Spelling Songs and Kräuterquark

Did you ever sing the 'Alphabet Song'? (If you're one of my beginner students, I probably forced you to sing it at least a couple of times!!) Well, in Tibetan class I was reminded of that! Spelling out a Tibetan word is not as simple as in English. To spell the word 'three' in English we just say "tee-aitch-ar-ee-ee". But in Tibetan it's like a song. And there are letters stacked on top of each other which change the name of the letter and its sound and all have to be detailed. So the word for three, which is pronounced "soom" and is written (converted into Latin letters) "gsum" gets spelt as follows: "gau--sa-shab-kyu-su--meh--soom". And that's a fairly simple word!

Our teacher makes us do a lot of spelling, since it helps us to learn to "decode the strange symbols" – the Tibetan alphabet and way of constructing words is very different to European languages and for that reason it is very hard to read out a word or sentence.

The philosophy class is now in a very profound phase. We are trying to understand the discussions between the main schools of Buddhism about the subject of existence: what exists, what is interdependent existence, what is self, what is selflessness. It's very difficult sometimes, but every now and again there's an "Aha"-effect that keeps us all happy.

Last week and this week we have an extra class each day with the head of this Buddhist tradition in Nepal, the Venerable Shangpa Rinpoche. The class is called the "Seven Points of Mind Training". It is a nicely structured way of developing loving kindness and compassion for all people and all beings, based around a type of mediation called "tong-len". This is Tibetan for "send-receive", and the meditation is a way of taking the suffering away from others and replacing it with your own happiness. Think of your own heart as a type of hi-speed compost bin, taking in the suffering from other people, composting it and turning it into fertiliser – or happiness – which you then send back out into the world!

This afternoon I also helped to make some people happy by cooking! Each week we all sit together to write the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the coming week. At the end it's a good mix of international, Nepali and Tibetan cuisine. The cook here is very skilled at cooking all sorts of different things. He asked me to think of something German, and the first vegetarian thing I could think of was "Pellkartoffel mit Kräuterquark" (boiled unpeeled potatoes with herby soft cheese) - a typical light German meal. The main problem was that you can't buy 'Quark' here! I asked the cook to buy soft cheese, but it wasn't really what I was thinking of (it was very firm!). So I improvised, cutting it up into pieces and putting it in a blender, mixing with yoghurt and blending until it had the consistency of Quark! Some fresh parsley, the greens of spring onions (there are no chives here), salt and pepper, and voilà! We made a 'Krautsalat' (cabbage salad) to go with it, and it proved to be a success.