I am at Kya-Nying Shedrup Ling, a huge white monastery in Boudha. Listening to Chokyi Gyatso, Rinpoche, give a talk. He says, “With such a small gesture, you can ‘make’ someone angry. What is the gesture to ‘make’ someone compassionate?”

Rinpoche sometimes speaks English, sometimes Tibetan with someone translating for him. At the end of the talk he says he won't be here for the next couple of weeks: I was looking forward to hearing more of his Saturday talks, but am now determined to find out more about this place, and perhaps take classes. As well as being a home to many monks, it is a school of Buddhist philosophy and Himalayan language. A friend’s sister, far away, wrote me an email telling me about it, otherwise I would never have known to come look for it.