34th Kalachakra prayer by Dalai Lama 14th at Bodhgaya (2nd to 14th Jan.2017)

Kalachakra prayer was held by the 14th Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya from 2nd to 14th January 2017.

It was the 34th Kalachakra prayer by him.

It was held in January 1974, December 1985, January 2003, January 2012, and this January 2017 at Bodhgaya.

Every winter, many Tibetan refugees come to Bodhgaya for pilgrimage, and especially when Dalai Lama holds prayers.

You won't be able to believe that it is India when you look at the people because majority of people during kalachakra are Tibetans.

Dalai Lama's followers also come from all over the world like America, European countries etc. 

American actor Richard Gere comes every time, and he attended it, this time too.

Bihar state government banned entering of vehicles into the center of Bodhgaya from morning to 11 pm, and has been providing tents and facilities for  a few ten thousand Tibetans in order to make them stay in Bodhgaya comfortably without any problem.

It has affected a lot of local business especially hotel and guest house owners.

One of my friend who runs a guest house in the middle of Bodhgaya said that his guesthouse (20 rooms) had only one guest in that season.

Not only these hotels and guesthouses, many new hotels and guesthouses that were rushed to be built before welcoming this Kalachakra prayer have also been disappointed with empty rooms. 

Besides the service of providing tents and facilities to Tibetan refugees, severe limitation of exchange of foreign currency into rupees and fixed withdrawing amount caused by the demonetisation executed by Indian government has also affected local businesses since November last year.

These factors have led to the cancellation of more than half of the bookings by foreign travelers who had planned to come to Bodhgaya for the Kalachakra prayer before last November.

This Kalachakra ceremony was supposed to be held in January 2016, but it was postponed due to some reasons.

Local people thought that this ceremony would be a great business opportunity but they were shocked to see the reality of empty rooms in local guest houses. 

Our Mahamaya group has a hotel near Mahabodhi temple and Kalachakra maidan, and also it is located adjacent to HH Dalai Lama's Tibetan temple next to Srilanka temple, So we have many guests as usual. 

We opened an open restaurant in Mahamaya Palace hotel which is near Sujata Kuti in December, and opened a fast food shop in Mahamaya hotel in front of Mahambodhi temple on 3rd January.

Our fast food shop has become very popular for providing Momos (Tibetan dim sum) in main menu.

I personally think that it is very great of India and Bihar state to provide best service and hospitality to Tibetan refugees as international VIP guests in the point of view of international relations.

But...local people feel that India and Bihar should think about local people's life a little more...

About Kalachakra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra

The Kalachakra (Sanskrit कालचक्र Kālacakra, Tibetan: དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།, Wylie: dus kyi 'khor lo; Mongolian: Цогт Цагийн Хүрдэн Tsogt Tsagiin Hurden; Chinese: 時輪) is a term used in Vajrayana Buddhism that means wheel of time or "time-cycles".

"Kālacakra" is usually used to refer to a very complex teaching and practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Although the teaching is very advanced and esoteric, there is a tradition of offering it to large public audiences.

Japanese taught students at Surya Bharti school (No.2) - Angel Aid Study Tour

On 13th August, people who participated in the study tour of Angel Aid Association taught our students again.

Students learnt how to wrap in Japanese way, the historical relation between India and Japan, designing hand fan, fun games, and a teacher who teaches 6th grade in Japan had a class in 6th grade in our school.

She showed Japanese letters written by Indian ink on a Japanese paper, and she asked students "Is there anybody who can read this?"

Then, one of the students replied "shi ta i no!"

(It means "I want to do".)

It was very close!!!

The correct answer was "ta no shi i".

(It means "It is fun".)

In Japanese way, especially writing with ink , we read vertically and start reading from the right hand of the upper side.

The student had read it horizontally and had started reading from the left hand of the upper side. 

She taught students about the importance of efforts to achieve their dreams with a song "Moshi Moshi Kameyo", from a story of race by a rabbit and a turtle.

She also taught making flowers by folding colorful papers called Origami in Japanese, and made students to write their dream on the flowers, so that they can see their dreams always by hanging them on the wall of their house.

In the class of historical relation between India and Japan, the teacher (who teaches History in Japan) was surprised that 8th grade students have known the history very much than 10th grade students who took the same class last time by him.

About the history of world second war, a student answered "He was the man who joined Subhash Chandra Bose in fighting against England!" when he saw a photo of Hideki Tojo.

He said that he recognized his face because he saw his face on a book of history before. 

People in India respect Subhash Chandra Bose very much who was a leader of Indian National Army.

He is evaluated as high as Mahatma Gandhi or more for his contribution to India's independence.

Most Indians gratitude to Japan that Japan helped INA to fight against British army to get freedom from colonization.  

I have some friends who come from Imphal in Manipur where the battle held between British army and Japanese army with INA.

And they told me that they respect Japanese army very much still now.

The teacher of history asked "Where can you find the model of this building near here?" while showing a photo of "Goju no tou"(Buddhist stupa) in Nara.

Then, most students answered "It's Thai temple!".

Maybe it looks like Thai temple because of the design of its roof.

In fact, he revealed that the model of "Goju no tou" was Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya.

The teacher said that there were many monks who wanted to visit Bodhgaya where Buddha attained great enlightenment in ancient time but they couldn't do, so they built the temples in their countries by making them in similar design with their earnest wish for the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya which was located very far away from where they lived in the world.

Buddhism was conveyed to many countries from India and the design of the temples has been transformed into the local design in each country.

I learnt many things from this class while I was interpreting. 

Ms.T and Ms.M  were interviewed by a reporter from ANI. 

You can understand how the students enjoyed each class with Japanese when you see the photos!

I thank all members of Angel Aid study tour very much for having the classes to our students!

Angel Aid Study Tour (Visiting Delhi Public School Gaya)

Some members of the study tour requested that they would like to visit a private school besides Surya bharti school, so we visited DPS (Delhi Public School) which is a famous private school in Gaya, on 12th August 2016.

The school buildings looked like luxury hotel.

The buildings had 4 stories with toilets on every floor and the class rooms were very spacious.

Principal sir guided us around the school.

He showed us the classes of nursery, elementary, and junior high. 

We greeted teachers and students in some classes.

 Students in an elementary class were painting pictures related to Independence day of India.

There were bulletin board in every class. 

Group lists, students lists for buses, pictures painted by students were pasted on it.

It had very unique colors. 

We found white boards which were connected to computers beside black boards.

There were projectors attached in every class.

We saw Taekwondo (martial arts in South Korea) in a sport class.

Hundreds of students were watching magic show on the ground floor.

This school holds various events around 15th August every year.

There was a ground and a park with facilities like slides in Japan.

Principal sir brought us to show a swimming pool which was under construction.

A member of our tour asked him, "What kind of swimming suits will your students wear?".

He replied, "We are planning that it will be with long sleeves not to show their skin and  boys and girls will have swimming classes in different times."

He later explained about the plants planted in the school.

He said that there are more than 1200 kinds (maybe 12000?) of plants, and they are applying to register in Guinness World Record. 

Lastly we talked with principal sir about lots of things in his office.

He said that the Motto of the school is "Service before Self". They teach students the importance of serving others before thinking about oneself.

This school accepts students with various religious backgrounds.

It is recognized and affiliated with CBSE (education system given by Indian government) and provides high quality education of the same level as in private schools in Delhi.

The teachers teach students in English for all subjects except Hindi and Sanskrit.

There are 3 languages that are taught, which are - Hindi as mother language, English as second language, and Germany as a third language.

Principal sir said that he and the board members of the school are thinking about introducing Japanese as a fourth language in the future.

DPS was established in 2013, and it has been only 3 years since then.

I had met vice chairman of this school in a train just after the opening of the school.

He said that they don't use AC in  classes because it is bad for health.

 Through the discussion in the train, I found that he has very firm ideas of education system for the school.

I'm very happy to know that this kind of school has been established in Gaya,

Though our Surya bharti school can't compete with this school in terms of its buildings, I think that it has good quality education no less than this school.