The day began with a visit to the Sakya Monastery. The entire monastery was under construction at the time, so we got the opportunity to hear a few more traditional Tibetan work songs, as well as see this scrawny guy carry a gigantic rock on his back with the help of a wooden board. Many members of our group moved to help the guy, but he refused! Woah.
Here’s a picture of the front of the monastery.
As we were looking around, a number of us started taking picture of the monks who were hanging out. One picture we got is absolutely priceless—this monk is taking a picture of us with his camera phone as we are taking a picture of him! Hahaha. Who knew.
Speaking of phones and such, there were a handful of monks that I noticed during our travels who had cell phones, but it appeared that only the higher-ranking monks had this luxury, and even then, it seemed to be simply a way to keep in touch with the outside world should anything happen. Ie: I didn’t see them chatting away with their monk buddies from the next monastery over or anything. In fact, at one point, I noted that one of the older monks handed his cell phone to some younger monks—they scurried away with the item with excitement and were almost fighting over who got to play with it first. It was rather humorous. We also had many monks come up to us and through a series of gestures imply they wanted to see how our digital cameras worked. Many of them were quite impressed, and even took some fascinating shots with our assistance.
There was some very unique art in the Sakya monastery, which we were advised to take pictures of to supplement our eventual photo journals for the art class we were taking. One of my favorite deities of the Gelugpa Buddhist pantheon is Tara, the female Bodhisattva of Compassion. She has the third eye of insight in the center of her forehead which shows that she sees beyond relative reality and into ultimate (ie: she’s enlightened). In many pieces of art, she also has a thousand arms, (called the “arms of compassion”). These arms symbolize the fact that she sends her compassion out into all corners of the world. She’s pretty cool, plus a female deity? That’s sweet.
There were also a lot of beautiful views as we walked around the monastery—especially up on the roof. There was a sort of courtyard in the center of the monastery where the monks had smaller buildings/ living quarters. One could walk around the monastery, then, up on the part of the roof that was actually a part of the monastery and look down on the courtyards below. We had to be rather careful though, because it was a long fall down into the courtyard.
And here's another. That's my backpack, if you couldn't tell!
This is what the view down into the courtyard looked like:
Here’s another view from the opposite side of the courtyard
Even the monks enjoyed the view.
There was also a conch shell at this monastery that the Buddhists believe was one of the incarnations of Shakyamuni Buddha. I found this slightly odd myself, but it is evidently a huge privilege to blow into the conch shell, especially since conch shells are auspicious items in Buddhism anyways.
After a bit, we once again found a quiet little place for us to meditate/ have a lecture. At first, we were planning on doing this in the assembly hall as per usual, but the monks were just beginning a rather loud ceremony of some kind (read: lots of gongs involved) so we ended up gathering in a meeting room, where monks greet important people that visit there. Pretty neat, actually. There were a bunch of little tables in there with dried fruit and crunchy yak cheese—Rob was the only one who thought this tempting, only to discover how very disgusting it really was. Haha. You should have seen his face. Crunchy cheese? Man.
Our discussions at this monastery involved death and impermanence. I know, what a positive subject to meditate on, eh? One aspect of Buddhist belief that many Westerners don’t know (I guess I shouldn’t make generalizations, but I certainly was unaware of this beforehand) is their concentration on these two matters. High monks will spend years preparing for their deaths so that they have control over their emotions and the elements when they die (you know how people “see the light” right before they die? Buddhists believe these are the elements dissolving, and if one has control over them, one can control where one is reborn, rather than leaving it up to karmic law… of course, one has a lot of good karma if one can actually obtain this control…). The meditation we did, however, did not get into how to control these elements, etc, it just focused on the fact that everything is impermanent and everyone must die at some point. The idea is that the more you focus on the fact that you are an impermanent being, the more you will be motivated to take action/do positive things/make your life precious by helping others now, rather than later. It also makes you appreciate those around you more. Our professor told us that this was one of the most crucial meditations for him because he moved to India for ten years and five months after he returned to the states, his mother died. So, all and all, a good meditation to keep in mind.
After leaving the monastery, we went out to eat at a restaurant and I chatted it up more than usual with the members of the tour group. It really is fascinating how quickly you can feel compelled to another individual and/or feel really connected. Although I only knew these people for about two week’s total time, I honestly feel that I will be connected to them in some ways for the rest of my life. Which is a great feeling, by the way.
We had the majority of that afternoon off, which was wonderful, as most of us needed a break by this point. I spent some time wandering around the streets and shopping mostly with Caitlyn, but we would bump into other members of the group occasionally. I think we did more wandering than shopping, but nonetheless, it was a good time. It was just delightful to have some free time to be among the Tibetan peoples, to feel their everyday culture, rather than be in a structured, formal learning setting. It was rather cute the way that people interacted with Hali—one guy in a group of dudes playing cards looked over, saw her blonde hair, and defiantly proclaimed: “I love you!” It was pretty hilarious.
A group of us also went to the local bazaar to get some gifts for friends and family. I was exhausted at this point, and almost didn’t go (one had to drive to get there… it was a little further than wandering distance), but at the last moment I told myself that sleep was for when I was back in the states, and definitely not for a foreign country. So I went. Tenmpa warned us ahead of time that the people there might be a little… pushy—ie: the vendors would want a sale and do anything to get that sale—but it really wasn’t that bad. I had one person loop her arm around mine and lead me over to her table and argue with me over one item that I asked the price of, but that’s about it. One thing you learn quickly while bartering in Tibet is that if you ask the price of an item/show interest, you’d better buy it eventually, even if it takes a while to barter it down to a price you can afford. Otherwise, that person will hound you for giving him/her false hope in a sale. Man oh man. Intense. I asked the price of two items because I couldn’t decide which one to get for a friend back home and from that point on, every deal the lady gave me included both items. I finally had to rather forcefully tell her that I was only buying one, and that one was going to be within my price range, or I wasn’t going to buy anything. She finally assented. Phew. Can be difficult sometimes.
That night, we had special Tibetan style rooms, which was really neat. They had huge incense burners in them, no TV or phone, and a bunch of images of various deities hanging about. The beds were Tibetan style, too—more like a thick carpet with lots of pillows than a mattress, but very comfortable, I must admit.
Here’s a picture of said bed.
The evening was spent hanging out, really. Some of us spent the time catching up on our journals for the philosophy class we were taking, others chatted among themselves out in the rather cozy hotel lobby, while still others took the streets to see what Tibetan nightlife was like (not very exciting in this area, evidently). I hung out and got to know my roommate a little better, which was really nice. I also ended up getting into a rather lengthy conversation with one of the porters at the hotel. He was so incredibly nice. I eventually learned that his name was Penzo (I’m unsure of the spelling, but he told me it means “hello” in Tibetan) and that he had learned English at the university he attended. He had a porter friend (who offered me some delicious Tibetan candy!) who couldn’t speak English whose name was “Chill-en” (once again… the spelling? Not so sure about that) which means “long road.” I love how everyone’s name has a well-known and important meaning over there. It’s soo cool. Anyhow, I was the one who initially said hello to Penzo, and I think he continued the conversation only to practice his English, but in the end, I think we both felt rewarded by the conversation. I think we both enjoyed talking about our home countries and our families with one another just as much. He admitted to me that his English wasn’t as great as it used to be because it was hard to remember, and I assured him that even Americans have a difficult time remembering English, so he shouldn’t worry! Haha. It was fantastic.
And that concluded the tenth day of our stay.