The first full day at Sarah opened with a hearty breakfast at 8:30am. Students were tired after traveling for so long, but arrived and ate. There was oatmeal with cashews, banana and apple fruit salad, pancakes with honey and peanut butter, and hard-boiled eggs. At 9:30am we all attended a brief orientation conducted by acting Principal of Sarah, Passang-La. He briefly described the history of the Institute, its purpose, student base, and founder, the venerable late Lobsang Gyatso.

After introducing our new living space Passang-La formalized a very basic set of rules by which we are all to abide by while living at Sarah: No drugs, no alcohol, no boys in the girls dorms, and no girls in the boys dorms. Straightforward and easy to understand.

The large concrete guesthouse resembles a dormitory more so than one might think from its name. It stands three stories tall, and stretches long enough to allow for six dorm rooms, and one special room on the far end of each floor. The dining hall sits on the ground floor, special purpose room on the second floor, and library/classroom on the third, each situated directly above or below the other two. The stairway continues to a roof access door, where students can dry laundry, relax to the view of the Himalayas after class, or stargaze at night. Not a bad break room.

After the brief orientation we were directed to a tea party in the lawn, across from the temple on campus. Students and faculty conversed over delicious chai and snacks, which were given as yet another friendly gesture of welcome to us all. Geshe-La Kelsang Damdul, the foremost contact for the Tibetan Studies Program, one of its program directors, and extremely well-learned lama, said a few words about his delight for the program and gave assurances for a good six weeks to come. We all refer to him as Geshe-La. It is a formal term equivalent to calling someone "doctor" who holds a PhD. A Geshe degree is earned after a rigorous program, which for Geshe-La lasted twelve years.

Afterwards Passang-La led a tour of the Sarah campus, beginning at the temple. Tibetan monks were receiving a teaching as we tip-toed past to view scriptures stored in beautiful colored wraps in the front, behind the altar of the Buddha. Many butter lamps lined the raised space at the front of the temple as well. The Buddha himself sits at over five feet tall, and offering of cookies and crackers lie at his side.

Passang-La also showed us the location of the library, which includes sections of both English and Tibetan books. Every year we make donations every year by buying our own books to give them in Mcleod. From the library we took the stairs to the roof. Passang-La pointed out both the girls and the boys dorms, and then allowed students to explore at their leisure. The rest of the afternoon we had free time to prepare for the official welcome reception at 7:00pm.

The students were then told that they were going to have the chance to perform a special song or dance for the Tibetans during the reception event. They were startled at the sudden glare of the spotlight, but resolved to put on a good show. They put theit heads together to come up with something worthy. With such a limited time frame, and equally as limited resources it was difficult at first to figure out what to do. In the end they decided to perform Miami’s fight song along with a re-written version about the Sarah Institute to honor them and show gratitude for being able to study amongst the students and faculty here. Other musicians in the group prepared two songs, one a duet, and one a group piece. Everyone practiced hard to be ready, as we knew that the Tibetans were preparing a show of their own, but we had no idea how amazing it would be.

The stage was set on the basketball court. A huge Tibetan national flag was hung across one of the hoops. It was at least twelve feet long and nearly reached the ground. Four spotlights lit up the width of the court from a few feet shy of the half-court line, all directed towards the shining flag. The light and sound table, off to the side, were manned by four Tibetans who were talking intensely, making small adjustments to their equipment, and doing sounds tests on the two center stage microphones on stands. There were at least one hundred and fifty chairs neatly set in rows. Half were red and half were white, split down the middle. At the front row several miniature coffee tables were set out at the base of the chairs, and a larger one spanned the front of the three chairs that sat directly in the front middle, which were reserved for perhaps the most honored guest staying among us: a nine-year-old rinpoche, or reincarnated master.

This particular child is so special because all of the signs that were followed by Tibetan masters pointed to him as the reincarnation of the founder of the Sarah Institute, or the venerable late Lobsang Gyatso, who was killed in the late 1990s by assailants of an opposing religious faction. I hesitate to write anymore about the details surrounding the circumstances of his death, because this issue is very sensitive, and is not one that I have learned enough about to publish here. What is important is that according to traditional Buddhist philosophy his soul was reincarnated as a human boy, was found by high-ranking members of the religion, and that he is now staying amongst us at the very place he created to preserve Tibetan language and culture. Amazing!

Following a warmly delivered welcome by Geshe-La we were blessed with the magnificence that was a Tibetan dance troupe. The opening act. These six guys, dressed in sneaks, jeans, white dress shirts, black coats, and fedoras, knocked our socks off with a dance to the tune of "this is your first time in India?", which to our delight was a bumpy techno rap with a catchy melody. Currently working on getting it up on Youtube, but because of the low Internet speed on campus I'll have to wait until we can make a trip into Mcleod Ganj. There should be a good Internet connection at a cafe there.

The rest of the event consisted of well-practiced cultural performances from many of the students at Sarah. Various regions of Tibet were represented through both dance and song, and the MC never missed the chance to slip in a joke or sly comment in between acts. The costumes were so well done they seemed authentic and historical. Three-stringed Tibetan drayuns, yak-fir boots and coats, beautiful flowing sari's for the women all showed well how rich of a cultural heritage Tibet has, and they were a harsh reminder as to what could be lost if Tibetan culture disappears. These reminders of history meshed in a strangely fascinating way with the ultra-modern in-your-face opening act we witnessed.

The Miami performance was done well considering the short amount of time the students had to prepare. The fight song went off without a hitch, and Tibetans clapped along during portions of it. The Sarah remix was celebrated with applause, and the musical encores, songs "Rise" by Eddie Vedder, and American traditional "You are my Sunshine" were also appreciated. The whole night was a great success and we all left the stage feeling good, and hopefully ready for day two!