Reportage – 2007

Living 22 years on Hawaii: Lobsang Toldan

Lobsang Toldan (left), who has served at the Wood Valley Temple on Hawaii Island for 22 years, poses with the attendant of Nechung Rinpoche and friend Gyaltsen from Nechung monastery. [ click here for print size   4.2M ]

KEHENA BEACH, Hawaii, 7 February 2007 — Known as Teva Gelong among his friends, Lobsang Toldan has lived at the Wood Valley Temple on the Island of Hawaii, the biggest island among the Hawaiian islands, for the last 22 years.

A sturdy man with an easy smile, Toldan ran right away to make Chai upon realising that a Tibetan living in India had arrived to pay a visit at the temple.

This time he was happy to ignore a white person who was accompanying the Tibetan (this reporter), whom he would normally attend to all the time at the temple, in order to speak in Tibetan and catch up on the news from Dharamshala, India.

He was happy to catch up on all kinds of topics from his life in Tibet to the current Tibetans' quest to move to the West.

He was born in Teva, a village in Ladakh in 1935. He came to Tibet in 1952 for Buddhist studies along with 18 other men from Ladakh. He studied at the Drepung Monastery, one of the biggest monasteries in Tibet, for six years. He later joined Nechung monastery, since his teacher at Drepung was a monk and an attendant of the Nechung Rinpoche.

After the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, the Nechung Rinpoche (1917-1983) was imprisoned. Upon Rinpoche's advice, Toldan fled Tibet in 1961 before Chinese authorities could arrest him for his association with the Rinpoche.

Unlike other Tibetans trying to flee the country then, Toldan fled Tibet in a relatively easy manner as an Indian after proving his Indian citizenship to the Chinese authorities.

"I fled Tibet without the difficulties Tibetans encountered who were trying to flee," Toldan says.

Lobsang Toldan [ click here for print size   3.4M ]

"I was to arrange for the Rinpoche's arrival in India. So, I left a year ahead of Rinpoche's departure," he recalled.

The Rinpoche arrived in India the following year and Toldan remained his attendant for the rest of his life. Following the Rinpoche's death in 1983, Toldan moved to the Wood Valley Temple on Hawaii (the Big Island) to be the Caretaker of the temple.

The Wood Valley Temple was established by the Rinpoche in 1973. It is situated in beautiful lush surroundings and is ideally located for quiet retreats.

The Dalai Lama visited the Wood Valley Temple in 1980 and again in 1994. There were thousands of people trying to get a glimpse and hear the Dalai Lama during his second visit, Toldan reminisces.

The current third incarnation of Nechung Rinpoche was recognised by the 14th Dalai Lama in 1993. He lives at Nechung Monastery in Dharamshala. Coincidentally, the Rinpoche was also paying a visit at the temple the same day this reporter was at Wood Valley.

Toldan didn't have any doubts about the accuracy of the new reincarnation. "I am absolutely sure that his is the same soul as the previous Rinpoche whom I served," he says.

As Toldan tells about his total faith in the new reincarnation from the previous Rinpoche's soul, the new Nechung Rinpoche's young attendant was smiling from the other side, sipping his Chai.

Toldan is 71 today and doesn't speak much English but he is happy to be serving at Wood Valley. "I have become used to the life here. I am happy and have good relations with the people living in the area," Toldan says.

"I will be here until the Nechung monastery calls me back to India."