For the past 5 years, I have had a seasonal side hustle as a host, cook, chauffeur, agent and soul-sister for a Tibetan Buddhist monk named Sonam Dawa.
On one of several occasions that I picked him up from the train station, Sonam availed me of his recent travels — leading meditation workshops in Ohio, fundraising in Chicago for Buddhist nuns back home, and stage-handing an event for the Dalai Lama in Indiana. Regretfully, he had to turn down a job translating some texts from his native Zanskari to Tibetan to English because there was not enough time. "I'm a Busy Monk!", he exclaimed, clapping one hand over the other with enough electricity to generate a lightening bolt, and let out a hearty laugh.
On a whole other hand, “I’m a Lazy Witch!”, a declaration I never verbalize - avoidant, inconsistent with my practice and not always aligned with a higher vibration. While Sonam is a testament to how impeccable time management skills are the backbone of achievement and enlightenment, I struggle to effectively balance and manifest my earthly and spiritual obligations. Yet at some point in the Summer of 2015, we tuned into each others' frequency, opened a portal, and became officially bonded through the magic of the U.S. non-immigrant visa process.
Initially, the visa request was for three months, so he could further his research into re-incarnation and how the afterlife factors into faith-based traditions across the globe. But the US Embassy in Geneva approved him for a 10 year re-entry visa, allowing him to visit for up to 180 days at a time and return as frequently as he chooses. When Sonam is here, my job is to provide a home base, make sure he does not become a burden on the United States government or self-immolate, all the while emotionally supporting his broader mission of preserving and documenting Tibetan history and culture so it can survive both the Diaspora and the future of humanity. But No Pressure.
At 37, Sonam was one of the youngest monks to attain the title of Geshe Lharampa at Drepung Gomang Monastery in Karnataka, India, conferring to him the equivalence of a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. Fluent in more than a half-dozen languages, he is the founder of the Peaceling Center in his native Zanskar and an advocate for animal rights and a vegetarian lifestyle. After studying for nearly 3 decades, then completing 3 years of service to the monastery (as their Accountant!), Sonam was granted permission by the Central Tibetan Administration in 2015 to travel in support of his research. When not in the United States, he spends several months teaching mediation in Vietnam, in between return trips to Singapore, Switzerland and India.
He has a network of partners and supporters around the globe so he really doesn't ask us for anything outside of our hospitality, with one exception. There is a a traditional wedding ceremony in the remote Himalayan village he left when he was 9 years old that he would like to be documented before it is modernized. It’s a five-day long ceremony that takes at least a year to prepare, needs approval from an astrologer, and includes a singing contest in Zanskari — a dialect on the UNESCO endangered languages list. The region is only accessible by road for about 3 months a year and it's nestled in-between the simmering tensions of Jammu/Kashmir on one side, and the India/China border, where dozens of soldiers were recently killed in brutal hand to hand combat over a territory dispute, on the other.
I mean who wouldn't want to get involved with that? Never mind my dislike of weddings, disinterest in Buddhism, and preference to never leave New Jersey. Fortunately, I do know people who have a much bigger sense of adventure than me, make movies for a living and find Sonam's story and spirit compelling enough to follow him to one of the most remote places on earth. The project is currently in pre-production and scheduled to film in Zanskar during the Summer of 2021. In the meantime, I'm doing my best to stay energetically engaged and charm the stars into alignment, because I really need to get this project off my list.
*UPDATE Summer 2021 - No one is going to Zanskar anytime soon. As of July 2021, Sonam is headed to the United States from Vietnam, where he has spent the better part of the past two years. A recent article from the Washington Post gives a window into a changing Zanskar, perhaps confirming the rapid changes Sonam saw on the horizon and reminding us that that the future is now.