Photo Album: America – Where I grew up…
In 1972, when I was seven years old, I left Taiwan for America. My birth mother and grandmother arranged for me to be adopted by a Mongolian couple, Boris (Burcha) and Dana Bugayeff in Howell, New Jersey. The Bugayeffs adopted me because they did not have a son. Like most Asian parents, it was their wish to have a son that would grow up, get a good education, get married and carry on their family name. This was far different from what I wanted to do with my life…
Howell, New Jersey was home to a large community of Mongolian refugees and it was here that I met my first Guru, the Abbot Emeritus of Sera Mey Monastery, Kensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche at Rashi Gempil Ling (RGL), a Mongolian Buddhist temple ten minutes away from my foster parents’ home.
These are photos of my time growing up in New Jersey (and later in Los Angeles) until October 1987 when I left America to go to India.
My foster father love costumes and he made me wear them a lot especially to take these pictures
I look happy here but deep down inside I am very unhappy because I am not allowed to practice the ...
I look good in this cowboy outfit but I am really no good with the guns
My foster father and I have a distant but cordial relationship while I was at home
Pictures like this brings back bittersweet memories of home
You just have to imagine that I am about to cycle onto a big ship that is about to set ...
I love to play the part of the red indian during my childhood games
In 1978 Christmas was spent mostly with cousins and family
Since running away many years ago, I spend Christmas or any other holidays alone
My whole family loves the banquets my mum cooks up. She was really famous for her great cooking
I was really the class clown that made everybody laugh and I think I was trying to crack a joke ...
I remember all the excitement of opening the presents on Christmas day
My cousins just love all the gifts they received but I would continue to wish for a chance to receive ...
Christmas gifts were lavish back then
This is me and my neighbourhood friend. Used to play a lot
We would make big snowmen as it would snow a lot in New Jersey
Don't I look cute as a red Indian?
Fancy me as a KGB spy
In 1972, I left Taiwan for America. My birth mother and grandmother arranged for me to be adopted by a ...
My new foster father in America, Boris Burcha Bugayeff, came from Russia. I was named after him and became known ...
My new foster mother in America, Dana Bugayeff, was a refugee from Belgrade. She threw the best parties and was ...
This is a black and white picture of my step-parents Boris and Dana Bugayeff when they first came to the ...
My foster parents were very well dressed and they expected me to do the same.
This is the residence of the Bugayeffs. It was also my home in Howell, New Jersey while I was growing ...
I was enrolled into Land O'Pines Elementary School where I studied for the next 8 years. I really loved art ...
I love animals. Growing up I had 13 cockatiels, fishes, hamsters, dogs, turtles and my dog, Princey.
This is my dog, Princey that I loved very much. He was sadly run over by a car. I've miss ...
Growing up, I was made to do a lot of chores...I thought it was normal but found out that none ...
My foster parents Boris and Dana with my grandmother. Whenever my grandmother came to visit me, my step-parents would always ...
My step parents outside the zoo. They were always very generous with me and bought me anything I wanted. I ...
Despite the happy public appearance, I was deeply unhappy with the abuse. However, it was my parents continuous disapproval of ...
Despite the abuse, I love my step mom...she is not an evil person. Deep in her heart, she is a ...
I met my first Guru, the Abbot Emeritus of Sera Mey Monastery and a master of the Vajrayogini Tantra, Kensur ...
I received my first initiation from Kensur Rinpoche after making many requests and overcoming many obstacles to receive Vajrayogini's initiation. ...
When I was very young, I would visualize myself as a high Lama giving teachings to many...or I would be ...
I would spontaneously draw pictures of Buddhist deities and pass them out to my relatives and friends for protection. This ...
Whenever I got the chance, I would cycle 2-3 hours with my childhood friend Marc Reed to Turkey Swamp. I ...
This picture was taken at our family home in New Jersey and I am with my cousins. Sarah, Sonia Waskin, ...
This photo is of the DP sisters and I. I am holding adorable Danielle, behind me is Darlene, Diana is ...
At the airport with Diane and Debbie
With Darlene and Diane, two of the Polchinoff sisters at the airport. This is the last time I saw them ...
This is my cousin Susan Carton. She used to babysit me as a child and take me for games, rides, ...
A collection of all the portraits in our 3rd Grade photo. Next to me is Dawn, the USA bio team ...
This was my first grade photo. My mother dressed me up real nice for the photo but I went out ...
A collection of all the portraits in our 4th Grade photo. I have not seen most of my classmates since ...
My 3rd grade class photo. Its not surprising that I got teased a lot for my school outfits
A collection of all the portraits in our 2nd Grade photo. As you can see, there were very few Asians ...
I was the only kid in school who had to wear these full suits with a shirt and tie. The ...
A class photo in 5th Grade with our grade teacher Miss Schaffren. I still remember her now. She was a ...
My parents had interesting ideas about how I should be dress for the official class photo each year
All the other kids got to wear jeans and normal clothes that all American kids wear. They all thought I ...
My 8th grade class photo with our teacher, Mr Spinelli.
My 8th grade school photo. Little did I know that I would soon have run away from home to Los ...
Looks like summertime! This was taken at the front of the house, with my dog Hulter lying in the sun.
Soccer was a big deal among the Mongolian community. My dad insisted that I join the soccer team because he ...
When I played soccer, they put me as a goalie at first because I was tall, but I let all ...
This was when I was probably in 1st Grade, around 6 or 7 years old. My parents took this photo ...
My father would ensure our family car was never too old and we would have a new car every few ...
I used to ride my bike a lot, especially when I could get out of the house.
I would ride all over the neighbourhood with my friends and cousins, and we'd play for hours together on the ...
As a child I loved all animals, and I still do to this day
The school bus that took us to Land O'Pines Elementary school. It would pick us up right outside my house.
I dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween once. I am photographed here with my foster father, Boris Bugayeff.
I really liked this cowboy outfit
A photo taken in my family home. As usual, I was dressed up in one of these suits.
My foster parents always wanted me to look very proper and well dressed, so even for social events, I had ...
Another Halloween outfit. This time, I was an American Indian
I'm here with my cousins (from my mother's side) Zeren, Sara and Naran.
My mother the Princess at a party in New Jersey. My foster parents were well-known for throwing parties that everyone ...
Everyone wanted to come to our parties because my mother's food was so good and they loved the parties!
Light sabres were all the rage back then! Star Wars had just come out and it was so cool!
Christmas one year. Even though we were Buddhists, my mother would always put up a tree.
I used to sneak downstairs on Christmas eve to open all my presents. I used to be so good at ...
My father would force me to wear these traditional Mongolian hats which were made of lambskin.
Another of the colour-coordinate suits that I was made to wear
It would snow like crazy in Howell so when I was allowed to go out and play with friends, we'd ...
Dana, my foster mother, LOVED throwing huge parties in our huge backyard for many, many people.
This would have been a typical party that my family would throw, usually for people from the Mongolian community or ...
I also got many birthday parties, which my mother would organise in the backyard. All my cousins and the kids ...
The kids always liked to come over to our house to play because we had this huge backyard and my ...
We would also have parties inside the house, in the dining room. Everything was very proper in our house and ...
I loved Halloween, dressing up and going trick or treating. My cousin Susie would help to make my costumes and ...
With my foster parents and relatives. Furthest left is my cousin Gaga Toktun who we all loved very much but ...
That is me in the orange shirt with my parents and friends. Before us is the remnants of a typical ...
The Kalmyks were a very closely-knit community so we would always have a lot of social gatherings. The kids would ...
I always loved animals. This is Princey and I loved him so much.
Another birthday party at home. In this photo, I am 13.
This is me with my foster sister Lidshma. I didn't know her that well because she left home shortly after ...
On holiday with my mother. I was closer to her than to my father.
I have always liked American Indians. In their folklore, they have foretold the coming of Tibetan Buddhism to the West
Despite the abuse and scoldings, I was always smiling still
On a family trip with my mother (next to me) and some friends.
Me with my cousin Susie Carton and Audrey, who I used to call Orange Juice So glamorous and dressed up, ...
My cousin Sara Andreyev on the left, with Sonia Waskin. Sara has always been very kind to me. She has ...
Marc Reed and his first car. Marc was one of my friends from Land O Pines elementary school. We went ...
Things remained difficult at home despite the cheery outward appearances
I just got this photo from Susie's facebook. This is me and my beloved cousin Susie on the left with ...
Aunt Meda showed this picture of me playing with my cousins Sara and Kaminsky Andreyev. I had a black wig ...