Donkey Sanctuary
(Shouldn’t we be ashamed of ourselves?)
Wangdu Phuntsok English Teacher
Donkeys, donkeys and more donkeys. Donkeys have now outnumbered stray dogs in streets of Leh town. They have nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat, nothing to drink. Where did all these donkeys come from? Did we have a flood of donkeys rather than water?
It was in 2007 when I went to the ATM booth of State Bank of India accompanying a cousin of mine who wanted some money; there we saw a donkey with a poster put around its neck. The poster read: ‘I’m Aba Dorjey’s donkey. He used me till I was too weak to carry loads and kicked out.’ I was thinking to myself at least there was someone who dared to do at least that bit for the helpless donkeys which had been abandoned by their masters.
These mean masters having acquired cars for travelling, trucks for transport, tractors for ploughing have thrown these poor donkeys on the streets. Have we forgotten that it was we humans who domesticated these creatures for our own benefit? For thousands of years we used them as beasts of burden and now we throw them in the streets and wished them to be wild animals!
It was just the other day I was struggling to find my way through the local vegetable sellers who have occupied the footpath; some of my friends call it vegepath instead of footpath. When I looked around I saw a red board nailed on a tree trunk. The board read ‘AIR TEL’ in bold capital letters and below it was written ‘SAY NO TO POLYTHENE’, it was clear enough that I could read it from this side of the road without my glasses on. All my attention was on this board, that I was nearly ran over by a car. At first I felt grateful to Airtel Company for their concern about ladakh’s ecology and then in another moment I felt enraged. Why? Needless to ask! The stuff which they used to write this campaign itself was polythene. I was thinking to myself this was how they fool people to promote their business. At this moment two foreigners appeared and they nailed a smaller yellow board on the same trunk. And they were putting up another one next to it. Driven by curiosity I crossed the road to have a look. Over the shoulder of the taller man I saw a cartoon of a donkey. I tip-toed to see what was written below the cartoon but the man was too tall to be a man. I waited until they were done and read ‘Donkey Sanctuary’.
Donkey Sanctuary! Have you ever heard about donkey sanctuaries? Never did I. I heard about tiger sanctuaries, snow leopard conservation, wildlife sanctuaries but never donkey sanctuaries. This could have been the first donkey sanctuary in the country if not in the world. I would not have been so ashamed of myself had this donkey sanctuary been created by local Buddhist people, but to our shame this sanctuary was created by some foreigners who could not stand the way we mistreat donkeys in this land of Buddha.
We are Buddhist. We talk about world peace, we strive for Nirvana so that we can save other sentient beings from the endless suffering of Samsara but thinking and talking about these grand concepts we have forgotten our poor helpless donkeys.
With every sight of Gonpas and Chortens we hold our hand to our heart and pray ‘may all sentient beings be free from Samsara’. We make sentient beings suffer first and then pray, may they be free from suffering. What could have been a better example to explain what is ‘irony’ to my literature students?
DREAM
By: Tsering Namgyal
Happiness in a Single Atom
DREAM
By: Tsering Namgyal
Last night I had a beautiful dream. I saw myself becoming a world icon. I was an ordinary man with a vision to bring peace and harmony in the world. Slowly and gradually I started becoming famous; first among local people, then in the country. News of my work and popularity reached every corner of the country. One day I was invited to Delhi by Dr. Manmohan Singh and Madam Pratiba Patil. We discussed about poverty and illiteracy. I even suggested them some ways of eliminating poverty and illiteracy. They were moved by my suggestions and promised to implement them in the days to come. Needless to say I became more popular after the visit. By this time my popularity had reached even to the remotest corners of the world.
One day to my utter surprise, I was invited by the president of America, Mr. Obama himself, to America. I was invited there to be the chief guest of an international seminar on peace. We were driving in a large limousine. Ten motor bikes were riding in front of us. Commanders were saluting on the either side of the road. There were six black cars behind us with full of well build and handsome security people.
As we got out of the black limousine, a huge crowd of Americans were cheering us; some were holding bouquets, some were clapping hands. I was escorted on the dais to speak to the cheerful audience. I cleared my throat and begin my speech thus, ‘Don’t sleep my friends, get up and do what you can for the good of the world’.
All of a sudden I heard something, I was sure I heard something. I shook my head and opened my eyes. I saw our hostel warden bending over me and shouting. ‘ Get up and get ready for school’.
Happiness in a Single Atom
By: Wangdu Phuntsok
Happiness is a word that we are so familiar with, so much that it doesn’t need a place in dictionary though. Yet will we be able to recognize it, if we encounter it?
Happiness often passes us, rubbing our shoulders, but we often fail to recognize it. So how can we be happy if we are not able to recognize it? More than that what is use of looking for something which we don’t know?
So what is happiness? Can it be at least achievable even if it is not available at super markets?
Sometimes I wish happiness was cups of tea! I would have one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, and live happily till the end. Jokes apart, even if happiness is not a cup of tea it is there in the cups of tea that you share with your friends.
Happiness is like an onion, you won’t find if you search for it. You look for it peeling layer after layer but there ain’t any onion underneath. So is happiness, it is there but when you look for it you won’t find it. So the first and the simplest lesson is; don’t crave for happiness if you wanna be happy.
His Holiness says ‘if you want others to be happy practice compassion, if you want to be happy practice compassion.’ So simple eh? Don’t go to super markets asking for a kilo of compassion!
It is the compassion that makes the job little bit harder. Obviously His Holiness is a born compassionate. But unfortunately we are human beings! We are not even compassionate as donkeys. Donkeys and humans, that too, on the subject of compassion, not a reasonable comparison, eh?
But I never see donkeys complaining about heavy workload and little pay, I don’t see donkeys go green with envy when others get bunch of green grass, I don’t see donkeys fighting over the little leftover which is given to them. The second lesson even simpler one is; don’t complain, don’t compare, don’t compete and be compassionate as Donkeys.
His Holiness Karmapa says that we have a grant concept of happiness, we always look at happiness as something very big and important and we’ll have to work very hard to achieve it. But in reality it is not so, you could be happy for just being alive. You can feel happiness in smallest things like taking breath.
So simple isn’t it? Happiness is hiding in the smiles of your girlfriend/boyfriend feel it before it fades away. Happiness is hiding in the warm hugs of your near and dear ones feel it. Happiness is hiding in the vanilla ice cream that you have in the super market enjoy it before it melts away. Happiness indeed is found along the way not at the end of the journey. So the last lesson the simplest one is to pick every grain of happiness that you find along the way and feel it atom by atom.
