Aside from the wispy sounds on a windy Saturday at Geiser-Pollman Park, Karma Namgyel Rinpoche fills the air with the chants of a 2,000-year-old Buddhist blessing as he beats a handheld ritual drum.

About 20 people gather in a semicircle around the shrine that the Buddhist monk sits beside all of them observing with quiet intensity.

A few are joined by their pets, some more attentive than others. But they all have one thing in common: The animals have been brought to be blessed by Rinpoche.

“The animals cannot say what they need,” Rinpoche said. “So many people are close to them and feel like they’re very important … We cannot forget the animals.”

Rinpoche began his tour of Baker City on July 5. Though this is his fifth visit to the town, Saturday marks the first time he has performed an animal blessing in the area.

He performs his rhythmic blessing, which marks the start of the midday ceremony, for several minutes.

As he reads and recites Eastern scrolls, Danna Selby, his assistant, walks around the audience carrying two small sticks that give off a small trace of incense, called rio sangchoe.

Selby later said that the scent contains around 300 ingredients straight from Thimphu in Bhutan, Rinpoche’s home country in the eastern Himalayas.

“It gives healing to the environment,” Selby said. “If people are stressed, and they smell this, they feel better.”

The animals are no exception as Selby waves the incense in front of them. Some of the dogs focus on and follow her graceful hand movements with their eyes and heads. Others shy away from the new smell.

Though the majority of the animals brought to receive Rinpoche’s blessing are dogs, there is one exception.

As the dog owners keep watch of the pooches secured to their leashes, Sandy Ford is clutching Ortega, her two-year-old rooster, closely to her chest. Although Ortega is calm for the moment, that isn’t always the case.

“He has kind of a little attitude,” Ford said. “He likes to attack me.”

Ford raised Ortega from birth along with her five hens, who are well-behaved. Though she has owned many cats and dogs, Ford said she wanted to try something different for a while.

After Rinpoche finishes his initial ritual, Ford gets in line with the rest of the pet owners to have Ortega meet Rinpoche individually.

After a few dogs are blessed in front of her, Ford presents Ortega to Rinpoche.

He pours a small amount of water on the calm rooster from the slim neck of a bumpa, a wide treasure vase used in Tibetan Buddhist rituals as a vessel for empowerment.

Selby compared the experience to a practical example.

“You know when you take a bath or shower — how much better you feel?” Selby asked. “It’s cleaning your energy field.”

For the second part of the blessing, Rinpoche lightly touches Ortega with a phurba, a silver casing that contains a dagger artifact. That part of the ceremony is meant to promote stability for the animal.

See more in the July 11, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.