Monk silliness

Tibetan monks are incredibly down to earth, silly, and fun to be around. Lobsang punches his friends, harasses girls (in an approriate, big-brother kind of way), and calls me fat. Jigme Kocha has biceps bigger than my head, wears sunglasses in class, draws intricate Tibetan lucky symbols on the whiteboard before I arrive. When Tuk Che gets bored with his monk duties we sit around and complain about having too much work; occasionally he'll join us at the local eats, red robes and all.

Damchoe left about a month ago, sad to see him go. He was a real gas. Reminds me a little bit of my dad. From a humble family of nomads, he became a teacher of Buddhism, attaining the highest degree of knowledge - the equivalent of a Doctorate. Many of the other monks here have achieved the same, but given their humble attitude an outsider would never find out.