Photo Album: America – Where I grew up…
Mar 8, 2010 | Views: 1,745
In 1972, when I was seven years old, I left Taiwan for America. My birth mother and grandmother arranged for me to be adopted by a Mongolian couple, Boris (Burcha) and Dana Bugayeff in Howell, New Jersey. The Bugayeffs adopted me because they did not have a son. Like most Asian parents, it was their wish to have a son that would grow up, get a good education, get married and carry on their family name. This was far different from what I wanted to do with my life…
Howell, New Jersey was home to a large community of Mongolian refugees and it was here that I met my first Guru, the Abbot Emeritus of Sera Mey Monastery, Kensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche at Rashi Gempil Ling (RGL), a Mongolian Buddhist temple ten minutes away from my foster parents’ home.
These are photos of my time growing up in New Jersey (and later in Los Angeles) until October 1987 when I left America to go to India.
Pictures like this brings back bittersweet memories of home
I look happy here but deep down inside I am very unhappy because I am not allowed to practice the ...
My foster father and I have a distant but cordial relationship while I was at home
My foster father love costumes and he made me wear them a lot especially to take these pictures
I look good in this cowboy outfit but I am really no good with the guns
You just have to imagine that I am about to cycle onto a big ship that is about to set ...
I love to play the part of the red indian during my childhood games
In 1978 Christmas was spent mostly with cousins and family
Since running away many years ago, I spend Christmas or any other holidays alone
My whole family loves the banquets my mum cooks up. She was really famous for her great cooking
I was really the class clown that made everybody laugh and I think I was trying to crack a joke ...
I remember all the excitement of opening the presents on Christmas day
My cousins just love all the gifts they received but I would continue to wish for a chance to receive ...
Christmas gifts were lavish back then
This is me and my neighbourhood friend. Used to play a lot
We would make big snowmen as it would snow a lot in New Jersey
Fancy me as a KGB spy
Don't I look cute as a red Indian?
In 1972, I left Taiwan for America. My birth mother and grandmother arranged for me to be adopted by a ...
My new foster father in America, Boris (Burcha) Bugayeff, came from Russia. I was named after him and became known ...
My new foster mother in America, Dana Bugayeff, was a refugee from Belgrade. She threw the best parties and was ...
This is a black and white picture of my step-parents Boris and Dana Bugayeff when they first came to the ...
My foster parents were very well dressed and they expected me to do the same.
This is the residence of the Bugayeffs. It was also my home in Howell, New Jersey while I was growing ...
I was enrolled into Land O'Pines Elementary School where I studied for the next 8 years. I really loved art ...
I love animals. Growing up I had 13 cockatiels, fishes, hamsters, dogs, turtles and my dog, Princey.
This is my dog, Princey that I loved very much. He was sadly run over by a car. I've miss ...
Growing up, I was made to do a lot of chores...I thought it was normal but found out that none ...
My foster parents Boris and Dana with my grandmother. Whenever my grandmother came to visit me, my step-parents would always ...
My step parents outside the zoo. They were always very generous with me and bought me anything I wanted. I ...
Despite the happy public appearance, I was deeply unhappy with the abuse. However, it was my parents continuous disapproval of ...
Despite the abuse, I love my step mom...she is not an evil person. Deep in her heart, she is a ...
I met my first Guru, the Abbot Emeritus of Sera Mey Monastery and a master of the Vajrayogini Tantra, Kensur ...
I received my first initiation from Kensur Rinpoche after making many requests and overcoming many obstacles to receive Vajrayogini's initiation. ...
When I was very young, I would visualize myself as a high Lama giving teachings to many...or I would be ...
I would spontaneously draw pictures of Buddhist deities and pass them out to my relatives and friends for protection. This ...
Whenever I got the chance, I would cycle 2-3 hours with my childhood friend Marc Reed to Turkey Swamp. I ...
This picture was taken at our family home in New Jersey and I am with my cousins. Sarah, Sonia Waskin, ...
This photo is of the DP sisters and I. I am holding adorable Danielle, behind me is Darlene, Diana is ...
At the airport with Diane and Debbie
With Darlene and Diane, two of the Polchinoff sisters at the airport. This is the last time I saw them ...
This is my cousin Susan Carton. She used to babysit me as a child and take me for games, rides, ...
A collection of all the portraits in our 3rd Grade photo. Next to me is Dawn, the USA bio team ...
This was my first grade photo. My mother dressed me up real nice for the photo but I went out ...
A collection of all the portraits in our 4th Grade photo. I have not seen most of my classmates since ...
My 3rd grade class photo. Its not surprising that I got teased a lot for my school outfits
A collection of all the portraits in our 2nd Grade photo. As you can see, there were very few Asians ...
I was the only kid in school who had to wear these full suits with a shirt and tie. The ...
A class photo in 5th Grade with our grade teacher Miss Schaffren. I still remember her now. She was a ...
My parents had interesting ideas about how I should be dress for the official class photo each year
All the other kids got to wear jeans and normal clothes that all American kids wear. They all thought I ...
My 8th grade class photo with our teacher, Mr Spinelli.
My 8th grade school photo. Little did I know that I would soon have run away from home to Los ...
Looks like summertime! This was taken at the front of the house, with my dog Hulter lying in the sun.
Soccer was a big deal among the Mongolian community. My dad insisted that I join the soccer team because he ...
When I played soccer, they put me as a goalie at first because I was tall, but I let all ...
This was when I was probably in 1st Grade, around 6 or 7 years old. My parents took this photo ...
My father would ensure our family car was never too old and we would have a new car every few ...
I used to ride my bike a lot, especially when I could get out of the house.
I would ride all over the neighbourhood with my friends and cousins, and we'd play for hours together on the ...
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