Final call for any possible clues.

 

I have been involved in a project, giving a presentable form to stories of the lives and of the sometimes heroic journeys of some of the nuns who live and practice in the caves above Tso Pema (Rewalsar) in Himachal Pradesh. Or to be more precise, who *were* living in those caves around the year 2005.

The transcribed interviews that I am working with is a little rough-and-ready. I have made a “first pass” through the text, and in the course of that have identified a couple of hundred people and places. Most of the people are peripheral to the story, and many of the places are incidental, so if a few remain unidentified, it is not the end of the world!

A number of people have already been kind enough to bring their geographical expertise or biographical knowledge, but a few items remain unclear. To cast my net as wide as I can, I’m including all of the puzzles that are left, in the hope that on the off-chance someone will have a piece of knowledge that unlocks some of these.

I separated the queries into those about people and those about places, with the ones that I feel are most important at the top of each group. First, about people:

1) I’m still hoping to find contact details for Susan Dunlop and/or Anne Silverstein who were involved in the making of the interviews. I’m particularly keen to find Susan Dunlop, because the material she supplied, some years ago, included a CD labelled “Photo Library”. On examination it turned out that the CD was not just blank, but totally virgin – it had not even been initialised or formatted. There is therefore just a small chance that she still has copies of those photos on a hard drive or somewhere like that. I know almost nothing about her – I have heard her voice on some of the audio recordings, and she sounds like a young woman, clearly American, and with not a huge knowledge of the subject matter. Was she perhaps a student doing some kind of ethnological field work? Did she continue to pursue an interest in Tibet and Buddhism? Has she married and changed her name? Do you know a Susan who has mentioned doing some research in India back in the noughties? Could it be her?

2) There is a report of a Rigzen Gangtul Rinpoche. More than likely the name is one that might more often be spelt Rigdzin Gangtrul Rinpoche. He *possibly* came from the Ngari area, and died in 1972. He seems to have escaped Tibet in about '57, together with a large number of nomads – really quite a large number, so he was probably quite important, but so far has not been identified.

3) Someone else who must have has some importance in his day is a “Lama Katok Rinpoche”. He was, according to the interview text, not Nyingma, but Karma Kagyu, and may have been associated with Gonjo in Kham. He was involved in rebuilding the four coloured stupas at the corners of the temple at Samye. That could be a big clue to someone with the right knowledge.

4) The is peripheral mention of a Tsikung Khandro, whom the interviewee did not manage to meet. She was noted for divinations, and was probably in Lhasa around 1960. That’s all I know. Who was she?

5) Ethnography here: is it possible to confirm that the Mön people of Mugum are actually the same as the Mugum people themselves, a tribe of the high Himalayas? (Not to be confused, of course, with the Mön of Myanmar.)

6) I’m also looking for contact details for Sarah Coventry, originally of Queensland, associated with Terchen Karma. This is low priority, as it is Terchen Karma who appears in the texts, and I have been supplied with quite a lot of information about him.

And now, to places:

A) I’d like to identify a place called Natsung Ruay, in part because it was the site of something pretty much amounting to a slaughter. It is in Tibet, probably not too far from the border on the way from Namru to the crossing into Nepal at Mustang.

B) The text says: “When I reached the Nepalese border, the police arrested me and imprisoned me for a month, at a place called Tam Sik”. But where is Tam Sik? Could it possibly be Tramse?

C) Ja Takarong is the name of a very high and difficult pass between Tibet and Nepal. It may well be near Yagra, but I can’t find it. Searches pointed to Gyirong Port, but that cannot be it as the pass in question is very, very high and therefore hardly ever used.

D) There is a gompa in Manali whose name is given as “Chumo Gompa”. There is an easily-found Nyingma monastery in Manali, which now calls itself the “Himalayan Nyinmapa (sic) Buddhist Monastery”, or, on another sign, གསང་ཆེན་འགྱུར་རྙིང་དགོན་པདྨ་ཨོད་གླིང, but I can't see where “Chumo Gompa” comes into the picture. Is that the one?

E) Lungchem is a place on the way to Lhasa, probably starting from Chamdo. Yes, I know – that’s more than 1000 km. In the '90s it was a place where the motor road ended.

Needless to say, I’d be really grateful for any clues!