Kunzang Choden
Found: Kolkata Book Fair 2015
This book tells the life story of Tsomo, an illiterate woman
from rural Bhutan. Tsomo’s life takes her to places she never expected – India, Nepal, Bodh Gaya – and through experiences that are
unusual, to say the least. Although she was never able to learn how to read or write, she is a devout Buddhist. Illiteracy and illness cannot stop her from going on pilgrimages, or from becoming a devotee of Rinpoche, a refugee monk
from Tibet. Or from finally becoming a nun toward the end of her life, focusing
her energies on worship at the National Memorial chorten in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. Her life is one of suffering,
friendships, travels, sickness, and joy – but that is just because of her karma.
Muddling through
For personal reasons, Tsomo runs away from her
family home when she is in her early 20s. When she arrives in Thimphu, she has no money, so she takes a job on a road-building
crew, breaking rocks into gravel for long hours every day. As an illiterate, uneducated
rural woman with few profitable skills and nowhere to call home, this job is the best she can hope for. But she doesn’t mind it, and because she
is a friendly and garrulous person she manages to make friends that help her endure the hardship. Not wanting to stay on the road crew, she saves money and keeps moving, first arriving in Kalimpong, a Himalayan city near Darjeeling in India, and later going on pilgrimages farther to the west. While she moves frequently, she never really consciously decides to move: she is invited to travel with friends, or to
stay with friends, or she likes a place and decides to stay. Because she is poor and homeless, there is no reason for her not to move to another place. In this unconscious way, she becomes relatively free of material attachments even before she becomes a nun.
