Tergar Shrine Hall
6 – 9 February 2024
Debating and classes were suspended during the four days preceding Tibetan New Year. From 6th – 9th February all those attending the Arya Kshema, the khenpos along with the nuns and other faculty members, engaged in the Mahakala Puja. Drupon Dechen Rinpoche presided.
On 6th February there was the short Mahakala Puja (Tselma) in the afternoon.
Then, from 7th – 9th February, the nuns offered the Extensive Mahakala Puja. From 6.30am to 11.30am and 1.30pm to 6.00pm, they sat in their dharma robes, row by row, in the Tergar Shrine Hall, their puja texts resting on special wooden stands. The puja culminated on the morning of 9th February with the Ritual for Receiving Siddhis, which began at 3.30am and included a Sang puja, the purifying smoke offering.
Fresh marigold garlands hung from the thangkas in the shrine hall and the main altar of special offerings to two-armed Mahakala Bernakchen stood to the left of the stage. An additional altar stood on the right. Nuns holding the great, green hand-drums lined the central aisle; the umdzes, who also play the cymbals, sat on the right. The ritual is impressive and other-worldly: the nuns’ chanting combines with the steady beating of the hand-held drums, the rumble of the two great drums, punctuated by blasts from the gyalins and rachens [medium long horns] and the wailing of kanglins [thigh-bone trumpets].
Mahakala Bernakchen is the special protector of the Karma Kamtsang and these rituals are performed just before Losar in order that the protectors purify negativities accumulated during the year and clear away any obstacles to the Buddhadharma and the welfare of all living beings in the year ahead.
