I am going to Garsha tomorrow for a week or so. Many people had asked me to postpone my journey because recently there was very heavy snowfall that trapped many people, including Karmapa Ogyen Trinley, his sister and their entourage, who went by jeeps from Ladakh to Garsha and got stranded for 2 days before being rescued. I must thank Ladakh government for sending two helicopters to airlift them to Leh. I thought more help should have been given to those people who were left behind, and many of them died because no one came to their aid. I think practitioners of Bodhisattva path should be helping each other, and not encouraging harmful activities. So I was happy that my friends in Ladakh were able to offer their help so that Karmapa Ogyen Trinley and his entourage were able to escape from the snow-trapped situation.
Actually I heard about this news only after my short retreat in Druk Amitabha Mountain. One of my personal servants, Ngawang Sangpo, happened to be in Ladakh and he was trying to reach me because one of his relatives who was one of the taxi drivers in the entourage of Karmapa Ogyen Trinley, was killed in the avalanche that took place during their journey down. Many Ladakhi people whose family members were killed in the journey were trying to reach me for prayers through Ngawang Sangpo. Unfortunately, I was in a retreat until a few days ago. Many of the victims were taxi drivers who were hired to go with Karmapa Ogyen Trinley's entourage and many of the innocent people went together out of curiosity. It was unfortunate that the heavy snowfall came suddenly, although I was informed that the weather conditions were excellent when they left Ladakh.
Ever since the news, my monks, nuns, yogis and myself have been doing prayers and poojas non-stopped. I have also asked all our monks and nuns in Ladakh to start a series of prayers and poojas for all the many beings, especially human beings, who died in this unexpected accident. I am surprised that no one made any news report about this tragedy.
Since arriving in Delhi, my attendants have been contacting my people in Garsha to find out more about the situation and to make sure that I won't be stuck in the snow. Fortunately, the weather is now excellent and roads have been repaired very nicely and cleared very well. Tomorrow I will be going personally to Garsha to check and to make sure that everyone is okay. I don't want to believe in all the things that people tell me. I will go and check by myself what actually happened. When I come back from Garsha, hopefully I will be able to share some news with you.
