Impending Hailstorm

I am a 30-year-old woman with a husband and four children. My husband was severely injured while climbing a nearby mountain in the Himalayas thus I have to support our family by building houses. I have always lived in this village on the Tibetan Plateau and have done very little traveling. My husband also comes from this village and we have known each other since we were children. My father was a builder and taught me in his traditional style of building wooden houses. I still have faith in my parent’s religious beliefs but I do not have a lot of time or extra money to practice. Buddhist practices are central to life in this village. Although I do not strongly believe in black magic and amulets, it is hard to escape their influence. My friends and family speak often of these ideas which they fully believe. My parents also live in this village nearby to my house. They take care of my children while I am working and my husband is resting.

I build houses from wood for the people of our village. This job keeps me very busy as children are always moving out of their parent’s houses and often houses get damaged from storms. When I do have spare time I study art and ritual practices in order to expand my building knowledge to religious buildings as well. Building temples is profitable and earns a lot of merit and I wish to be skilled in the ways of building them. Art is useful in building temples because the walls must be decorated with murals. Our lives on the Tibetan Plateau are plagued by rain and monsoons so there is always a lot of work for builders to repair damaged roofs and houses. I live in a house in the village and I have a small building shed next to my house where I store my tools and work on smaller projects.

I have heard rumors of an upcoming hailstorm. Usually I do not have time for such gossip but it is the season for hailstorms and they are extremely destructive to our village. In preparation for the storm I have reinforced my roof and walls and covered the windows of my house to minimize damage. I have also built a small shelter on my land to store some extra crops, which I have bought from the farmers. Hailstorms damage the crops severely and if we do end up getting this storm it will be advantageous to have extra food for my family. Once this hailstorm passes I will be extremely busy rebuilding houses and other buildings and fixing broken windows or doors. I am attempting to finish up all of my ongoing projects so there are no open houses when this storm comes. Everyone must have a roof over there head if huge hailstones are falling.

My mother advised me to buy a protective amulet to wear to protect myself and my family from the hailstorm. She told me the amulet would be effective protection against the storm so I have purchased one. I know that people will make fake amulets to sell to pilgrims and other uninformed villagers, I have heard of this happening before. I spoke with some villagers to find the best place to purchase an amulet. I went to Deer Park, a day’s walk from my home to purchase them from a lama. I went to a lama and he empowered the amulet then bound it in cloth and showed me how to wear it on my person. I must wear this amulet always, or at least until we are sure of the hailstorm passing. The amulet is made of yak bone and two kinds of metal. Because of the severity of the possible hailstorm I have purchased this amulet when normally I would not. I do not fully believe they will work but I would not take the risk to not buy them.

Some people are saying that the storm is the result of black magic from another villager or that a villager has upset the local spirits. Generally I do not believe this kind of gossip surrounding black magic because it often turns out to be untrue. This hailstorm has got me very worried because they are not uncommon in this part of the world and this storm is rumored to be incredibly large. I have been speaking with other builders in the village and we are all worried about the huge volume of work that we will have to complete if this storm does happen. The hail is rumored to be as large as a grapefruit! I do not know if this is possible but certainly it will be quite big.