Yogi's, Yogi-mummy and incense

  The yogi-mummy
  The incense maker
  incense drying
  Stupa with bhodi tree arising out of it

I stayed at Tashi Jong for a couple of nights. It is a monastery founded by Kamtrul Rinpoche before the invasion of Tibet, so i am told is the 1st Tibetan monastery in India. That Kamtrul Rinpoche has passed on, but his current incarnation is in residence. When the previous incarnation passed on, they placed his remains in a stupa beside the temple, and out of it arose a Bodhi Tree.
While I was trying to check my e-mails on very intermittent internet, I met a guy that I had met in McLeod, and I mentioned to him that I hadn’t yet seen where they make incense, so we arranged a time for later in the day. When the time came, he advised me that he was unable to show me, but he had instead asked one of the Lama’s to take me along with two other Australian girls (they were young, and giggly...). So I sat around and we waited for it to get cooler before we headed up the hill. It was a steep hill, so I stayed at the rear... We went inside, and this is when I realised that I was not going to see them making incense, but instead i was visiting the Yogi-mummy. We went into a room at the top of this house, and a shrine was built around the Yogi, with carpets in front – so tea was brought up to us and we sat on the carpets having tea. It was quite a bazaar experience to say the least. I am pleased to report that I did not see anything other than a shape draped in cloth – for this i am very grateful!! This yogi died about 3 years ago, and instead of cremating his remains, they decided to mummify him. Later in the evening I did see one of the living Yogi’s who is resident there.
The Following morning I made the journey up the hill again, this time avoiding the main house and just heading straight to the incense making place. It was quite interesting seeing them making the incense, although I would get extremely bored where i the one making it.