Tsa-Tsa (Plaster & Cremation Ashes)

Tibet, 2002

On May 25th, 2000, two months short of his 52nd birthday, my friend Richard Kohn died of complications from bladder cancer. His cremation took place in California, and was witnessed by his wife Marianne and myself.

Rick was a devout Buddhist with a Ph.D. in Tibetan Studies. It is a tradition among Himalayan Buddhists, following a cremation, to mix the remaining ashes and bone fragments with consecrated clay or plaster, and create small devotional reliquaries called tsa-tsa. This one is in the form of a stupa, or shrine.

Tsa-tsa are sacred, but they are not rare. You can buy them on Amazon.

After Rick’s death, Marianne had eight tsa-tsa made. In 2002, I carried one of them on my trek to Mount Kailash, and placed it amid the thousands of prayer flags and other offerings atop Drolma La: at 18,470’, the highest pass on the main kora (pilgrimage route) around the holy mountain.

The tsa-tsa pictured here was given to me by a lama in Nepal. I don’t know whose remains are within. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. It could be any of us. We are all of us kin, molded from the same stellar elements.

But here’s a thought: Almost 20 years to the day after Rick’s death, George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. If George Floyd’s ashes were in this small memorial, where might it best be placed?

If you have an answer, please let me send this to you.