tenzin wangden

south India

I am a Buddhist monk student. One day, when I was 7 years old, I was in the kitchen with my mother. It was summer, everywhere was green and the air was filled with the sweet scent of flowers. Suddenly our house was brightened by the red robes of monks; they came to our house to bless. As they were, greeted us in the local language and I was struck by their compassion, smiling appearance. I sat with them in the prayer room, I didn't know what they were doing and why they wore red robes but I only knew that they were smiling at me. I asked my mother about them and she told me that they were from Likir monastery and they were monks. Their appearance influenced me greatly and I had a great desire to follow their example. I decided to follow them to Likir monastery and my parents agreed. It was autumn when my brother took me to Likir monastery; there monks who were praying and the head lama of monastery cut my hair a little bit and granted me as a monk. Ever since I began my life as monk.After I had spent there three years, my teacher asked me to go in South India to receive higher teachings on the Buddhist Philosophy, and I started the journey with four other monks leaving behind my family and my hometown.The place I was going to study was called Gomang College in Drepung monastery near Goa and Hampi, the famous places for tourism in the Karnataka state.

In the beginning it was not really because all my life changed: food, water, people, weather, environment, culture, language and habits were all different. But my aim was to leave with a degree in philosophy and so I bore and never gave up my aims.