A BUSY FEW DAYS...

Our flight from Luton was an hour late, which meant we had a slightly frantic flat-out drive from Milan to Genova, meeting the post-work rush hour traffic around the Port at just the wrong moment. The Palazzo Ducale is a wonderful building, with a high ceiling and marble floor, so the long horns were in their element. We managed to unload, go up three floors, unpack and get the sound-check done in about 30 minutes, which is probably some sort of record. The Festival Director, who was planning to read our introductions, had to hand the job to his brother at the last minute due to losing his glasses, but all was well and we discovered a mis-translation which has been in all the introductions since they were first done, which is helpful to know! There were around 300 people in the audience, who were all very enthusiastic, and our only real problem was the heat, which was extreme and made life pretty uncomfortable for the dancers. A picnic dinner in the resplendent surroundings of the Palazzo Ducale and then to our hotel where we were welcomed by the proprietor and shown to really lovely rooms: only sad that we had so little time inside them! We were in our rooms by around half past midnight, and up and back in the minibus for the drive back to Milan by 6.15am! The flight was on time on the way back to Luton, and the transfer went smoothly. After a motorway service station lunch, we arrived at the Royal National Hotel for His Holiness the Dalai Lama's birthday celebrations, organised by the Tibetan Community in Britain. It was a great evening, with speeches, dances by the children and older groups and chanting by the monks, finishing with a performance of Shanak - the Black Hat Dance - using for the first time the new costumes brought from India this year. Speakers included Sogyal Rinpoche, Satish Kuman, Alex Norman and Alison Reynolds, and after the formal part of the evening, we were given a delivious dinner. We left for home before the real business of the evening (Tibetan dancing!) began in earnest, and reached the Round House by about 1am. It's good to have had a rest day today ready for our trip to the Channel Islands tomorrow. We are well and truly on tour now!

At last by 6.30pm it was cool enough to do some rehearsals in the garden for Italy. This is a great group. Tomorrow we visit Gaunts House to set up one of the tents, and on Friday we leave for Genoa with six of the monks - those who have got their Schengen visas.

Good news - all the monks have arrived safely from India after a long flight direct from Bangalore. They are finding it quite strange that it stays light until 10pm and is light again at 4.30am - very different from Bylakuppe! Tomorrow we start the preparations for the tour, and our first performance which is in Genoa, Italy on 3rd July. Back to the airport again!

NEARLY HERE...

The arrival of the main group comes nearer: two of the party are already here, and yesterday saw our first major shopping trip of the tour. It seems strange to be buying 20kg bags of rice and vast quantities of chillies, garlic, ginger and flour to satisfy the culinary needs of the monks! On Monday we took part in a fund-raising concert in aid of Nepal following the earthquakes in April and May. We offered prayers for those who had been affected, and a blessing. The concert, in All Saints Church, Middle Woodford, near Salisbury was a mixture of summer music from ancient plainsong to Mancini's 'Moon River' and a spirited rendition of 'Tea for Two', and the retiring collection raised just over £1,000 in donations to two charities. Now we are looking forward to the arrival of the full tour group next Tuesday 30th June, and to the tour really getting under way.

PREPARATIONS AT GAUNTS HOUSE FOR THE DHARMA FESTIVAL

I have just come back from a brief visit to Gaunts House to further the preparations for the Dharma Festival there in July. As usual, the gardens were looking wonderful, and because there was a course going on, I was able to see the set up for the dining room tent, which may well become the place for evening showings of our films. The Theatre is going to work well for the Kathakali workshops and the performance of their extraordinary sacred dramas, and I have promised Gaunts' staff that I will bring the full tour group over on 2nd July to help put up the tent. We have decided to encourage people to camp on the main lawn so as to be close to the 'action' and it is all beginning to feel very good. We are hoping that more people decide to come - especially now we have 'Evening Only' Tickets available, giving access to Gaunts from 3pm each day and entry to the evening talk and performances Wednesday to Saturday, and more Day Tickets including entry to any of the activities during the day. It will be a lovely event, and we are getting quite excited!

TOURING IN 2015

We are coming back to UK! Our group arrives in London on 30th June, and we will be touring for the next three months. Final details are being sorted out by our UK office, and we are looking forward to a busy tour. We start in Italy with a performance in Genoa on 3rd July. Then it's the Channel Islands with visits to Jersey and Guernsey, followed by a unique five day 'Dharma Festival' in Dorset with Kathakali artists, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, singing bowl workshops and much more. Keep in touch with us by following our blog - and by checking for up to date details on our website at www.tashi-lhunpo.org.uk

2011 TOUR

Our 2011 Tour Group arrived in the UK in mid-September, and we quickly got to work. In the first two weeks we have performed in Aldershot, made Momos at Salisbury International Food Festival and given workshops at The Burgate School in Fordingbridge and a short performance at Guys Marsh Prison in Dorset. We have also given two performances for Artsreach - both sold out - and we are now in Brighton at the Sallis Benney Theatre, where we are making a Tse-pa-meh Sand Mandala (the Buddha of Long Life). The exhibition will continue until Saturday 8th October, when the destruction ceremony takes place at 10.30am.

We have also travelled to Turkey where, in the home of the Whirling Dervish, we became the first Buddhist monks ever to perform the Cham Dances as part of the Mystic Music Festival in Konya.

Our new CD, Wisdom and Insight, is now on sale celebrating the reestablishment of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in exile.

We will be touring until December so please check our website for details of all the venues we will be visiting.