TOMO x Norden founder Yidam

A few weeks ago the founding members of TOMO.video - an online directory of like minded conscious hotels - were asked to share a few insights about our own experiences in the hospitality industry. A moment to share the reality of our hotels, the process it took to bring them to life and the importance of our values to make them special. 

Below are snippets of our founder - Yidam Kyap’s answers. Please visit TOMO.video to read the rest of his answers and get inspired by beautiful locations around the world that care about our environment, society and experience. 

What motivated you to become a hotelier?

As a young adult I had the good fortune to travel to many parts of South East Asia. As many people opened their worlds to me and shared their culture, I was reminded of all that I too had that I could share with people from different corners of the world. I thought of the excitement I used to feel as a child when visiting other people’s homes but also when welcoming others to our house. I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life; welcome people into a little space that I could call my own and share with them my land and my culture. 

What was your greatest extravagance in creating your hotel?

The greatest extravagance, I believe might be the location and the concept of Norden in itself. When we first tried to explain Norden’s vision to family and friends, people were skeptical as to who would come to stay in such a remote location. The idea of creating comfort and luxury in the wilderness was seen as an extravagance, a whimsical idea that could not possibly be financially sustainable.

Where do you feel happiest on your property?

I love the camp as whole, made up of creeks and rivers, dwarf trees and myriads of flowers. I would say that the happiest I feel is more at certain times of the day rather than a specific location. The dawn with the first light of the day, the rustle of the birds and the fresh morning dew, is by far my happiest time of the day. 

What do you consider your team’s greatest achievement?

My team is made up primarily of local nomads who came to us with no prior experience in hospitality. I feel our greatest achievement as a team is the genuine way in which we are able to welcome our guests and make them feel safe and at home. This innate ability transcends language barriers allowing visitors to experience a direct and unique connection to the land and the local community. 

What is your dream journey?

My dream journey is taking a few months off to show my daughters the Tibetan Plateau; the mountains, the valleys, the rivers and the grasslands. I want them to connect with the land that they are from and learn to love and appreciate it as much as I do.

Saga Dawa

It is an extraordinary experience to be in Labrang Tashikyil on the holiest day of the Buddhist calendar, the 15th day of the 4th month on the Lunar year (26th of May).

Sagadawa celebrates the Buddha’s birthday, and the whole month is dedicated to accumulating virtue, as Buddhists believe that any merit accumulated during that time is multiplied manifold, a spiritual investment towards the next life, for a better rebirth. 

In Labrang, pilgrims and beggars alike congregate throughout the holy month, but especially on the fifteenth.  The 3km circumambulatory road will be filled with devotees young and old, holding their prayer wheels, reciting mantras, or doing prostrations, while the beggars and the destitute will be seated along the path, awaiting their alms.

The monastery’s temples will be filled with monks making offerings at the demand of patrons, who will have waited years for an offering ritual during such an auspicious month. A pilgrimage to Labrang on Sagadawa is something to be accomplished at least once in a lifetime, and the will be teeming with pilgrims from all over the Tibetan Plateau. 

Debate Period

Labrang Monastery comprises six colleges, the largest one being Majung Thosamling. Dedicated to the study of Buddhist philosophy and dialectics, its teachers use debate as an central learning tool. 

The curriculums established by the great scholars of the Gelukpa tradition require that a student memorize the root of a text, then listen to its explanation from their teacher. Debate, the principles of which are taught in the first year, is the gymnastic that brings the concepts to life and helps students gain mastery of a philosophical concept through questioning each other on various topics.

Excelling in debate is a source of great fame for young monks, marking their pedigree as scholars, and demonstrates their understanding of the philosophical concepts they were taught. Debate sessions, which take place daily during certain periods throughout the year, take place in a dedicated courtyard, with flagged stones and shady trees.  

For a skilled debater, these sessions are the most exciting time of the day, and can become very animated. Inter college debates, which occur at certain times of the year, give a scholar the opportunity to engage with those from other monasteries and yearly examinations, where a monk has to defend his stand or question a peer, attract large audiences of illustrious teachers. Great scholars thus gain their fame not simply in their own monastery but in others as well. 

The Four Friends

The mural below is from Labrang Tashikyil Monastery and it illustrates the story of the Four Friends, a symbol of harmony. The ancient times, before the coming of the Buddha, an elephant, a monkey, a hare and a grouse lived in the jungles of the Kingdom of Kashinagar, which is in present day Varanasi, in India. 

They lived in harmony, enjoying each other’s company. They decided that the source of happiness lay in respect for others, and wishing to share this revelation with the world, set out to spread the word.  

Gradually, they developed the practice of the Five Precepts: Abandoning the taking of life, of taking what doesn’t belong to one, of licentiousness, of taking intoxicants and of pointless chatter. This practice brought them a clear mind and inner joy. It also brought harmony to their environment, first the jungle then the kingdom, bringing timely rain and bountiful harvests. The King, reflecting on these fortunate events, called on a sage to find out the cause. The sage told him it was thanks to the wisdom of four animals who lived deep in the jungle. The King asked the sage to bring the animals to him, but he refused, saying all the king needed to do was to practice the five precepts himself. The King followed his advice and the whole kingdom prospered. Kashinagar became an example for neighboring kingdoms and all experienced happiness and peace. 

The saying goes that these animals were no ordinary beings, but ones of great merit and advanced spiritual development. Later, when the Buddha came to the world, he preached that the Five Precepts were the basis for all spiritual development and that their practice led to great wisdom, eventual release from samsara and, ultimately, enlightenment.

Kangtsa Monastery

Kangtsa is a small monastery about an hour from Tso, situated on the border with Zorge and Kakya. Coming from the surrounding grassland, it offers a stark contrast with its narrow valleys and juniper forests. Kangtsa is older than Labrang Tashikyil, and was founded in the late 1600’s by the 4th Panchen Lama Lobsang Chogyigyaltsen’s disciple, Ngomar Ritropa.

After the establishment of Labrang Tashikyil, Kangtsa became integrated as a branch of its Medical College, giving its monks the privilege to pursue their studies in Labrang.

Today, Kangtsa has about 80 monks. The road to access it was only built less than ten years ago, and before that, it was quite isolated. Kangtsa has always functioned as a Medical College and recently, the monks have built a larger dispensary for outpatients to serve the region.

The Medical College at Labrang TashiKyil Monastery

Labrang Tashikhyil was founded in 1709 by the First Jamyang Shepa, Jamyang Shepei Dorje, under the sponsorship of a Qoshot Mongol prince. Many incarnation lines have their seats at Labrang Monastery including the Jamyang Shepa, Amdo Zhamar and Gunthang incarnation lines. Labrang has six colleges, the largest of which is the debate college, Mejung Tosam Ling, which was established by the First Jamyang Shepa when he built the monastery. The Tantric Colleges, Lower and Upper, were established by the First Jamyang Shepa in 1719, and the Upper, in 1943 by the Fifth. The Kalachakra College and Medical Colleges were established in 1763 and 1784 by the Second Jamyang Shepa. The Fourth Jamyang Shepa established Hevajra College in 1879.

Tibetan Medicine has its roots in India, introduced on the Plateau along with Buddhist Indian culture in the 11th and 12th centuries. Tibet absorbed early Indian Abhidharma literature as well as wide range of Indian Vajrayana tantras, containing practices based on medical anatomy, all of which formed the base of the Tibetan medical treatises.

The Medical College in Labrang is the largest in the area, and has a very active clinic and pharmacy. Most medicines made there are based on the wealth of local medicinal plants that cover the summer pasture, and in summer, we often see monks gathering plants in Ritoma, whose Monastery falls under Labrang’s monastic jurisdiction.

The Residence

Labrang has two distinct sections; the monastery and the town. The monastery tails out into the Ngagpa College, then the Nunnery. Walking beyond, one crosses a village, then comes to an area of open fields, in a valley flanked by hills that slowly spills out into the greater plains of Sangkhok, the nomadic area where Norden is based. The foot of the steep hill is dotted with the dark openings of caves, some fitted with the remains of doors. Curious, I asked what they were; over forty years ago when young people were sent from China to work with peasants, they had lived and died in those caves. It sounded like a dreary episode that no one really wanted to remember. As one progresses, there are more small villages huddled against the hill, the Tsampa mill, and a walled garden that looks like a debating ground where people sometimes picnic. The last important landmark on that road is the Hotel. Around 2007, we went to visit what was known as Labrang’s best hotel. It was built in the 80’s by an enterprising returnee from Switzerland on the grounds of what had been Jamyang Sheba’s Palace. The entrepreneur obviously had had different ideas on building and hospitality which he implemented in the various spaces; there was a modern building with brass and glass and an electric coconut tree, with the usual lobby that sports what I refer to as the ‘toad’ chairs, with armrests as large as the seating area. One then moved onto a garden with a central lawn surrounded by concrete picnic tents, with flaking paint. There was also a mysterious walled area with an old style building, the Palace, we were told. Keys were brought out and the main door, set in the surrounding stone masonry wall, flung open. Inside were pavilions decorated in murals and brightly painted traditional woodwork that surrounded successive courtyards. The style was a mixture of Ching Dynasty and Tibetan traditional and the place had a run down charm about it. At some point, someone had tried to make a hotel; there was a sign for a dining hall, filled with broken furniture. The rooms were furnished like the Soviet hotels I had stayed in in Mongolia, where officials spent their holidays, with damaged furniture, cracked cups and lamp fixtures particular to that era. The hotel lease had ended after twenty years, the Swiss Tibetan had moved on and the government department in charge was waiting for someone to take on the venture, renting out the concrete gers in the meantime. Three years ago, someone took it over and we stayed there while preparing Norden Camp’s first season. The tents were a little humid, but an effort had been made with proper bathrooms and brocade on the walls. We visited the Palace again; it remained in condition we had seen it in last, abandoned and exuding a tired beauty. The awnings were in tatters, the reception rooms filled with rubble. Jamyang Sheba seems to have forsaken his previous incarnation’s palace and built himself an impressive structure closer to the town. Painted a pinkish red, it is called “Norzin Podrang” ,which my granddaughter Norzin finds fantastic.