Tara in Tibet

The following entry has been sent by Sara Trevelyan:

"It was in August of last year (2006) that my friend Anna asked me if I would be willing to take one of her Tara statues to Tibet. I had told her that I was going on a special pilgrimage there organised by Thomas Warrior from the Shambala Retreat Centre in the north of Scotland by Findhorn. I felt that it was a great privilege to be invited to do this for her.

Tara arrived beautifully wrapped and I placed the small package on my shrine. I positioned her with care amongst my belongings and prayed that my inner guidance would let me know where I should place her. On our pilgrimage we were going to visit a number of different sacred sites in and around Lhasa. The Tara that I had been entrusted with was, appropriately, Tara who protects from political oppression.

When we landed at the airport, the sight of the Chinese guards was an immediate reminder of the political realities of Tibet. I placed my Tara in my hand. The bus sped along the road and outside we had our first views of this extraordinary country. The mountainous landscape was barren but spectacular. Alongside we could see the broad stretches of the Brahmaputra River which has its source near Mt Kailash. We drove along a modern highway - one thing which the Chinese have to their credit is that they are good at building roads. However, this has resulted in the natural protection which Tibet was afforded - through being so inaccessible and remote - being seriously undermined.

We soon drew up outside a very ancient temple called Drolma Lhakang. This temple was originally built by Atisha and is dedicated to Tara. It was my first glimpse of these extraordinarily ancient buildings with golden prayer wheels and prayer flags fluttering high above us in the breeze. Overhead was a vivid blue sky. Thomas invited us to open ourselves to feel the energies of this very special place which remarkably was one of the few monasteries left intact and to invoke Tara's blessing on our pilgrimage.

Inside it was extraordinary to see in the middle chamber a shrine dedicated to the 21 Taras and in the centre, behind a thick grill and therefore scarcely visible, was the original Tara made by Atisha. Viewing this left me filled with feelings of awe and reverence. The significance of this precious place being left intact despite the maelstrom which affected the rest of the country felt inescapably linked to Tara's blessing of protection.

I immediately felt that this was the right place for the Tara which I had been entrusted with. My only hesitation was that we had only just arrived and we had several other important temples to visit. I consulted with Thomas and he immediately said that this was the right place. I was intrigued by the suddenness and quickness of all of this as these are qualities associated with Tara. She responds immediately!

I placed her with great care underneath the Tara made by Atisha, along with a Khata which I had brought with me from Kopan Monastery. At Kopan that morning some of us had spoken to one of the monks who told us that he was from Shigatse. His parents had fled to safety in Nepal when he was a small boy. He spoke whistfully of his homeland and asked us to bring him back a piece of Tibet when we returned at the end of our pilgrimage. I was struck by the extraordinary injustice of us being able to board a plane and arrive here whereas he, a Tibetan, is still in exile and cannot return home. I thought of him and of so many others whose situation is similar, most notably HH the Dalai Lama. I thought of Tara and imagined the deep floodwaters of her compassion flowing out to the Tibetan people who have suffered so much through the catastrophe of the Chinese occupation. I also imagined her compassion flowing out toward the Chinese. What strange karma has brought them here and is there some deeper significance in all that has happened?

My prayer as I placed Tara was that this time of oppression swiftly comes to an end and that HH the Dalai Lama will be able to return to Tibet to make an active contribution to the healing of his people. It was then time to continue our journey into Lhasa. The rest of our pilgrimage was equally moving and we were able to visit several wonderful places. We did on a couple of different occasions however experience problems which could have seriously affected our visit - on these occasions Thomas encouraged us to say Tara's mantra and we all felt sure that through doing this we were able to invoke her protection - each time we did this the threatened disruption was averted.

So my gratitude is immense for having been able to participate in such an inspiring project which I hope will bring Tara's blessings to many different situations. It felt particularly special to have been invited to take her to her homeland, Tibet, at this present time when the political situation remains as intractable as ever and therefore the faith which the Tibetan people have in Tara, the mother of all the Buddhas, is of inestimable importance."

What Sara didn't know.........was that Drolma Lhakang temple is Akong Rinpoche's monastery in Tibet. Rinpoche had blessed her Tara and inspired this whole project, and Sara, through following intuition and some extraordinary synchronicity of events, was guided to leave her beneath the Mother of all Mothers! Om Tara.