The Auspicious Day

Today is the day the health festival begins!  This morning the kitchen was crowded with new arrivals.  After a quick breakfast of......oatmeal glop, I got started on my fifth math test.  I got ninety two percent!  This made me extremely happy for two reasons.  First, I earned Infinity Blade time.   More importantly, I did not have to retake the test.  (If I score less than 90%, my parents make me retake another test!)

After the test, I went down stairs to the courtyard to meet the new Tibetans.  Today, thirty two beautiful local Tibetan women dressed in traditional attire filed into the gates of the clinic.  All of these women with pretty jewels in their beautiful hair and colorful silk clothes were fascinated by the taking of pictures.  After I took pictures, they would crowed around to look at the images. Soon, the manager of the festival gave all the women red T-shirts designed for the festival.  This ruined the beauty of the traditional ladies’ attire.  Later the public officials arrived...



For lunch, a cook made many sheep meat dishes in big pots.  They used a sheep skin as bellows to fan the fire.

Atchey Holding the Sheep Skin Bellows

The first day of the festival was all about ceremony.  We set up the courtyard with even more prayer flags.  We had many important government officials arriving.  We set up chairs facing the stage.  We were planing to give a speech introducing the officials.  This, as you know, has nothing to do with medicine.  Auspiciously, right as the speakers stepped onto the stage, the wind started to howl so hard you could hear nothing that was said.  Finally, the speakers gave up and cut the ribbon to start the festival

 The Inaudible Speech!

Flags in the High Wind

The festival began with the Lhasang. This involved the monks giving a blessing for the festival to go well.  The monks sat on the stage and chanted and banged colorful drums and cymbals.  In the center of the courtyard, the monks burned small branches of pine along with offerings of rice, flags and a small statue.   The wind was still blowing and the smoke spiraled in the air.

After the Lhasang, we spent the rest of the day singing and dancing in the wind and rain.  We all agree that the dancing would look much better if the Tibetans did not have on red T-shirts.  This was somewhat of a patriotic display for the Chinese officials, wearing the color of China.  We hope these shirts will disappear after the officials leave today.

The first day was a great success.  I think that the winds purpose at the festival, was to cease the speeches, and allow the people to be happy and dance.  This auspicious wind brought success to the first day of the festival.  I hope the rest of the festival is as good. 

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!