Geshe Lobsang Gyatso

He was born a couple of years I believe before the Dalai Lama so he knew him in Lhasa and traveled with him to India when the Dalai Lama escaped to India so China couldn't kill him or imprison him in I believe 1959. They both were born in the early 1930s and Geshe Lobsang Gyatso was born in Kham, Tibet. 

To be a Geshe  which means "Spiritual Friend" takes usually through study until you are about 40 to 45 years of age to become one. So, when one calls a Geshe "Geshela" it is like saying "My beloved Spiritual Friend" and Geshela traveled with us from the end of the Kalachakra Tantra which is a 4 day initiation there in Bodhgaya, India. He traveled with us to Benares (which is the ancient name) but now it is called Varanasi, India and to Sarnath where Buddha taught his first students who were Brahmins there in Sarnath. He went with us to the Burning Ghat where bodies are cremated and thrown into the Ganges and we rented a boat and went out into the Ganges which is a very large River like the Mississippi River in the U.S. So, we traveled with Geshela and his Darjeeling Translator who was also from a Tibetan Family that lived there and owned a Bus line in India.

Then we traveled to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and I don't think Geshela had been there before because it isn't a Buddhist place. Then we traveled to New Delhi and stayed there to regroup a couple of weeks where I got a taste for Lassis which is a yoghurt drink. They only had plain there but here in the U.S. in Indian restaurants you can also get Mango Lassis which are wonderful. It is pronounced "Lhasees".

In New Delhi my stepdaughter got sick so we cut short our stay in New Delhi and went to Dharamshala, India which is at 6000 feet along a ridge in the foothills of the Himalayas where the Dalai Lama lives. From there after my step daughter and son got well for a few weeks we went to Rewalsar, India or "Tsopema" the Tibetans call it which is about 3500 feet in the foothills of the Himalayas near a place called Mendi. We were able to take a bus from Dharamshala direct to Mendi and then switch buses and get another one to Rewalsar, India at 3500 feet there with a Lake Rewalsar there. Rewalsar is a Padmasambhava Holy place where he visited with Princess Mandharava then.

Geshela stayed in Dharamshala with Lobsang his English Translator then while we were in Rewalsar. Geshela understood English quite well and could speak it but his thick Kham Tibetan accent was difficult for most Westerners who speak English to understand. But since we traveled with him we understood him quite well as almost a member of our family for several months in India. We bought he and his translator tickets back to California and they stayed with us for a couple of months while he started  and established his own Spiritual teachings place in Northern California. So, we mostly traveled with Geshela and Lobsang from about December 21st 1985 until about June of 1986 in India and in California. And we saw him a lot between 1985 and the time he passed away which I believe was in the late 1990s in California. I took Geshela to our 2 1/2 acres which we still owned until it was sold in 1989 in Mt. Shasta when my family moved to Hawaii in 1989 for a while.

By God's Grace