By Chris Daley | Democrat staff writer | January 11, 2009 14:12 

His name is Jangchub Chophel. That’s not the name he was born with, but it is, in a sense the name he was “reborn” with. A little more than three years ago, this self-described “save-the-world kind of school teacher” accepted the name given to him upon his ordination into the Tibetan Buddhist order of Gaden Shartse in India. We don’t know what his former name was, and it doesn’t matter. 

“You can call me Chophel. It’s a little easier to pronounce,” he offered.

Chophel is a member of the group of 10 Tibetan Buddhist monks currently visiting El Dorado County. He was at the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville Wednesday morning with several of his brethren, while several others were giving a presentation at Ponderosa High School.

The Cozmic Cafe has hosted the monks’ tour for the past five years, although this is the first El Dorado County visit by the current group. They had planned to be here through Jan. 18, but a medical emergency caused them to cut their visit short and they will be here only through Jan. 14 instead. The financial aspect of the tour this year is to raise money for the order’s hospital that provides care not only to monks, nuns and Tibetan exiles, but also to others in the Refugee Zone in Southern India. 

“We are very appreciative to be able to come to this area, and we have endless gratitude for all the support for our little hospital in the refugee camp,” Chophel said. His role as “one of the two white guys” in the group is liaison. He said that because he “has a driver’s license and can speak English,” he has become one of the organizers of the current tour.

The other “white guy” has been tour director for 19 years. He is called Venerable Lobsang Wangchuk. And according to a short biography, “He has been a long-time student of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama whom he has served in many capacities including driver, body guard, cook and assistant to his Holiness.”

The appellation of Venerable denotes a high level of spiritual and academic attainment within the order, and it also serves to honor the teachers who have guided and instructed the monk.

Chophel had numerous manifestations and existences before his ordination.

“I was once homeless, living by the Colorado River and hitchhiking to work in a lumberyard. And we had a new baby on the way. That was when I was about 20,” he said. Along his journey, he would eventually become a counselor for children and then a high school history teacher. “I taught my last three years in robes,” he said.

“Twenty-five years ago, I read my first book on Buddhism. It helped me become a better Christian,” he quipped. “Later, I started to meditate and (studied other philosophies) and some of those philosophies drew me to Buddhism.”

The monks do not preach, but they do practice.

“We’re concerned with equanimity, the interdependence with each other and promoting compassion and tolerance.” Anger and aggression are indications that an individual “is suffering,” he said and clarified one notion of “interdependence.”

“Suppose I have a piece of toast for breakfast. I am connected to the person who grew the grain and the one who baked the bread and the clerk in the store where I got it. Then suppose I get angry because another driver cuts me off on the road. For all I know, that might have been the person who delivered the bread to the store.”

Too often, it is labels that prevent peace and harmony and compassion, he said, adding, “This has been such a divisive year (particularly the campaign and election). Yet there are enough people on both sides who want to do good.”

Chophel explained that there are numerous variations of Buddhism. There is of course Tibetan but also versions as practiced in Vietnam, other Southeast Asian countries, China and Japan. While Tibetan monks always wear maroon colored robes except when they get very formal and wear gold robes, monks from Southeast Asia typically wear gold, and Chinese monks usually wear brown or gray robes.

Typically a monk has two sets of robes, one to wear and one to wash, and if he had more than two, it would be expected that he give them to someone else who needs robes.

And while conventional wisdom might suggest that Buddhist monks wouldn’t dream of eating meat, he said he is the only vegetarian in his tour group.

“The monks in Vietnam for example who sit beside the road with a bowl are expected to eat whatever anyone puts in the bowl,” he said. “And the Tibetans who grew up at altitudes of 16,000 feet or more need meat to survive in that climate – especially yak meat and yak butter.” He added, however, that there is an awareness of a spiritual connection between eater and eaten.

There’s some good natured joshing and teasing among them, he said, because he is the strongest man in the group, and when something heavy needs to be lifted he ascribes his strength to his diet.

“Also, I used to do a lot of weight lifting while all they ever did was study and pray,” he joked.

Chophel also dispelled a common stereotype westerners may have of Buddhist monks as austere. While some branches of the philosophy such as Zen may be, he said, “These guys are loud, and they like to laugh and joke a lot.”

Some of the monks enter the monastery at the early age of 12 or even 10 but are not ordained until they are 18 or older. Chophel laughed and said, “They have to ask their parents’ permission to become a monk. I had to ask my daughter’s permission.”

And if a man decides later that monastic life is not the right choice for him, he can withdraw by a simple, ritualized process of telling another Buddhist that he is “giving up his robes.”

Karma, often referenced but just as often poorly understood in the West, is the central tenet in Buddhism, he explained.

“Our next life is the result of our present life. We create causes and results with Karmic instincts.”

He also explained however that experiencing a particular pain or sorrow today may be a result of “non-virtuous actions” from a prior existence, not necessarily the last most recent one.

The Gaden Shartse monks are constructing the “Medicine Buddha Sand Mandala” upstairs at the Cozmic Cafe every day until Jan. 14. That day, it will be “dissolved,” some of the sand distributed to visitors and the remainder will be ritually cast into the American River in Coloma at a later date.

For information about the monks, Buddhism and the events for the next few days, call (530) 748-9365) or go to the Cozmic Cafe for a schedule and more printed information. For a complete revised schedule of the Gaden Shartse Monastery tour, see www.gadenshartsetour.org.

E-mail Chris Daley at cdaley@mtdemocrat.net or call (530) 344-5063.