Ngari Institute Foundation

Flying the prayer flags is a tradition that dates back to the epoch of Budhha Sakyamuni. Since 2016, we have been raising the prayer flags whenever we visited Ladakh. For one thing, Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics has all the conducive elements for doing such a ritual; high ground, sunny and windy most of the time. On the 14th of May, while having a chat with Geshe Tsewang, I was asking the possibility of having the flags raised on Saga Dawa instead. He was immediately agreeable and thought that it was a good idea to help alleviate the state of the pandemic.

"Beautiful people - great architecture – and a strong nature – maybe one of the last little pockets we have on Earth that has all the good values – respect – harmony – peace and joy – they walk as they talk the Bodhisattvas way of Life. Please let’s help them to preserve this highly educated culture with its values we have lost. I did not see one child with a mobile phone or IPhone, unusual for even indigenous peoples in our world of today. How refreshing and protected they are from brainwashing and manipulation from our greedy world. And how valuable for us they still exist and live the Bodhisattvas way."

In August 2019, my friend Birgitte Aarestrup of Santa Barbara and I visited the Kingdom of Ladakh in the Himalayan region of India. Geographically, Ladakh is located to the north of the country of India, bordering Tibet to the east and the Indian Kashmir territory to the west. While I am always thrilled to visit this beautiful part of the world, the main purpose of our trip was to visit Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in the Village of Saboo (https://ngariinstitute.in/).