Tashi Delek!
Join us in the Cloisters Gallery for our group Art & Spirit BHUTAN exhibit at 7 pm tomorrow, Friday, 6 September, at Portland, Oregon’s Westminster Presbyterian Church http://www.westprespdx.org/public3/, curated by the immensely talented gallery director Sally Woolley. We’ll share our notes, photographs, and collections of Bhutan’s famous textiles, men’s and women’s traditional costumes, carved dance masks, hand-painted Buddhist wall hangings, and religious artifacts. Our spiritual teacher, the venerable Karma Rinpoche (formerly Lama Karma) will perform an authentic Bhutanese Blessing Ceremony to bless the exhibit and all who attend the opening, and a light Bhutanese meal will be served in the Great Hall. The exhibit celebrates our Art & Spirit BHUTAN Tour, Tom’s and my first private tour of Bhutan (including stopovers in Dubai and Bangkok) from which a merry dozen of us returned on April 9. We flew Emirates, our new favorite airlines, whose representatives upgraded our entire group to Business Class!, 
rode Arabian camels, asked tough religious questions at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, visited Thai temples, enjoyed a classical Thai feast designed in person by world-lauded chef David Thompson, spied grey langur monkeys and a rare Himalayan partridge, were treated to a private purification ceremony, were honored  guests at home of Ugyen Rinzin (featured in Roll Around Heaven) and at our teacher Karma Rinpoche’s wife’s 700-year-old family farmhouse. We also sat with a genuine Thai Buddhist master in Bangkok and were blessed by Karma Rinpoche’s teacher, the revered Ngawang Tenzin Rinpoche of Paro, Bhutan,who is the reincarnation of 18th-Century Drubthop Chenpo Jinpa Gyeltshen Rinpoche. and one of the few masters to be called “Dorje Lopen,” a title given to those who have achieved the highest level of Buddhist realization.  On our last day we all completed the daunting 6-hour hike to the Tiger’s Nest monastery, a fitting triumph for a triumphant tour.  See you on September 6! — Jessica
