche’s name mantra? Thank you 🙏🏽
    pastor answered: Dear Marc, Thank you for your question. You can find a translation of the meaning of Tsem Rinpoche's name mantra on Kechara's Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=683136630510067. Hope this helps. Thank you.
  • March 22, 2024 20:27
    Rojal Poudel asked: I am about to leave everything behind. I am tired of this life where I do the same thing everyday. I see everything but dharma as an illusion. I want to attain some sort of realization so that I can benefit other sentient beings. I am very inspired by the story of Milarepa, who gave up everything to learn dharma. Even the Buddha gave up comfort and luxury in search for this supreme truth. I also want to follow the Please tell me what I should do.
    pastor answered: Dear Rojal, We can understand that you feel this way, and seeing the illusion of life should definitely motivate us to want to achieve something more spiritual. In the past when people asked Tsem Rinpoche the same question, he used to tell people a couple of things: > The first is that there are two methods to deal with our spiritual path. The first is to physically renounce everything and go into the wilderness, like Buddha Shakyamuni and Milarepa did. To cut yourself from everyone and everything and meditate continuously for years until you achieve realisation. But this is very hard to do in our day and age. We still need to have contact with people, there are the necessities of life to think about. Rinpoche said we need to think about things from a practice angle also. It takes a very great level of practitioner with an immense store of merit to be able to do this successfully. > The second method is to keep living within our a community and use them as a support for the transformation of the mind and spiritual progress. For example, that it why we have monasteries and nunneries, or Dharma centres and organisations to help with spiritual practice. This method is more measured, but you can still gain the same results. This is the more practical method. Especially according to the Mahayana path of practice, Bodhisattvas need to practice certain qualities in our minds and we progress towards enlightenment. Such qualities include the Six Perfections, but if we are not around others, how do we practice them? In order to practice generosity, we need others to be generous towards. In order to practice patience, we need others to be patient towards. In order to practice morality and ethics, we need to be in situations to be able to practice our vows. Enlightened beings like Buddha and Milarepa were able to do all of this in their minds during meditation but as mentioned before they were already high level pracitioners with immense merit. For example, Buddha Shakyamuni had three countless aeons of consistent practice life time after life time until his achieved enlightenment. > Another thing that Rinpoche shared, that while understanding the drawbacks of life and the benefits of becoming enlightened, a lot of the time what happens these days is that it is mixed up with emotion due to the challenges of life. People are looking for an escape, but not an escape from samsara into enlightenment, but simple an escape from their current problems. The need for escape, known as renunciation in Buddhism, is not to simply escape samsara, but developed in a certain way through contemplation and meditation. When we have such feelings, we should analyse them to see if they are in accord with the teachings and the methods of developing true renunciation. Many people also have a unrealistic way of thinking about physical renunciation and the spiritual path in general. Most people think it is easy, but it is not, is difficult because we need to deal with our minds, our emotions, our traumas, etc, from countless lives. If we don't have a firm foundation in Dharma practice and transformation before we attempt something like Buddha Shakyamuni or Milarepa, we will give up after a while because we find it too hard. And perhaps give up spiritual practice because the path did not actually match our expectations. So the key is to be as realistic as possible about our spiritual path. So our advice, rather than give up everything, as you may have family or other responsibilities, is to use your current situation to transform your mind, to practice the teachings right now in life, so that you can start progressing along the spiritual life. The best way to do this is to practice the Lamrim teachings, which give you a firm roadmap of how and what to practice in a sequential manner. Giving up everything is not necessary to make real progress on the spiritual path, as outlined in the Lamrim, but sustained and consistent practice is the key. Then use the situations in your life to actualise that transformation. We hope this helps.
  • March 21, 2024 00:44
    Jason asked: I listened to Tsem Rinpoche’s dharma talk and was inspired to be patient and kind towards other. For a while I felt like my mind had transformed and I started being more proactive in helping others and making sure to complete my responsibilities as perfectly as I can to not burden others and taking the initiative to help people that I see are struggling with their work but recently I have been feeling like I’m actually harming others instead of helping them by being kind because I feel like I’m enabling their bad behavior and rude attitude, especially one person in particular that I have to work with. No matter how much I help and show kindness, they don’t seem to change…and now I feel like a pushover for smiling and helping them even though they don’t show any appreciation or respect for it and instead take advantage of me and push even more of their responsibilities on me. I’ve been having thoughts that my kindness and patience has just become a cover for fear of confrontation now. What should I do? I feel like I’m gonna lose control and lash out even though I try to focus my mind on how the people around me must be struggling
    pastor answered: Dear Jason, Thank you for your question. We are very happy to hear that Tsem Rinpoche's Dharma talks have inspired you, especially to practice patience and kindness towards others. Please do keep it up, the benefits of both qualities are immense and are central to spiritual transformation. We should always try our best to practice both patience and kindness, but sometimes practising it in the way we think may not be the best option. For example, in the case that you mentioned, it is not having the right effect on your own mind and also you are enabling your co-worker to exhibit negative behaviours as well. In this case, actually practising kindness would not be to become a pushover, taking more responsibilities, etc. This isn't beneficial for your or the co-worker. So here, practising kindness would actually be not to allow the person to do such things, but it should be practised with patience and not out of emotion. So you would do this in a very skilfful manner. The best would be to have a talk with your co-worker in a very calm manner and explain how you are feeling and how they are making you feel in the work environment, and try to sort out the situation before it progresses. Especially since you are having such thoughts of anger and the posibility of lashing out. Practicing kindness and patience is not at all become a push over or allowing others to skip out on their responsibilities, etc. We really hope this helps. Thank you.
  • March 20, 2024 14:49
    Sok asked: Hello respected pastors. Is Kusha grass same as Durva grass? How to obtain kusha grass?
    pastor answered: Dear Sok, Kusha grass and Durva grass are two different types of grass, they are not the same. Kusha grass is also known as halfa grass, big cordgrass, or salt reed-grass. Its scientific name is Desmostachya Bipinnata. In shape, each blade of grass is long and straight. Durva grass is also known as bermuda grass. Its scientific name is Cynodon Dactylon. In shape, each blade looks segmented and has smaller leaves sprouting from it. You can google the scientific name to see the difference between the two. Generally, they can be bought at Indian religious stores if there are any nearby where you live. Alternatively, if you live in Asia, you can buy a traditional grass broom, which you can substitue for the Kusha grass. It is a close relative of Kusha grass and the lamas have said that it can be used as substitue if you cannot find the actual grass. I hope this helps. Thank you.
  • March 19, 2024 20:56
    Bhavisha asked: How to know wheather specific LOCAL deity is enlighten or not?
    pastor answered: Dear Bhavisha, Local deities are not enlightened. They are sentient beings who look after or take care of a specific area. There are different names for these types of beings, such as local deities, Land God, Landowner deities, etc. They belong to the God Realm, but as other beings in the god realm, they are not enlightened. Hope this helps.
  • March 18, 2024 09:57
    Rojal Poudel asked: What comes after attaining samatha or calm abiding meditation?
    pastor answered: Dear Rojal, Nice to see you back here! Shamatha is a tool, basically through this meditation you develop single pointed concentration. But after developing that, you use it to engage in Vipashyana meditation, otherwise known as Special Insight. Different traditions have different version of Special Insight. In our tradition, we use this type of meditation to analyse what we call "emptiness." The teachings on the emptiness are the actual teaching that leads to enlightenment. All other teachings or practices help to prepare your mind to be able to do this. Shamatha comes in, because the topic of emptiness is so deep, that we need single-pointed concentration to analyse it. If we don't have this type of concentration, we will not be able to understand emptiness. Hence, shamatha and vipashyana meditation are used in tandem to achieve enlightenment. This may seem a little abstract. The Lamrim teachings go into this in a lot of detail. They can be found in the chapters dealing with the Concentration and Wisdom as part of the Six Perfections in the Great Scope sections of the Lamrim. Hope this helps. Thank you.
  • March 17, 2024 23:16
    Jonathan Tan asked: Hi Dear Pastor, I am curious if H.E 25th Tsem Rinpoche had any heart disciples (son/daughter) Is there a difference between heart and root disciples?
    pastor answered: Dear Jonathan, Thank you for your question. There is no one heart disciple of Tsem Rinpoche. This usually refers to specific person who carries on the teachings and practices of a particular teacher. Tsem Rinpoche wanted something different for Kechara, hence we carry on his teachings and practices as a group, rather than one specific person. Rinpoche trained his students, who are either Sangha, Pastors or senior students in various ways of continuing his teachings, especially through the work that they do. In this way, we continue Rinpoche's teachings as a group rather than any one heart disciple. Hope that this helps. Thank you.
  • March 16, 2024 01:18
    Sirius asked: Hi dear pastors, I'd like to get recomendations on how to improve my actual sadhana. My morning starts by taking refuge and making offerings to the three jewls, followed by Lama Tsongkhapa's Guru Yoga. After this I usually study Lam Rim, and other Dharma Texts. During the afternoon I meditate for a about an hour or so, and somedays I do the Dorje Shugden sadhana given by Rinpoche. Finally at night I finish my day by doing Vajrasattva meditation and confession to the 35 Buddhas. What else can I do to improve my sadhana? What practices would you recomend me to do? Do you have recomendations on texts I could read? I would like to add that I live in Argentina, and I do not have any buddhist temple near sadly, so I cannot go there to practice, learm or collab. I would appreciate advice on this. Thank you in advance.
    pastor answered: Dear Sirius, Thank you for your question. In terms of practice, you are doing a lot. We are very happy to read that you are doing all these beneficial practices. They will be very beneficial for you. What you are doing is very good already, the only thing that I would say is to make the Dorje Shugden sadhana consistent as well as the others. If you are doing the short Diamond Path sadhana, it includes the Vajrasatta meditations, so you don't have to do it separately. We just have some points to help you improve your practice: > First is whenever you do any of the practices, is it vital to make sure you take refuge, generate bodhicitta and practice the four immeasurables before each session. And then at the end of the session, make sure to dedicate. This seals the merit generated from your practice. This is very important as if we don't have the correct motivation at the beginning and dedicate it at the end, since the merit is not sealed, the positive potential is destroyed when we have disturbing emotions, especially anger. > The second is to be consistent in your practices and do them daily. If you cannot be consistent with the practices you are doing at the moment, then reduce what you are doing to make it simple, for example just the Diamond Path (which includes Tsongkhapa's Guru Yoga anyway). Then once you are consistent daily, later you can slow add in other practices and become consistent with them. > The third is to keep revising the teachings on these practices, understand the motivation, deepen your visualisations, etc. > In regards to your meditation, if you are doing breathing or concentration meditation, again, revise the teachings again and again to make your practice stronger and understand where you are on your meditational path. > You can also spend some time every day, maybe five or ten minutes contemplating the Lamrim teachings step by step. This itself is extremely transformational and will propel you along the spiritual path. In regards to what else to study or read, here is a very good article: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/books-that-are-a-must-read.html If you consider Tsem Rinpoche to be your spiritual teacher, there are thousands of hours of teachings on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoTg0Wc5q3Gnz8ej3ETCdMQ You can watch and re-watch them to deepen your understanding and practice. I hope all of this helps.
  • March 14, 2024 05:53
    Alby asked: Hi, I was just wondering if spirits or ghost can possess Buddha statues and haunt the owner of the statue? I heard that before inviting a statue of the Buddha into your house, it has to be blessed by monks first. Is this a necessary requirement?
    pastor answered: Dear Alby, The physical form representations of the Buddhas, including statues, are very special as each form of a Buddha represents not only the path to enlightenment, but the state of enlightenment itself. In fact, even just seeing a Buddha image plants imprints in our minds that will open when the conditions are right, to help us further along our spiritual path. So they are powerful and protective in and of themselves, as long as they have been created according to correct iconography. This last point is very important. That being said, images or statues are just pieces of metal or clay, etc. When statues are consecrated, they actually become the embodiement of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha). That's why making offerings and doing any virtuous activity (even cleaning them) generates merit for your spiritual journey. As embodiments of the Three Jewels there is no way that they can be possessed by spirits that haunt the owner of the statue. Traditionally, statues are made to be hollow and then filled with certain mantras and holy items, then consecrated. Following the traditional method will be the most effective to bless your statue properly. If your statue is hollow, at Kechara we offer a service to fill your statue properly with the correct mantras, etc. The service is part of Kechara Saraswati Arts. You can find out more here: https://www.kechara.com/services/buddhist-art/ We also have DIY kits available if you cannot send your statue in and would like to do it yourself: https://www.vajrasecrets.com/mantra-rolls-complete [Please note these mantras are inserted into specific parts of the statue, you can contact Vajrasecrets through the website to get more information on how to fill the statue yourself] https://www.vajrasecrets.com/mantra-rolls-anywhere [These mantras can be inserted anywhere within the statue] If you cannot do any of these, then at the very least, you should insert something into the statue so that it is not completely hollow. This can be a piece of paper with the mantra OM AH HUM written on it (either Tibetan or English is fine). Then roll this up and place in the statue. Otherwise you can use a pearl or semi-precious stone, etc. While statues themselves have protective power, when they are left empty there is a certain type of spirit that come to reside inside a statue as it is completely hollow. It's a spirit that likes hollow places. However, this type of spirit is not usually malicious or harmful. But that is one of the reasons a statue is never left hollow. Once the filling is done, the traditional ceremonies of consecration known as Soongdrup Puja (to bless the insertion items) and the Rabney Puja (to fully consecrate the statues) are performed, which we also offer https://www.vajrasecrets.com/rabney-soongdrup-consecration-puja-fund For those who cannot have the pujas done for whatever reason, you can actually bless the statues yourself. A comprehensive guide and the prayers necessary for doing this are available here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/how-to-bless-buddha-images-yourself.html Given all of this, yes there is a type of spirit that can inhabit statues, but only if they are completely empty and not consecrated (whether by a monk, lay practitioner, yourself, it doesn't matter). But this type of spirit cannot haunt the person, etc, in that sense. It simply resides in the statue. The reason why statues are blessed or consecrated is so that they embody the Three Jewels, they become immense objects of merit making and protection from spirits, negativity, etc. So, if you do have a statue or are thinking of an inviting a statue, the best would be to have it filled and consecrated properly. However, even if you cannot, you can do the blessing yourself. There is no need to worry about a statue being haunted if not consecrated by a monk before you invite it or bring home. In fact, if you have a personal practice, at the end of your practice you can dissolve your visualisation into the statue, to bless it. This actually makes your statue much more powerful than consecration alone. You basically bless your statue through your own daily practice. I hope this information helps. Thank you.
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CHAT PICTURES

Rejoice to the volunteers (also kind sponsors) who cleaned the Gyenze Chapel and made abundant offerings to Gyenze. ~ Alice
yesterday
Rejoice to the volunteers (also kind sponsors) who cleaned the Gyenze Chapel and made abundant offerings to Gyenze. ~ Alice
Offered beautiful flowers abundantly to Gyenze. ~ Alice
yesterday
Offered beautiful flowers abundantly to Gyenze. ~ Alice
Offered beautiful flowers abundantly to Gyenze. ~ Alice
yesterday
Offered beautiful flowers abundantly to Gyenze. ~ Alice
Our weekly Dorje Shugden Puja @ 23/3/2024 . William, as the umze is seen here burning incense powder as we are about to recite the Sangsol Prayer to Dorje Shugden composed by Ganden Serkong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
4 days ago
Our weekly Dorje Shugden Puja @ 23/3/2024 . William, as the umze is seen here burning incense powder as we are about to recite the Sangsol Prayer to Dorje Shugden composed by Ganden Serkong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
And here's Mr Wong of KSK Ipoh who dropped by to pray and offered some donation to the Chapel. Kechara Penang Study Group. Pic by Siew Hong & uploaded by Jacinta.
2 weeks ago
And here's Mr Wong of KSK Ipoh who dropped by to pray and offered some donation to the Chapel. Kechara Penang Study Group. Pic by Siew Hong & uploaded by Jacinta.
Today's puja (16/3/2024) ended around 420pm, Jacinta was the umze of the day. Pic by Siew Hong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 weeks ago
Today's puja (16/3/2024) ended around 420pm, Jacinta was the umze of the day. Pic by Siew Hong. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Group photo taken after the last session, sealed with King of Prayers. Come and join us next time! Sayonara - 9-10th March 2024 - Kechara Penang DS Retreat by Jacinta.
2 weeks ago
Group photo taken after the last session, sealed with King of Prayers. Come and join us next time! Sayonara - 9-10th March 2024 - Kechara Penang DS Retreat by Jacinta.
Abundance altar! Fruits, flowers, Mee Koo (traditional Penang buns), Bee Hoon, sourdoughs and snacks are some of the offerings to Rinpoche, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat 9-10th March, 2024 by Jacinta.
2 weeks ago
Abundance altar! Fruits, flowers, Mee Koo (traditional Penang buns), Bee Hoon, sourdoughs and snacks are some of the offerings to Rinpoche, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. Kechara Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat 9-10th March, 2024 by Jacinta.
Siew Hong, one of retreatants and an active member of Kechara Penang group proudly presented her torma to be used during the Kalarupa puja. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 weeks ago
Siew Hong, one of retreatants and an active member of Kechara Penang group proudly presented her torma to be used during the Kalarupa puja. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Torma making was taught by Pastor Seng Piow and held one day before the retreat. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 weeks ago
Torma making was taught by Pastor Seng Piow and held one day before the retreat. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat cum Puja, 9-10th March 2024 led by Pastor Seng Piow with 12 retreatants. Uploaded by Jacinta
2 weeks ago
Penang Dorje Shugden Retreat cum Puja, 9-10th March 2024 led by Pastor Seng Piow with 12 retreatants. Uploaded by Jacinta
The celebration ended with a Dorje Shugden puja, dedicated to all the sponsors, our loved ones and as well as for the happiness & good health for all sentient beings. May Rinpoche return swiftly too and taking this opportunity wishing all Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai from all of us, Kechara Penang Study Group. Uploaded by Jacinta.
2 months ago
The celebration ended with a Dorje Shugden puja, dedicated to all the sponsors, our loved ones and as well as for the happiness & good health for all sentient beings. May Rinpoche return swiftly too and taking this opportunity wishing all Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai from all of us, Kechara Penang Study Group. Uploaded by Jacinta.
Seen here, Pastor Seng Piow set off firecrackers - welcoming of the upcoming year with enthusiasm and positive energy. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Seen here, Pastor Seng Piow set off firecrackers - welcoming of the upcoming year with enthusiasm and positive energy. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
In this pic, Pastor Seng Piow is sharing Dharma with newbies ~ Sharyn's friends. It's always good to make light offerings at the beginning of new year. By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
In this pic, Pastor Seng Piow is sharing Dharma with newbies ~ Sharyn's friends. It's always good to make light offerings at the beginning of new year. By making light offerings, you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and achieve wisdom. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
One the day of Losar (new lunar year), it is always beneficial for Buddhist practitioners to get together in making abundant offerings to Buddhas on the altar to usher in goodness, prosperity and well-being of our loved ones. It's more auspicious this year as Losar and the Chinese New Year begin on the same date, 10th Feb, 2024. Back in Penang, our Kechara members came together to decorate the altar with abundance offerings for Dorje Shugden puja @3pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
One the day of Losar (new lunar year), it is always beneficial for Buddhist practitioners to get together in making abundant offerings to Buddhas on the altar to usher in goodness, prosperity and well-being of our loved ones. It's more auspicious this year as Losar and the Chinese New Year begin on the same date, 10th Feb, 2024. Back in Penang, our Kechara members came together to decorate the altar with abundance offerings for Dorje Shugden puja @3pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Mr. Dared Lim was offering water bowls on behalf of Kechara Ipoh Study Group. (Kin Hoe)
2 months ago
Mr. Dared Lim was offering water bowls on behalf of Kechara Ipoh Study Group. (Kin Hoe)
Jun from Ipoh was offering mandarin oranges to Mother Tara and The Three Jewels. (Kin Hoe)
2 months ago
Jun from Ipoh was offering mandarin oranges to Mother Tara and The Three Jewels. (Kin Hoe)
Prior to our puja in Ipoh, Mr. & Mrs. Cheah Fook Wan were preparing for the offerings to the Buddhas. (Kin Hoe)
2 months ago
Prior to our puja in Ipoh, Mr. & Mrs. Cheah Fook Wan were preparing for the offerings to the Buddhas. (Kin Hoe)
On Sunday afternoon, Kechara Ipoh Study Group has carried out Mother Tara prayer recitations in Ipoh. (Kin Hoe)
2 months ago
On Sunday afternoon, Kechara Ipoh Study Group has carried out Mother Tara prayer recitations in Ipoh. (Kin Hoe)
Some of the best shots taken during Thaipusam in Penang. Swee Bee, Huey, Tang KS, Nathan, Choong SH and Jacinta volunteered. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Some of the best shots taken during Thaipusam in Penang. Swee Bee, Huey, Tang KS, Nathan, Choong SH and Jacinta volunteered. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Simple yet powerful ally ~ Bhagawan Dorje Shuden. Kechara Penang Study Group consists of Chien Seong, Hue, Choong SH, Tang KS, Swee Bee and Jacinta. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Uploaded by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Simple yet powerful ally ~ Bhagawan Dorje Shuden. Kechara Penang Study Group consists of Chien Seong, Hue, Choong SH, Tang KS, Swee Bee and Jacinta. Wai Meng came all the way from KL to help out. Uploaded by Jacinta.
Thaipusam in Penang. Some of the best shots. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
2 months ago
Thaipusam in Penang. Some of the best shots. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
Nothing beats having a sacred audience with our lineage lamas. It's not selfie or wefie, but we have the best 'groufie'!!! 20th Jan 2024, Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
2 months ago
Nothing beats having a sacred audience with our lineage lamas. It's not selfie or wefie, but we have the best 'groufie'!!! 20th Jan 2024, Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Welcoming our lineage Gurus to our Penang Chapel today! Pastor Seng Piow explained the significance of having Guru Tree and introduced to us our lineage lamas, Buddhas, deities, protectors and etc.
2 months ago
Welcoming our lineage Gurus to our Penang Chapel today! Pastor Seng Piow explained the significance of having Guru Tree and introduced to us our lineage lamas, Buddhas, deities, protectors and etc.
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
Umze for the day was Siew Hong. She's just been with us for slightly more than a year now but she's proven her capability in leading the puja. Our Penang group members are so proud of her and her commitment in attending the weekly puja. Despite being eloquence and smart, she has beautiful chant as well. When she leads, make sure you are there to hear her chant for yourself! Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Tara Recitation is on now at KISG - Wai Meng
3 months ago
Tara Recitation is on now at KISG - Wai Meng
Photo from Wan Wai Meng
3 months ago
Photo from Wan Wai Meng
A sea of yellow ~usually in Tibetan Buddhism yellow represents growth. We prayed that our Penang group will grow in terms of people, wealth and attainments too. _/\_ Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
A sea of yellow ~usually in Tibetan Buddhism yellow represents growth. We prayed that our Penang group will grow in terms of people, wealth and attainments too. _/_ Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
After Dorje Shugden puja @3pm, we had Rinpoche's Swift Return puja too. We laughed as Sis Swee Bee was commenting that Tang should smile ~ here's the reason why we laughed.  Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta Goh
3 months ago
After Dorje Shugden puja @3pm, we had Rinpoche's Swift Return puja too. We laughed as Sis Swee Bee was commenting that Tang should smile ~ here's the reason why we laughed. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta Goh
3 months ago
Today's (9/12/2023)Dorje Shugden puja led by Gordon. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
3 months ago
Today's (9/12/2023)Dorje Shugden puja led by Gordon. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
4 months ago
4 months ago
Dharma sharing by Hue before we proceeded with DS puja & Rinpoche Swift Return puja. Hue is one of the long time Kechara Penang members and he comes to puja regularly. He shared that he truly believes that Dorje Shugden and Rinpoche always there guiding him. He shared how sometimes DS will give him hints to avert troubles ahead or to alert him when he 'misbehaved'. Hope many will come to know more about this powerful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden aka DS. Having Dorje Shugden is like having a powerful ally that will protect us day and night. Just trust Him and have faith. Kechara Penang Study Group, 25/11/2023 by Jacinta.
4 months ago
Dharma sharing by Hue before we proceeded with DS puja & Rinpoche Swift Return puja. Hue is one of the long time Kechara Penang members and he comes to puja regularly. He shared that he truly believes that Dorje Shugden and Rinpoche always there guiding him. He shared how sometimes DS will give him hints to avert troubles ahead or to alert him when he 'misbehaved'. Hope many will come to know more about this powerful Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden aka DS. Having Dorje Shugden is like having a powerful ally that will protect us day and night. Just trust Him and have faith. Kechara Penang Study Group, 25/11/2023 by Jacinta.
Kechara Penang Study Group had our weekly DS puja , led by our beloved sis Swee Bee and serkym by Mr. Lee. After that, we completed Swift Return puja also. 18th Nov 2023. By Jacinta
4 months ago
Kechara Penang Study Group had our weekly DS puja , led by our beloved sis Swee Bee and serkym by Mr. Lee. After that, we completed Swift Return puja also. 18th Nov 2023. By Jacinta
#Back2back 11th Nov 2023 Dorje Shugden puja & Rinpoche's Swift Return puja @Penang Chapel, 49 Jalan Seang Tek, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang. Every Saturday @3pm/5pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
5 months ago
#Back2back 11th Nov 2023 Dorje Shugden puja & Rinpoche's Swift Return puja @Penang Chapel, 49 Jalan Seang Tek, Georgetown, Pulau Pinang. Every Saturday @3pm/5pm. Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
Pic: Rinpoche Swift Return puja ~ 21/10/23 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
5 months ago
Pic: Rinpoche Swift Return puja ~ 21/10/23 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta.
#Backtoback A few months back, Kechara Penang Study Group started to have two pujas consecutively on Saturday. Dorje Shugden puja @3pm and thereafter Rinpoche Swift Return puja. This can only be achieved due to the committed members from Penang. A big round of applause...... Pic : DS puja on 21/10/2023 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
5 months ago
#Backtoback A few months back, Kechara Penang Study Group started to have two pujas consecutively on Saturday. Dorje Shugden puja @3pm and thereafter Rinpoche Swift Return puja. This can only be achieved due to the committed members from Penang. A big round of applause...... Pic : DS puja on 21/10/2023 Kechara Penang Study Group by Jacinta
More pictures of the day! Kechara Penang Chapel & public blessings 3rd Oct 2023 by Jacinta.
6 months ago
More pictures of the day! Kechara Penang Chapel & public blessings 3rd Oct 2023 by Jacinta.
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Dorje Shugden
Click to watch my talk about Dorje Shugden....