Sunday, December 28, 2008
Back in India.
Varanasi really is a holy city. There is something very magical about this place.
We visited the Burning Ghat (Ghats are steps leading into the Ganges), where bodies are taken to be creamated. They say a dip in the Holy Ganges will liberate you from rebirth.
Only men carry the bodies because the women cry. The corpses are covered with bright orange and red cloth, the color and other garments varying according to caste. Every few minutes, a new body would come and there was a line of about five, waiting to be burned. It takes about three hours to be fully cremated, and only the immediate family waits around.
No pictures aloud.
It was very ordinary. Very human. Directly next to the burning ghat on either side there are people bathing, women washing clothes, and children playing. We westerners would get very sick from this water, but there is a beach-like atmosphere, and many residents of the city spend time by the ghats.
On the other bank, it is miles of empty, sandy floodplanes that are filled during the monsoon.
Our hotel is underneath a music school and I can sometimes hear people practicing tabla.
Cows and cow shit everywhere.
Varanasi really is a holy city. There is something very magical about this place.
We visited the Burning Ghat (Ghats are steps leading into the Ganges), where bodies are taken to be creamated. They say a dip in the Holy Ganges will liberate you from rebirth.
Only men carry the bodies because the women cry. The corpses are covered with bright orange and red cloth, the color and other garments varying according to caste. Every few minutes, a new body would come and there was a line of about five, waiting to be burned. It takes about three hours to be fully cremated, and only the immediate family waits around.
No pictures aloud.
It was very ordinary. Very human. Directly next to the burning ghat on either side there are people bathing, women washing clothes, and children playing. We westerners would get very sick from this water, but there is a beach-like atmosphere, and many residents of the city spend time by the ghats.
On the other bank, it is miles of empty, sandy floodplanes that are filled during the monsoon.
Our hotel is underneath a music school and I can sometimes hear people practicing tabla.
Cows and cow shit everywhere.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Xmas
Nothing is convenient here.
The power goes out for most of the daytime because there isnt enough, but people dont seem to mind.
I fly back to India on Saturday to spend 2 days in Varanasi, then the Monlam. Lots and lots of monks. And karmapa.
The power goes out for most of the daytime because there isnt enough, but people dont seem to mind.
I fly back to India on Saturday to spend 2 days in Varanasi, then the Monlam. Lots and lots of monks. And karmapa.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Chirstmas in Nepal.
Quick impressions:
Visited a Vajrayogini Temple. Ancient. Caves where Marpa, Naropa, and Tilopa practiced. Power spot. Monkeys. Dirty little room the monk took us to.
Looking at pictures of the Dalai Lama on Jamgon Kongtrul's ibook in the stupa room.
Cold nights.
Still green here, even though it's getting cold.
Possible parisite, fixed by antibiotics, the use of which criticized by the germans.
Loud puja-- Mahakala
Getting ready for bodhgaya
How did so much time go past?
Quick impressions:
Visited a Vajrayogini Temple. Ancient. Caves where Marpa, Naropa, and Tilopa practiced. Power spot. Monkeys. Dirty little room the monk took us to.
Looking at pictures of the Dalai Lama on Jamgon Kongtrul's ibook in the stupa room.
Cold nights.
Still green here, even though it's getting cold.
Possible parisite, fixed by antibiotics, the use of which criticized by the germans.
Loud puja-- Mahakala
Getting ready for bodhgaya
How did so much time go past?
Friday, December 19, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Things
Things the West has more of:
ATMs
Indoor Heating
Sanitation
Paved Roads
Stability
Money
Chain restaurants
Christianity
Stable internet / phone lines / electricity
Schools
White people
Things Nepal has more of:
Buddhism
Hinduism
Monasteries
Mountains
Chaos
Curry
Communism (recent)
Big families
Festivals
Ancient temples (!)
Sherpas
Things both have in common:
People livin
ATMs
Indoor Heating
Sanitation
Paved Roads
Stability
Money
Chain restaurants
Christianity
Stable internet / phone lines / electricity
Schools
White people
Things Nepal has more of:
Buddhism
Hinduism
Monasteries
Mountains
Chaos
Curry
Communism (recent)
Big families
Festivals
Ancient temples (!)
Sherpas
Things both have in common:
People livin
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Today we saw the 3-year retreatants come out for a day-holiday, before they go back in for another six months. A lot of their families are here. They came out wearing cotton robes (like Milarepa-- a Tibetan yogi who sang songs) and did kind of a sumo side to side walk around the whole monastery.
Yesterday we went to Thamel, the touristy section of Kathmandou and I got offered pot 3 times (don't worry mom I didn't accept). We also ate pizza at nearly US prices.
Two days ago we were at the opening of a nunnery. The nuns did a dance. This was the first time nuns have practiced lama dancing. It was very beautiful except for the fact that the western woman who choreographed it put herself front and center. This made it seem a little less of a pure spiritual expression and added a bit of political agenda. Then again, with my theater major-ness I can't help but to analyze these things.
Kathmandou is a very holy place with a lot of problems, most of them having gotten much worse quite recently.
This monastery on a hill is like a pureland.
Yesterday we went to Thamel, the touristy section of Kathmandou and I got offered pot 3 times (don't worry mom I didn't accept). We also ate pizza at nearly US prices.
Two days ago we were at the opening of a nunnery. The nuns did a dance. This was the first time nuns have practiced lama dancing. It was very beautiful except for the fact that the western woman who choreographed it put herself front and center. This made it seem a little less of a pure spiritual expression and added a bit of political agenda. Then again, with my theater major-ness I can't help but to analyze these things.
Kathmandou is a very holy place with a lot of problems, most of them having gotten much worse quite recently.
This monastery on a hill is like a pureland.
Monday, December 8, 2008
this cafe has midget servers wearing santa hats...
i just ate a very good pizza.
the monastery opening was very cool
lines and lines and lines of people giving gifts and asking for blessings...
My German travelling partner described it as an initiation into generosity.
As I just told Laila, I am learning a lot, mostly from my expectations being dashed.
The Buddhist religious institutions here serve an interesting social function.
They are very clean, and the young monks get an excellent education and three meals a day. It makes more sense for people in this region to send young children there.
Walk outside the walls, and there are people and goats sharing the same living space.
It's a big contrast, but I suppose if the monastery wasn't seperated from the world, it wouldn't be a monastery. This one also runs a school and a free clinic.
The place was "Namo Buddha" supposedly where the Buddha in a previous life offered his body to a hungry tigress.
I was so kind of blissed out after all the ceremony that coming back into town-- which involves coming through slums and very desperate areas, brought me back down.
Tibetan Buddhism also is incredibly hierarchical-- all of it has an inner meaning, but to an untrained western eye it seems a bit feudal.
The energy of these places, however, are very strong, and things sort themselves out a bit when I am practicing more.
i just ate a very good pizza.
the monastery opening was very cool
lines and lines and lines of people giving gifts and asking for blessings...
My German travelling partner described it as an initiation into generosity.
As I just told Laila, I am learning a lot, mostly from my expectations being dashed.
The Buddhist religious institutions here serve an interesting social function.
They are very clean, and the young monks get an excellent education and three meals a day. It makes more sense for people in this region to send young children there.
Walk outside the walls, and there are people and goats sharing the same living space.
It's a big contrast, but I suppose if the monastery wasn't seperated from the world, it wouldn't be a monastery. This one also runs a school and a free clinic.
The place was "Namo Buddha" supposedly where the Buddha in a previous life offered his body to a hungry tigress.
I was so kind of blissed out after all the ceremony that coming back into town-- which involves coming through slums and very desperate areas, brought me back down.
Tibetan Buddhism also is incredibly hierarchical-- all of it has an inner meaning, but to an untrained western eye it seems a bit feudal.
The energy of these places, however, are very strong, and things sort themselves out a bit when I am practicing more.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Yesterday we went to this temple on a hill that was recently given to Mongyur Rinpoche, a young Lama who spoke very good English.
It was us a all Newari's, Nepal's Buddhist ethnic group.
He gave two blessings and people were very pushy in line.
I keep on craving chicken but I'm afraid to order it lest these Buddhists judge me (they would--and the western ones, not Tibetans)
I'm supposed to be on a bus bound for outside the valley to see the consecration of a new monastery, but it is delayed due to a strike. There are strikes all the time here. (The new Maoist government is only partially to blame).
It was us a all Newari's, Nepal's Buddhist ethnic group.
He gave two blessings and people were very pushy in line.
I keep on craving chicken but I'm afraid to order it lest these Buddhists judge me (they would--and the western ones, not Tibetans)
I'm supposed to be on a bus bound for outside the valley to see the consecration of a new monastery, but it is delayed due to a strike. There are strikes all the time here. (The new Maoist government is only partially to blame).
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