The phone rang one evening last week, about the time Mom and I usually talk.
“Tashi Delek!” The voice on the other end of the phone line sang out the Tibetan greeting akin to "Good Day!" and my brain was so stuck in talk-with-Mom mode that I caught myself briefly wondering: “Where did Mom learn to speak Tibetan?”
When I recovered my cultural bearings enough to realize that the caller wasn’t my sweet, very American Mom in Ohio but rather my energetic Tibetan friend, Rigdzin, in Seattle, I started laughing and couldn’t stop. I have great love and fondness for both Mom and Rigdzin but they are two different individuals. Rigdzin is a male with a ponytail and he wears single, very cool turquoise stone earring. Mom wears two earrings and hers are a bit more restrained than Rigdzin’s.
I explained to Rigdzin what I had found so funny. He too got a kick out of the joke my culturally confused brain had played on me.
“The Tibetan parents are SO happy with your pictures on the calendar,” Rigdzin said, as I struggled to compose myself on my end of the line. I have photographed a number of events held by the Seattle-area Tibetans in the past year and have given the pictures to the Tibetan Association of Washington. The organization recently produced a calendar -- which I had not yet seen when Rigdzin and I talked -- featuring my photographs, mostly pictures of children. “The pictures are very beautiful,” Rigdzin said.
The image above is published in the calendar and I shot it last August at Tibet Fest in Seattle. As a thank-you for the times we've volunteered at their events, our Tibetan friends invited Leah and me to join them last weekend for a meal and a small Tibetan New Year gathering, where I shot the pictures you see below. Another Losar New Year event will be held this weekend and Leah and I have again been invited as guests. We are quite honored.
Here’s a link to the Tibetan Association of Washington.
