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Published: December 24th 2007
The title isn't as random as it seems. Wait for it...
I briefly touched on this back in my first Nepal entry...but to revisit...I wanted to stop somewhere in this journey of mine for a while to volunteer and what I came up with was an opportunity to teach English at a Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu. I have to confess...knowing that it's hard to accomplish much in a month, the motivation was largely selfish as I simply thought it would be cool to spend a month in that environment. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend a month living with a bunch of dudes who wear maroon dresses?
The following is my best attempt of condensing one month of teaching, monastery living, orphans, and general Kathmandu-ness into 3000 words or less. Based on past performance, I'm skeptical that I'll come in under target (warning...I didn't). And once again I feel at a complete loss of how to share this month with whoever you may be. There are just too many head-spinning experiences and moments.
Attempted Disclaimer I think I've had sufficient exposure to various religious traditions in my lifetime to recognize that often there are explanations and reasoning
for what may otherwise look silly and/or meaningless to an outsider. So I'll go ahead and make my disclaimer now...despite a month living with monks, much of my understanding and knowledge of their rituals, symbols, etc is sketchy at best. This is due in part to language barriers and in part to me being overwhelmed with information and losing track at times. So forgive me if you detect any factual errors. I mean no offense to any Buddhist readers if I'm off base at all on anything said below about the Buddhist religion. Anything potentially offensive is a result of either my ignorance or just an attempt at being humorous. After all, I don't really mean to cause you suffering - I'm just seeking happiness. (that's my first attempt at Buddhist humor. if you don't get it...never mind...it's not that funny) And for anyone who knows even less than me and anything I describe below sounds silly...just remember that there's probably an explanation behind it that I'm unable to properly convey.
Welcome to Osel Ling Monastery (and all the noises that come with it) Kathmandu is a place filled with noise, dust, and the hustle-n-bustle of Nepali city life.
Thankfully there are some places that can be a sanctuary from the craziness. Osel Ling Monastery is one of them. In this peaceful setting located 150m-200m up a hill on the outskirts of Kathmandu, one can forget about everything below. This sense of being removed from it all is occasionally betrayed by the sound of a bus/truck horn bullying its way through traffic, but in general I could feel like I was in a different world.
Quick semi-out-of-place note: There are various schools of Buddhist thought - not unlike many Western religions have. There seem to be an unlimited combination of ways to observe Buddhism and one appears to have a lot of freedom in choosing which tenets to hold. For example...Buddhists don't believe in killing and "technically" should be vegetarian. But it doesn't seem to be too strict because they can eat meat if it's given to them. Another example...monks in one tradition can't marry, own things, etc. But in another tradition they can. The list goes on. And the differences aren't necessarily regional - people within the same family can observe differently.
I haven't exact numbers, but Osel Ling is home to 60-80 monks - most
Monks During Puja
The first photo I took at the monastery my first night.of whom are under 25 and are either from Tibet or Nepal. The monastery is owned by Rinpoche Tsoknyi - who was recognized as a reincarnated Lama as a child. (
Right... "Rinpoche" is a title given to someone for one of two reasons. 1) For a particularly high level of scholarship. 2) For being recognized as the reincarnation of a previously deceased Lama.) Referring to the comment above about how people practice in different ways...his brother Mingyur is also a Rinpoche, but lives the traditional monk lifestyle whereas Rinpoche Tsoknyi is married, has kids, etc.
Above I had said that it's quiet and peaceful at the monastery. This is indeed true...unless it's Puja time.
Alright Stop, Puja Time "What's Puja" you ask? It's basically a type of worship event in the Buddhist world. Not worshiping
God because they don't believe in God in the supreme being sense. When I arrived at Osel Ling they were in the midst of a 10 day Puja event during which the monks spent a lot of time in the temple doing various forms of Buddhist rituals. From my understanding, the focus on this whole ceremony was on the deity of long life
Playing Various Horns
Shell style in foreground...Kenny-G style in back. - Amitayus. "Puja" doesn't just apply to these long sessions as it can also be an hour long session that is part of the regular daily life at the monastery.
As for the actual Puja sessions...various times of the day would be spent chanting mantras, ringing bells, playing various horns, banging on drums...often all at the same time. Apparently at one time a Lama had imagined a particular cacophony of sounds and this is their attempt to recreate it. I also believe the sounds are to awaken the deity in question. The chanting of mantras is to purify their speech and to help form their mind on something positive (whatever the particular mantra is about).
The instruments:
Tingsha - basically a set of hand held cymbals
Long Horn - there's a Tibetan name...but I don't know it. They're long and loud and sound like "Bbbwwaaa....Bbbwwaaaa...."
Shell Horn - well...it's a shell...used as a horn
Drums - both hand held or mounted styles
Bells - hand held and a symbol of wisdom
Some other horn - capable of various notes. Looks like something Kenny-G would play...but fancier
They all have symbolic meanings, but I'd completely botch it if
I tried to explain. In any case, the first time I sat in one one of these sessions my head was spinning from what was going on around me. A room filled with 80 or so monks making all kinds of noises that I didn't understand for an hour was overwhelming. This first session I sat in on also included a dance involving several monks in rather elaborate costumes. The dance and costumes fall into the category of things I completely can't explain...but was interesting to watch.
The Puja music was like bookends to the days. I'd wake each day at 5am to the sound of the gong calling them all to Puja. Then I'd lay in bed listening to the not-so-muted Puja music filling the monastery. After various Puja sessions throughout the day I'd hear them play the long horns and the Kenny-G horns from the roof for a while...which brings me to a story about my musical career...
One night I was wandering around taking photos and noticed two monks carrying the long horns (which collapse telescopically) to the roof. I asked if I could join and they said yes. Apparently this nightly session was done
to announce the presence of the Lamas to the community. I was too timid to ask if I could play a traditional Tibetan religious instrument during a sacred ceremony...but they asked if I wanted to try. Having played trumpet for 11 years of my life I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
The horns are longer than I am tall and have a mouthpiece that makes a tuba mouthpiece look small. Which means (any former brass players will understand best) that your lips do a lot of flapping in order to make the required buzzing sound. In any case, I was having a blast standing on the roof of a monastery while looking over the lights of the entire Kathmandu valley and creating a "bbwwaaa...bbwwaaa..." sound that could be heard by the entire surrounding community. If you can't imagine the sound...watch the first minute of "Seven Years In Tibet"...that's the sound. My lips were worn out and numb after 5 minutes or so and I had to pass the horn to the next monk. Despite the short duration, this certainly is one of the highlights of my musical career...by far outpacing my "Trumpeter's Lullaby" solo disaster (in my perfectionist opinion)
in 8th grade.
"So I Got That Going For Me...Which Is Nice" On the morning of the final day of the Puja I came out of my room to see over a hundred new folks sitting on the ground. I found Kungsang (the grounds keeper who could speak some English) who told me that the Rinpoche was to give a blessing to everyone. So I sat down and waited along with the others while the monks were inside banging and clanging away. After a while a procession of heavily decorated monks came out and made the rounds a couple of times dispensing our Blessing of Long Life along with some blessed candies, dough-balls, and a water/chyyang mix. I did my best to imitate those around me and not look like a complete fool...all the while trying to balance my camera on my knee while it recorded the whole thing on video. Though it's not quite the total consciousness on my deathbed promised to Carl Spackler...it is a blessing of long life. So I got that going for me...which is nice.
After the Puja ended, the monks had a few days for holiday to chill out after their busy
Puja schedule...which meant that my teaching career was to be put further on hold. So speaking of teaching these monks...
"Class...the first word we'll learn is 'chaos'" I had mentioned before that Marie and Romi already had all the classes covered while I was trekking. At the end of Puja, Romi's plan was to leave the monastery to work on some other VIN projects while I took over her classes. This was a fine plan except for the fact that the head teacher - Khenpo (meaning "teacher") - explained that sometime in early December all (or many...or most of...?) the monks were going to India until late December for another Puja. As was pretty much the trend during this whole experience, it was impossible to get solid answers on when they were actually leaving and who was going/staying. Part of the problem is that there are three different calendar systems at play - western, Nepali, and Tibetan. And the rest of the problem...well...I don't know. But scheduling, details, and communication aren't strong points for the guys in charge here.
Despite the impending departure, I got ready for a week of classes while they were around. My A.M. class
was to be the beginners and the P.M. class was only slightly more advanced. Here's how the first week shook out:
Monday AM - 3 monks showed
Monday PM - 0 monks showed. they were apparently at a picnic.
Tues AM - canceled. Every 5 days they have a 1/2-day puja
Tues PM - 5 monks showed
Wed AM - canceled due to UN Volunteer Day
Wed PM - some monks showed...but different than the ones from yesterday
Thur AM - canceled due to picnic
Thur PM - canceled due to picnic
Fri AM - class as planned
Fri PM - class as planned
Yeah, so out of 10 planned class sessions I had 5 actually meet...sorta. The following week was a holiday on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for the Wed departure...though we had been told they were actually leaving on Tuesday. Then once they left it was apparently too much coordination to sort out who was left right away, so we didn't have class at all that week.
Talking to Khenpo on Sunday night we explained that we needed students, so he said he'd send all the mini junior monks to my morning class to learn
My Afternoon Class
Feverishly copying down some nugget of knowledge that I've just bestowed upon them. ABC's because they hadn't been in any classes yet. So Monday morning I'm in the class room expecting a handful of monks to show and we'd just do the alphabet. By 9:05 I had 28 monks sitting in the room (which has 12 desks). Their knowledge ranged from not knowing a thing to being able to carry on a basic conversation. Yikes.
I'll spare you detailed accounts of each class...but I managed to separate the class into AM and PM sessions again. Despite a partially changing roster of students each day (which certainly makes it tough to get anywhere) I've made some progress with the beginners and perhaps a little with the more advanced guys - though I think they've mostly served as translators and assistants rather than students.
So to sum it all up...I didn't expect to make too much impact in the short time planned...but I didn't quite envision the chaos that resulted from Puja & the India trip and I think my impact is minimal at best.
Monastic Life Well...I'm not exactly living a monastic life...but it is a life at a monastery. Sorta close. So what's it like? I guess part of me
expected that all the monks would be perfect little ambassadors of peace and general Buddhist monk-ness. As it turns out...boys will be boys regardless of what they wear and where they live. The little ones basically spend the days doing what boys do...they throw rocks at things...they wrestle each other...and generally screw around. It's mostly humorous...but sometimes seems to get a bit too serious. I'm not sure what the "normal" routine is since I've been here during non-normal schedules. And I don't know if having the older monks around would keep the little ones more in line. But the little ones are generally chaotic little boys. The older ones are pretty cool and eager to learn better english, but our ability to hang out is limited since we can't communicate much.
They invited Marie and me to come along on their picnic that I mentioned above. We piled into a couple of busses...the monks sang songs the whole time...and after 3 hours we got to a riverbed and stopped. We got out and Khempo (yeah...I know I've spelled it two different ways. there isn't a 'correct' way) said "Why do we come here? Osel Ling is better, I think."
In any case, some of the monks hopped in the cold river to swim for a while and the the rest sat down to play cards and gamble. Yeah, that's right...they're gambling monks. And what's worse...they're gambling monks who I lost money to. (Marie and I later learned that not gambling is one of the literally thousands of vows taken...but apparently is a minor one to break). Actually I'm conflicted about losing money to them. On one hand I don't like losing money...but I think I'd feel worse
taking money from monks.
The guy I've spent the most time with is Khempo - whose name is actually Pasang...but he goes by his title of Khempo. He speaks pretty decent English and was interesting to talk to. Marie and I also spent a lot of time helping him organize all his music on iTunes so he could put it on his new 160Gb iPod that someone gave him. It's humorous to sit on the floor of a monk's room and be arranging audio files of teachings by the Dalai Lama to put on a monk's iPod. We also got into some humorous discussions with him about western manners (particularly about
passing gas), whether bacteria are sentient beings, and educating him about western views on various topics such as marriage, homosexuality, sports, politics, etc. Quite a wide range of things, actually.
One day Marie, Khempo, and I were eating lunch in the courtyard as usual and two women walked up to him with a little boy in tow. They talked to Khempo for about 3 minutes and then left. We asked what it was about and he said that the boy was an orphan and the women wanted him to become a monk. We asked what the process was to decide and he said "He will be monk." We laughed and said that was a rather quick interview and then asked when he'd begin. "Tomorrow they will bring him and he'll live here." At least they don't suffer from being bogged down by committee meetings, eh? The boy was they shyest thing I've ever seen during his first day. Since he's been a maroon-clad terror running around the monastery and it quite hilarious to watch at times.
One day I had been out running and when I returned to the monastery I found many of the monks in the
Dough Balls...
...apparently blessed with long life. I'm not really sure. Fairly bland tasting, though. front yard watching what appeared to be the filming of a music video. It was a strange scene as the backup dancers were all out of sync and generally looked like they had never danced before...the "stars" were a fairly cute girl accompanied by a greasy long-haired sleazy-looking guy...and the camera angles generally had unappealing backgrounds (piles of gravel for construction, radio tower, etc). It was entertaining in any case and we managed to get the monks semi-dancing at one point. The included photo doesn't do it justice though.
My room is basic, but quite nice. The shower has delivered warm water twice...but I typically just boil water and take a bucket shower when I can. I still wake up every morning hearing the gong followed by chanting and horns/drums/bells/etc. It gets really cold at night, but Marie and I alternate use of a small space heater and I have lots of blankets. I generally am ready to fall asleep by 8 or so since it's dark and I've already been up for so long.
Due to the very chilled out nature of being here, I've had lots of time to read. I think I've covered quite a
Dancing With The Monks
Not about to be a new reality show in the States...but was fun anyway. range with this as well. Several books by/about the Dalai Lama, other Buddhist philosophy books, meditation books, a couple of Robert Ludlum spy novels, a collection of Stephen King short stories...you know...the usual. Regarding the Buddhist philosophy stuff...it's interesting, but is a bit challenging. Their view of existence is completely different from how my mind has been wired over the last 31 years. It would be like putting a classically trained musician into a 5 person jazz combo and telling him to play. Or perhaps like a classically trained physicist reading about quantum mechanics for the first time. It's not just new information...it's a completely different system of thought. That's not to say that it's all wacky and I don't understand it...some is quite straightforward and practical...but some takes some time to understand. It ranges from "be peaceful and compassionate" (straightforward and practical) to trying to explain reincarnation, how there is no true individual, and how things don't really exist in the way we think they do. (the previous sentence should be read with a clear understanding of my disclaimer above).
I'll stop before I get too far off the road and into the philosophical weeds and further misrepresent
the Buddhist viewpoints.
Ahh...so much more that could be said about my time at the monastery, but this will have to do for now.
Orphan Smurfs I had posted a brief entry about the orphanage that VIN is involved with and had included an appeal for donations for cold weather gear and food for the kiddos. Many thanks to those of you who generously responded to the needs of kids on the other side of the planet who you'll never even meet. Every single dollar made a difference.
Unfortunately I was only able to hang out with these kids once because I was sick they day we did Christmas for them. But the day I did spend with them was great. We delivered some of the warm weather gear along with some toys. Wearing their blue fuzzy thermal tops and bottoms, they looked like a bunch of little Nepali Smurfs running around. For photos of that, see the other entry.
Apparently 34 People Can Fit In A Van A few snippets of non-monastery related stuff.
- The main public transportation in Kathmandu are micro-buses. Basically a van with as many people jammed in them as possible.
The most I've counted is 34. Due to the over-crammed nature of riding in these, one can find themselves in interesting riding positions. 2 examples. First - I rode nearly 2km w/o a single part of my body being inside the van. I just hung onto the side. Second - I never knew it was possible to hold onto the driver's seat from behind for support with my hands while my butt was completely outside of the side door as I balanced on one foot on the running board. In short...they can be an adventure.
- We participated in the UN International Volunteers Day. This consisted of marching through the streets with other organizations while we all held signs with different slogans about volunteering and chanted things like "Volunteers! The real actors!"...and a variety of things in Nepali that I didn't understand. It felt more like an anti-war protest than a volunteers day.
- There is a girl named Reecha who is about 1.5 years old and lives 1/2 way up the hill to the monastery. Every time I walk past her house she drops whatever she's doing and puts her hands together to say "Namaste" with the
Buddha & The New Monk
The shorty here just became a monk that morning & was super-shy all day. Every day since he's been the craziest of all, though. cutest smile on her face. It sounds silly...but it's a highlight of every day to see her.
- I've taken my first steps on US soil since April 3rd. On the 21st of December my passport turned one year old. To celebrate, I took it to the American Embassy to have extra pages added. Yup...in less than a year I managed to fill that sucker up. I never thought that would be the case. The US embassy doesn't fit at all in the Kathmandu architectural theme...and I loved it. People say it's a hideous monstrosity...probably true. But it reminded me of western architecture and for an hour I felt like I was back in the states. The security is humorous though. If one wanted to do harm to anyone there you'd have to get past the fence & guards outside...past the electronically locked 3" thick steel/glass door...past the guard and metal detector...through the next electronically locked 3" thick steel/glass door...across the courtyard and through the
next electronically locked 3" steel/glass door...past the security guard and metal detector...and then somehow penetrate the 3" thick window that the embassy employees were hidden behind. Yeah...so basically to even bust through the final
UN Volunteers Day
Kavita holding our banner with Marie next to her. barrier window, I would have needed to get a rocket launcher through everything else. Those people are really, really safe in there.
- I've been trying to go jogging as much as I can here. Since I live on top of a hill, "jogging" actually means running downhill and slowly hiking back up again. But one day I hit the bottom and kept going into a nearby village. Two things I saw that I've never seen while jogging before...1) a brightly decorated corpse being carried to a cremation and 2) a dead cow with a dog licking its burst stomach. Only in Asia...
Neo Meets The Buddha A final silly note. One evening I wasn't going to make it back to the monastery in time for dinner, so I stopped at a guest house to eat. They had a TV showing the movie "Little Buddha"...starring Keano Reeves as Buddha. In short...it's the worst movie ever made. Bad writing...bad acting...the whole ball of wax. But now at least Keano has played multiple savior figures in movies. Reeves has 2 skills. In the Matrix he basically had to look cool in a long black coat and sunglasses...skill #1. In Little
Marching Through The Streets
I felt like we should have been chanting "Make love, not war!" rather than things about volunteering. Buddha he had to look confused most of the time (as Siddartha was until he became enlightened)...skill #2. But other than possessing the required "confused look" skill I can't figure out why they'd choose Keano Reeves to play a guy born in Nepal.
Speaking Of Saviors... It's Christmas Eve. Many thanks to those of you who have taken time to send me a quick email wishing me Merry Christmas. So far while traveling the times I've been a bit homesick have indeed been during the holidays and regular family events that I'm missing. I feel it a bit now, but am sure that as I sit down to celebrate Christmas in a few hours with a bunch of VIN people I hardly know (compared to folks at home, at least), I'll be thinking of all the folks that I usually see at this time of year and will miss being there with you. So hang an ornament for me and have a cup of cheer. Oh, and if anyone has the Baker's Square Candy Cane Pie...eat a piece (or 5) for me.
Merry Christmas and God bless us, everyone!
Marc
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