Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche’s Extraordinary Tour Challenges

1. Financial challenges

Obviously, the cost of air tickets for Rinpoche and his assisting khenpos, lamas, and monks is much higher, which cost places a burden upon the student participants, and demands fundraising even before Rinpoche arrives.  Roughly itemized travel expenses are outlined below; expenses incurred at teaching locations tend to be covered by teaching program revenue or by individual student offerings.

2. Visa challenges

Obtaining visas requires travel to New Delhi, staying in a hotel, standing in sidewalk queues outside embassies, facing interviews, waiting for decisions and possibly second interviews—for each visa required for Rinpoche and each of his assistants. This is a time-consuming, enervating, and expensive process Rinpoche always must consider when he is invited to teach in North America. On the contrary, visas for Asian countries are easy to obtain, as are most European visas.  The United States visa has always been the most challenging, and this process is becoming only more onerous.

3. Physical challenges

Jet lag is always an issue for those travelling from the far east to North America.  We tend to allow Rinpoche and his entourage only a short time to recover—one day, maybe two—before a grueling schedule of non-stop teaching.  Rinpoche is older now and cannot maintain the same schedule as that of former years, jet lag notwithstanding.  He requires more rest days.  The catch is that only through teaching programs can the funds be raised to cover the high costs associated with his tour, which are computed on a per-day basis.