The Regional Tibetan Women’s Association of New York and New Jersey organized its fourth annual Lhapsol on Sunday April 4, 2004 in Walden, New York at the Sakya Tsechen Kunchap Ling Monastery. People arrived at the gonpa (monastery) in buses arranged by RTWA as well as in private cars. By the morning’s ceremony about six hundred Tibetans had gathered together in this suburb town of New York.
Light rain started the day; however, this did not spoil the atmosphere and by an hour into our arrival at Tsechen Kunchap Ling the drizzle stopped and the sun started to shine. As people started to arrive, they were led to the gonpa’s main room, where the Morning Prayer service was held. The room was filled with not just Tibetans from New York/New Jersey area but also joined by fellow Tibetans from Connecticut, Amherst and Boston. As the prayers concluded the crowd was directed outside for the sangsol ritual. With tsampa in their hands, people gathered around a huge sang-phor and started the ritual. It was truly a beautiful sight as hundreds of Tibetans, dressed in traditional attire on the green grounds of the gonpa with lungta (prayer flags) all around celebrating this important component of the event.
Afternoon was enjoyed with potluck lunches and Tibetan circle dance (gorshey). As the drum started to beat, not only the elder Tibetans but the younger ones also started to follow the sound of drum ready to perform gorshey. People were enjoying each other’s conversations, on-going tasting and eating each others meal, exploring the gonpa’s neighborhood as it is truly different from New York City as well as enjoying friendly games of traditional Sho (Tibetan dice game) soccer and Tug-of-War. It was fun to watch the Tug-of-War game of men against women, current RTWA board members against past RTWA board members, as well as mixed matches. Children together with adults were running around in the field playing soccer, football and other ball games. At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted yet thoroughly enjoyed the day’s event. The activities and glee did not stop at the end of the day, people on buses sang their way back to New York City. Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali songs were sung on their way to and from the gonpa. One woman did not know how almost a two-hour bus ride went by, as she had so much fun singing songs.
RTWA would like to thank Lama Kelsang la and rest of the Tsechen Kunchap Ling members for allowing the Tibetan community to use the gonpa for this special event. We would also like to thank them along with New York’s Kushoe Gyaltsen la and Kushoe Sonam Wangdu la for leading the prayer service.
Tashi Delek!
