A family breakfast

An excerpt from
Dragon Thunder

by Lady Diana J Mukpo,
with Carolyn Rose Gimian

In this brief passage from Dragon Thunder, Lady Diana describes a period of time in the early 1980s when court life was more accommodating to the needs of the growing Mukpo family. These photographs were taken during the family breakfast that Lady Diana mentions below, and this is the table that Rinpoche set the evening before. Clockwise around the table are Trungpa Rinpoche, Lady Diana, Ashoka, Taggie, and Gesar.

From DRAGON THUNDER: MY LIFE WITH CHOGYAM TRUNGPA by Diana J. Mukpo with Carolyn Rose Gimian. © 2006 by Diana J. Mukpo and Carolyn R. Gimian. Used here by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc.

After we came back to Boulder from our little holiday, I had a wonderful time being at the Court with Rinpoche. I was actually becoming used to daily life there. I would meet once a week with the head cook, Shari Vogler. Shari had been with us now for a very long time. She and I would design the dinner menu for the week. For a while, we had a buffet breakfast at the Court. Rinpoche was feeling healthy and energized, and we had a little more semblance of family life than usual. The buffet would be set up in the blue room for the family, and we'd often have dinner there too. We had wonderful meals there, real family gatherings. Osel and Gesar were both living in the house, and we would all get together for meals. I remember that once Rinpoche set the table for breakfast himself. He even put English toast racks on the table.

Photographs by Walter Fordham