Tibetan New Year in Auckland....

..... on Sunday morning my friend Wendy Brown, my daughter Lucy and I set off for the Karma Choeling Buddhist Monastery at Kaukapakapa 40 minutes north of Auckland. The plan was to join the celebrations for Losar the New Tibetan Year, this year the year of the Iron Tiger. In Tibetan tradition there was much chanting of prayers and blessings followed by drinking of milky Tibetan tea with pleasantly sweet white rice. And unexpectedly the ceremony finished with one the young Tibetan boys spontaneously performing a traditional Maori Haka!
Prayer flags fluttered above the bush wet with morning rain and across the valley from the temple under a leaden grey sky bright light bounced around the row of white and yellow topped stupas ..... here are some pictures. Oh and Tashi Delek!