Meet Our Little Avian Friends
Tsem Ladrang aviary
I have from time to time gone shopping with my friends and students and because I have a soft spot in my heart for all animals, I have many times returned home with more than a few friends of the feathered kind.
Currently the Tsem Ladrang Aviary has 35 birds adopted from a less-than-exciting life stuck in the back of shops or not well cared for. The latest to be brought to our aviary is a trio of “albino cockatiels” and an “African Grey” Parrot aka “Aki” aka ”Old Man” due to him being 45 yrs old.
The small birds are kept separate from the big birds in neighbouring aviaries,and everyone is given fresh food and water daily. I love it that all these neglected birds can get proper care and lots of food, entertainment and love while they are with us in our aviary. I have Dharma music playing continuously daily so they can get blessings, they love it too!
Tsem Rinpoche
Or view the video on the server at:
http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/MeetOurLittleFriends.flv
Album played daily in the Tsem Ladrang Aviary as I want the birds to be blessed and plant the seeds of Dharma in their mindstreams:
Rain of Blessings: Vajra Chants
http://www.amazon.com/Rain-Blessings-Chants-Lama-Gyurme/dp/B001DPC41E/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_2
This is Drolkar, a quiet female cockatoo who was brought home from a dark corner of a petshop. She is very independent and we thought she should have a boyfriend so along came Dechog, the best of 2 suitors whom she dated
Dechog is a boisterous active male cockatoo who is friendly to humans, and doesn't mind being touched
Aki, our latest addition is really old, tame, slow, yet gentle. He doesn't bite, even though he tries to. He just isn't vicious at all...
6 sun conures, loud, obnoxious, and very territorial. They will bite...be warned!
Also in our aviary are 18 cockatiels, 3 Malaysian parrots, 2 sparrows, 2 canaries and 1 pigeon
Malaysian parrot (on the left) with a cockatiel just taking it easy
Shaking a leg together
I never thought much about birds until I met Rinpoche. When we started our first aviary in the old ladrang in a terrace house, Rinpoche used to ask all of us to take turns to wash the aviary and look after them. From then on, I started to like them as each individual birds now in the aviary has their own characteristic. It is very nice to sit down at our Ladrang garden and watch them.
The Ladrang’s aviary is a joy to visit. The poor birds were cooped up in the pet shop cages. The owner of OLD MAN couldn’t keep him in his house. So he was left in a pet shop as well. All these birds were rescued by Rinpoche. Unfortunately, they can’t be released in the wild because they are too friendly to human.
The Ladrang team cleans the aviary and replenishes the food daily. They look so much happier. The cockatiels even gave birth to some babies. They are very cute!
We have teenage volunteers who love to clean the aviary during their school holidays. What a great way to instill care and responsibility in their minds when they are still young. There are so many benefits of maintaining the aviary.
Ladrang has a beautiful aviary with all kinds of birds. I remembered when I first visited Ladrang. I was asking some people wouldn’t it be bad for the birds to poo on to the Buddha statue? And I was told that a Buddha is a Buddha, he doesn’t mind and wouldn’t it be great for the birds to create a karma, a good seed planted by seeing the Buddha statue, touch and listening to mantra everyday? So they will have a good rebirth and meet the dharma very soon. I just thought what a meaningful way to benefit the birds.
That was a precious teaching, since then i know if pay a little attention to animals we can make a difference. How we plant a seed in their mind stream really matters. we can help them besides taking care of them, feed them and play with them. We actually had the power to bless them!
May all animals have good rebirth in lives to come and become powerful dharma teachers!
I got the chance to clean the aviary with my Dharma brother Justin few times. And the bird are very cute, each of them have their own different characters. It trained me to be more sensitive with animals as they can’t talk whether they are hungry, sick or happy.
Music either mantra or music by Mozart will be played 27-7 for the birds. While cleaning we will recite Mantra either Tara, Manjushri, Medicine Buddha to plant seeds in their mind stream, in future they will be get connect with Dharma.
The aviary in the ladrang is very well maintain by the ladrang team. Well maintain here not only means clean but maintain with care and love.
Rinpoche always love animal, all kind of different animals, and Rinpoche’s way of taking care is totally different from us.
I always have the thinking of taking care of animal means just feed, wash and play with them. But Rinpoche not only makes sure they are ok this lifetime but also future lifetime, that’s why the speaker with 24 hrs mantra playing and Buddha statue are all around the aviary, this is to plant seeds in their mind, and in the future even if they died, they will bring something go together.
We pray for the birds will not be separate with Buddha’s teaching from this life time to future life time.
Thanks
i love birds since i saw them when i was a child because my father had some of them at home, i used to feed food and give water to them daily, i liked when they sung and when i sing with them and they responsed.
In that time i didn’t know that there are many things to do to show our real love and to help them for their future life and thought what i did is the best. Now i have no more birds but i learnt from Rinpoche how to treat all animal by recite mantra loud enough for them to hear and blow on them which will help plant the seed in their mind and we dedicate for them to be born as a Dharma teacher in their future life.