Saturday 9th April, 2011 – Gyuto
On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of Gyalwang Karmapa’s followers from the Drukpa Kagyu tradition travelled especially from different parts of Himachal Pradesh to join together in offering a Drukpa Kagyu Tenshug for His Holiness in the main shrine room of Gyuto Ramoche Monastery.
Many travelled for hours in order to reach Gyuto; some, from the remote regions of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti, had even travelled for days. From early in the morning, the courtyard below the temple began to fill with their cars, jeeps, motorcycles and hired buses.
His Eminence Khamtrul Rinpoche from Khampa Gar Monastery, Tashi Jong Tibetan refugee settlement, led this special Drukpa Kagyu Tenshug. Many other leading Rinpoches and community leaders from the Himalayan region supported him. Those who attended included His Eminence Chogon Rinpoche, His Eminence Dorzong Rinpoche, Chogyal Rinpoche, Nupgon Chogya Rinpoche, Poppa Rinpoche, Somang Rinpoche, Tulku Ngawang Gelek and Jetsunma Ani Tenzin Palmo.
In addition to Khampa Gar, monks and nuns also represented Dechen Chokhor Monastery in Kulu, Jangchup Zong Monastery in Gopalpur, and Donghud Gatsaling Nunnery. They were accompanied by several hundred laypeople came from Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Kulu Districts.
The numbers attending the long-life offering swelled to more than a thousand as hundreds more people, who had come for the weekly Saturday afternoon audience, crammed in to the shrine room, or gathered two and three deep outside on the veranda, peering through the windows and doors.
