Mid-March update on outstanding questions

As readers of this blog probably know, I’m involved in a project aimed at giving a presentable form to stories of the lives and sometimes heroic journeys of some of the nuns who live and practice in the caves above Tsopema (Rewalsar) in Himachal Pradesh. The material (transcribed interviews) that is the foundation of this work is a little rough-and-ready. As I make my way through it I am therefore finding a lot of references that are unclear or ambiguous. To make the final product of my labours worth reading, it will be important to identify or clarify as many of these points as possible. I therefore set up this blog in the hope that it will serve as a focal point where any kind, informed person who is at all able to help can contribute their knowledge. You do not need a Google account to contribute.

Probably there will be quite a few more queries emerging as time goes by, so here are the queries outstanding on 14 March 2026. All have a corresponding post earlier in this blog.

1) Looking for contact details for Susan Dunlop and/or Anne Silverstein.

2) Why is Terchen Karma also known as Darang or Dorang Karma? Spelling?

3) Looking for contact details for Sarah Coventry, originally of Queensland, associated with Terchen Karma.

4) Looking for information about a statue-maker called Tsongye Gyatso from Derge, who was also known as the Trulpe Lhapso.

5) Where is Natsung Ruay, possibly in or near Mustang.

6) Is Rimshi Ketuk perhaps རིམ་བཞི་སྐྱིད་ཕུག་, aka Rimshi Kyipup?

7) My source text refers to a significant Gompa Kai in Mustang. Internet searches tend to lead to the spectaular the དཀྱིལ་དགོན་ in Spiti, but that is too far away from the events concerned.
Can the place really under discussion be identified? Is the spelling suggested by the place in Spiti correct for the one in Mustang?

8)  I have a reference to "Serje Rinpoche". The name could easily refer to a སེ་ར་བྱེད་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ , a Rinpoche associated with Sera Jey. But would there be anyone fitting that bill who would have been present in Mustang in 1959 or so?

9) My text says "Zong Sapa or as they call it in the book now Chamasong". I can't identify either name, and I don't know what “the book” is!
The first version COULD be the place commonly known in the west as Jomsom, as this name is said to be derived from Dzongsam, Tib.: རྫོང་སམ་, which is said to translate as "New Fort". Well the Dzong is OK, but I can’t see how "sam" can mean new. If it’s "sar", which would mean new, then why that pronunciation? This eqivalence of Dzongsam with New Fort is found in many places on the net, but it's not impossible that they are copying each other's mistake!
And as for Chamasong, I just don't find it anywhere.

10) Another unidentified place in Nepal, somewhere between Mustang and Pokhara, with a name represented as Tapk.

11) “Kaligar” is another as-yet unidentified place. There is no context other than being where a brother of one of the nuns was living. One canditate is Kalinagar, in Uttar Pradesh, “only” about 700 km away from Tsopema. But really it could be almost anywhere, so guessing seems pointless!

BUT, perhaps, just perhaps, someone knows a more likely possibility.

12) Lungchem is a place on the way to Lhasa, probably starting from Chamdo.
Yep, I know, more than 1000 km. In the '90s it was a place where the motor road ended.
So far my searches have not turned up a place with a name like that. I say "like that" because the name might well have been mis-heard.

 

Many thanks in advance to any responders!