The Pooja on steroids

Wow, today was a loooong day. This is how it all started…

Playing Nepali card games with two
monks and a soldier...

Last night at dinner time whilst we were all talking about what we had done on our day off (because of the strike I had stayed in the village all day, drinking tea, walking, reading and playing cards with the locals) one of the monks invited me to go to Boudha with them the next day to go to the big Pooja they were going to attend at another monastery. At first I said no; I had to teach the next day! But then they informed me that 2 of the classes were actually going to go to the big Pooja as well, so I would only be teaching the little ones. After some back and forth in my mind I decided that I should seize the opportunity. I asked the elders for permission and they all gave me the go-ahead. I had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that I had to be ready to meet them downstairs at 7:00 am.

So today I woke up early to get everything ready. At 7:00 am everyone started gathering outside and we started walking down to the ‘main road’ of the village. But before we got there all the monks suddenly started entering this small shop. Seeing my confusion they informed me that they were getting breakfast, apparently they make the best potato (‘Aloo’) and chickpeas there. So there we were all crammed into this seriously far too small space having Aloo and talking away. When we were done we started heading to the place where the buses arrive. After a 5 minute wait a bus arrived and we were ready to go.

Breakfast!

The monks treat me with so much respect that I’m starting to feel like a spoilt princess… in the bus they make sure I have the best seat, they ask to carry my bags and they always make sure that I’m not hungry or thirsty. I don’t know what to do with myself half of the time... After 30 minutes of being in the bus we arrived at Boudha. We entered the main gate without paying (monk wasta) and then went through all these little side streets until we arrived at an enormous monastery. The monastery (Chechen monastery) is the biggest Nyingma (the old school Buddhist practitioners) monastery in Nepal. It’s beautiful, and massive.

Boudha with my monks

In front of the monastery's Pooja
room with Gelchen and Aryen

We followed the crowd of red and orange robes into the big Pooja room. I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed inside, I was 84.6% sure I was the only white person, the only girl and the only one who didn’t have all their hair shaved off. Still, the monks let me enter the room and there I was in the middle of an immense sea of monks, awkwardly sitting there, my white sun-light-reflecting skin and female face attracting weird looks from everyone… thank God that I chose to wear an orange shirt today and not my hot pink one or I would’ve been the complete anomaly.

After a few minutes the monks got used to me, except for the occasional 6 year old monk staring me down. After all of that shock and getting used to I finally took time to look at where I was. This Pooja was literally our little monastery’s Pooja on steroids… the room is 8 times as big and instead of 50 monks there are over 500 monks all in the room. The drums are bigger, there are more trumpet players and thousands of bells, a giant Buddha statue and there is even a microphone for the head monk to chant into. Wow. I felt so honored to be allowed to experience the energy of this Pooja. Even though I couldn’t join in with the chanting after a while my body started rocking from side to side to the pace of the chanting, I didn’t know what was happening to me, then I looked around and saw that many of the monks had the same thing going on, so I just went with it.

My students were sitting next to me and every 2 minutes they’d ask if I wasn’t too bored, in the end I just told them to stop asking; I seriously wasn’t, instead I was in awe of the moment I was experiencing. After an hour had gone by my butt started to hurt though and my foot was half asleep, then by the time 2 and a half hours had passed it was break time and I was happy that I could finally stretch my legs again. I don’t know how these guys keep this up all day!

During the Pooja the monks had tried to teach me a mantra and as of now I know this one by heart; Om Ah Hum,Vagra Guru Padhma Sidhi, Hum… I told my neighbor Tenzin when I got back and he had the look of awe in his eye; apparently this is a very impressive thing to say? I’ll ask Tulku Jigme what it exactly means tomorrow – lol what if it turns out it was something offensive and the look of awe was actually a look of shock and devastation?!!

Pokoda, pokoda, pokoda

Anyway, during the break I found out that the next session of Pooja would be from 10:30 to 12:30, and at that moment I decided that I wouldn’t join them for the next one. I had had the 2.5 hour experience and I don’t think my body could take another 2 hours of half-lotus position. So off I went back to Boudha with two of the monks who hadn’t had breakfast. I treated them to breakfast at a rooftop restaurant and we also had some tea, by 10:30 am they left to go back to the monastery. I found out that the restaurant had wifi and did some email stuff and had some Pokoda (because I am rebellious, actually because I forgot about what the Tibetan doctor had said until I had scoffed down 4 of them already). Then I went on a quick shopping spree; I bought some presents for my brothers (are you excited Mathijs?!?!).

Making the canvases!

No easels! It's just a rope attached
to the wall.

The end products

Then at 12:30 I went to go find my monks. I magically found my way back to the monastery (I was giving myself mental high fives for my efforts) but then I realized that none of the monks were at the spot we planned to meet at. I tried to call but my phone was malfunctioning. So I was alone in this massive monastery, after some inner debating I decided to go explore. I made my way to the monastery’s art school.

At the front door a group of monks and students were talking, I joined the conversation and then somehow got one of the students, Dipa, to give me a tour! There are 6 years of study in order to become an expert at the elaborate paintings, she was in year 3. She showed me all the stages of paintings from making the canvas, to drawing onto the canvas, to painting the background to finally the small, intricate details with the 2 mm brush!

After the spontaneous tour was done I decided I would try to find the monks again. I went outside and boom there was one of them! I asked him for Sonny’s (one of my monk friend’s) number and called him, somehow my phone was working again? We met up and went back to the roof top restaurant (if you’re ever in Boudha, it’s called paradise restaurant, get the Devil’s Momo, it’s amazing). More of his friends called and in the end we sat there with a total of 5 people. I had brought by playing cards so we spent their lunch time playing cards and having tea with the Boudha Stupa in the background and with the background song of rain falling. At 1:30 pm they had to go back to the monastery and I was left to my own devices again.

Dhachung, Nawand and I.
Asked them to take a picture with me
especially for the blog! 

I decided to switch tables to this long table where two old Tibetan ladies sat. After some reading I decided to start a conversation. They were wearing the traditional Tibetan clothes (which are so elegant) and I complemented their dresses. Their faces lit up and they started a conversation about the clothes and the difference between the outfits of married and non-married women. They gave me the address of a tailor who makes the best ones, a place called Cho Dhondup, so I might be rocking one of the dresses in the near future. We carried on talking for half an hour about the monastery, Tibet and about their jobs as volunteers at an elderly home. They had an appointment and had to leave but they made sure they got my email address and my phone number so that we can keep in contact and so that I could visit them at the elderly home one day! I made friends! Friends with two old Tibetan ladies… clearly, the best kind of friends to make…

I did some university stuff on the laptop for the next half an hour and then my stomach started calling for donuts (they have vegan donuts here; without all the creamy icing and stuff) so I went to go find a bakery. I found one and sat down, I spent my time reading a book only to find out the donuts on display were a lie! The donuts were rock hard and 4 days old! So I had to get a bagel instead… close enough. Then at 4:00 pm the time had come for me to make my way back to the monastery (my monks had told me that Pooja finished at this time).

When I arrived at the monastery again I realized Pooja was definitely not over yet. After some wondering around I spotted a group of monks my age and asked them at what time Pooja finished; they told me 5:00 pm! So I had an hour to kill. I hung around with the group of monks (they didn’t speak much English at all but we made do with what we had) and within 15 minutes I had somehow, magically, managed to arrange/invite myself into another tour. The group of monks showed me around the entire monastery, from the rooms which go on for ages and ages, to the giant prayer wheels, the class rooms, to the eight mini stupas. Then we went and sat down outside the monastery gates on the stairs which made for an awesome picture. There we talked some more and they tried to teach me some more Tibetan in their broken English (I now know how to say nice to meet you; kerang tukpar gapo jun!).

We waited until 5:00 pm and then a storm of monks started leaving the Pooja room and lining up for dinner! The lines went on and on and on. My monks finally walked past and we were reunited, I introduced them to my new monk friends only to find out that they are part of one of the monastery football teams which they play football against! The monks all told me that I was allowed to get dinner, so there I was again an anomaly in the sea of monks lining up. Dinner was fried rice with mushrooms and soup! The dinner was a special type of dinner because of the Pooja and then I saw that people from all over the town started entering the monastery to get food; when there are big Pooja’s they make food for everyone!

Look at these dogs! So cute

My monks and I sat on a patch of the wet grass and had our dinner, it was really, really tasty. Then when we were finished we hung around the monastery, took some polaroid pictures with the beast (they also refer to the camera as ‘the beast’, it’s great) and then we walked back to the main road to catch the bus. In the crowded bus they made sure that I had a good seat and that I was definitely not carrying any of my bags (filled with the presents). After the 30 minute bus ride we were back at Sundarijal, I love this place, it’s really starting to feel like home. There we went to a tea shop, had some spiced tea and talked some more and I finally had a donut!!! At 6:00 pm we all got back to the monastery and I crashed down onto my bed and started writing this!

Tomorrow is big Pooja at this monastery… and I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll actually ever start teaching again… but I’m not complaining!

Charlotte x

Ps. Remember how in one of the first posts on this blog I was all like "I'm totally Dora the Explorer with this hair cut and the backpack that magically just contains everything you could ever need"... now I swear I have not said this to any of the monks, and they don't know about my blog, but look what one of the monks gave to me yesterday!!!! I can't handle this!!!