Pictures being worth 1000 words, here are some images of the day. Suffice to say, it was a beautiful and moving event. As well as the locals, a number of Chenrezig nuns were present and other students had gathered from around New Zealand and Australia.

The altars looked beautiful...

Phillipa sourced beautiful auspicious symbols etc from Singapore.

(Left) body, speech and mind offerings — the Amitayus statue has the most beautiful face. (Right) a very impressive dharmachakra.

Another outstanding tsog cake lovingly crafted by Tenzin, which required two strapping men to offer!

Chandrakirti Centre is co-directed by Phllipa Rutherford and Bruce "Dharma King" Farley. Here's Phillipa waiting to offer the requesting mandala and Bruce tricked up as the "old man" who traditionally makes an appearance. Bruce's spirited performance raised lots of laughs (not least from Geshe-la). His knapsack was a bit like a magic Santa's sack; he just kept pulling more and more presents out. These included a woolly sheep and a kiwi that squawks when you press it. We love you Bruce!

No frangipani flowers this far south of the equator, but no problem: these garlands of fresh carnations looked beautiful. The gompa was overflowing with fresh flowers, lovingly arranged by Chonyi.

Bruce leads Geshe-la up a rose petal-strewn path. (That's the prayer wheel house in the background.)

Tsewang (right) did another superb job as umze (chant leader). Tshering (left) was vajra master and kept us all in line.

And the throne was even more beautiful once Geshe-la arrived ...

I'm sorry there aren't more photos of the actual puja, but once we were underway I was trying to be a good nun and concentrate on the prayers. I'm also sorry that this page is a bit rough, but it's late at night before I fly out of NZ and I figure those of you who really want to see these will tolerate my lack of skill in hand-coding. If you email me encouragement, I'll upload more pics or upgrade this page! — Lozang Sonam

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