Kumbum Monastery featured here on High Peaks Pure Earth in July 2011, we translated an open letter written by the monks and local residents to the authorities appealing for action to be taken over the lack of clean drinking water in the area, brought on by intensive mining activities.
The poem conveys the rather sad thoughts and feelings of the blogger as he visits Kumbum Monastery, mourning what he sees as the loss of the greatness of past, both historic, Tsongkhapa, as well as more recent, Tenth Panchen Lama. Interestingly, this sense of Kumbum's decline was featured in a Wikileaks Cable from the US Embassy in Beijing in September 2009, read more by following this link: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09BEIJING2719.html
Kumbum On A Journey
-- Thoughts and Feelings on Going to Kumbum This Time
Kumbum
The place of Tsongkhapa's birth
The Tenth Panchen Lama set out from this place
Kumbum
My only starting point where everything of mine starts
Rays of sun emanate from your bosom
Glittering in my sky
Illuminate the yesterdays of my compatriots
My yesterday
Kumbum
Today, your name hasn't changed
Your location hasn't changed
Kumbum
Tsongkhapa's traces cannot be seen
The Tenth Panchen Lama's laughter is gone
What remains is only the ancient soil
Transformed into something else
That seemingly has nothing at all to do with me
Today, I only want to pay homage to Buddhas
Apart from footprints, I won’t leave any trace at all and leave
Apart from reflections, I won’t be able to take anything with me either
July 22, 2011
" Madman" in Kumbum
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