The visit of Saydaw U Pandita from Burma has come and gone – it was a time of great activity and intensity – with extra monks and nuns in attendance, a group of meditators from Kathmandu and many visitors coming and going. On the day of his departure all the people here on retreat came out from the meditation hall and stood in silence outside Sayadaw’s room to pay their last respects as he walked from the door to his awaiting taxi going to the airport. It was a strange sight - all these silent still people standing around the building (could have looked a bit like the invasion of the zombies!) waiting for a glimpse of the teacher.
It was really very lovely to see this elderly highly venerated monk and meditation master giving some final words of support and encouragement to these people who had come from many parts of the world (including Australia, America, Canada, UK, Israel, Mexico, India, Singapore, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Belgium etc etc) to practice meditation. I was invited to come to the airport with some of the monks and nuns to give Sayadaw and his entourage a final farewell. Courtesy of one of his Kathmandu supporters- an ex Nepali politician – we were given the use of the VIP room at the airport, a much more comfortable and salubrious environment than the main waiting area. This may sound impressive – and in relative Nepali terms it was - but it was not that flash by western standards. Either way, I think it will be my one and only time to get VIP treatment here in Nepal or anywhere else for that matter.
Over the last few days of this retreat there was a lot also going on outside the walls of the centre to celebrate the auspicious 77th birthday of a famous Nepali nun – Dhammawati. She had come from Kathmandu with hundreds of her supporters. I managed to escape the centre and attend some of the activities that were part of the 4 days of celebrations. The most notable was a procession that began at the Gotami Vihara (local Nepali nun’s monastery)– which is located on a side road a few hundred metres from Panditarama - and made it’s way to the Maya Devi temple garden. The procession was lead by a man carrying and juggling a tall banner decorated with pennants and what looked like the fluffy plumes at the end of yak tails. He was followed by a band of Newari (a Nepali ethnic group) musicians playing drums, cymbals and flutes then followed people dressed as Hindu gods and goddesses, a long line of nuns in their pink and orange robes, lay women in red holding Buddha statues on their heads, three little girls dressed as peacocks and two other musical groups. Somewhere in the midst of all these people was Dhammawati herself being pushed in a wheel chair under a gold umbrella preceded by a group of little girls in white dresses and veils (very bride like) paving her way with flowers. When I recounted this to Sayadaw U Vivekananda he thought it sounded bit much! But it was very interesting and lively – everybody seemed to be having a good time and this nun is certainly much loved in Nepal.
That evening the Newari musicians performed outside in the courtyard of the Nun’s temple under a huge and beautiful red full moon. There were also some Newari dancers who would leap into the space in front of the band as the mood took them. It was great music and a wonderful night with a large appreciative Nepali audience. I was one of - or maybe the one and only Westerner in the mix and stood with some Nepali friends from Kathmandu who had just finished their retreat. I received several invitations to visit people in Kathmandu at the end of the retreat – both from lay people and nuns and I would like to visit them as well as a very quirky and lovely Burmese monk, Sayadaw U Nyanajotta, who has been recently appointed to reside at a large centre in Kathmandu - IBMC. He came here to Panditarama with Sayadaw U Pandita for the 10 days of the special retreat and was teaching the meditators over that time. I spent a bit of time with him and he had a very light hearted and easy going manner – quite an unusual personality for a Burmese Sayadaw – at least in my experience. He liked to go for walks and check out what was going on with video camera in hand. On one walk a young new nun and I were with him and he led us into a Tibetan temple while there were in the middle of a puja – with video camera rolling he proceeded to take close ups of the monks doing their thing. They were very obliging and In the end we all received bags of biscuits, fruit and assorted other goodies that had been part of their ceremony,
The nun’s ordination also took place over this time – although in contrast to the events it was a very low-key affair. Unlike the ceremony for monk, a nun’s ordination usually passes with little acknowledgement. This time was no different and the change from lay woman to nun took place first in a corner of the garden with two nuns removing Tin Tin Win’s hair – first cutting most of it off then shaving the rest - and then in her room where, after a little chanting, clothes were swapped for robes and that was it – from Tin Tin Win to Dhammadeepa. I went out with her later in the day to the Maya Devi garden to take some photos, adding to some I took earlier, so she had something to show her family back in Burma.
Today after little sleep and some late night/early morning meditation I felt somewhat edgy and had no desire to sit in the dining room with yogis at breakfast. I felt a bit over it all - been supporting meditators for too long and didn’t want to be around anybody for the while. So I sat outside by myself in the cool morning air and had a peaceful breakfast of mohinga (Burmese fish/noodle soup – an occasional treat reserved for staff only) and black tea while watching the birds enjoying the garden. There was a small group of babblers, regulars at the centre, that are very perky and amusing birds. Still feeling out of sorts and really wishing to be anywhere but the centre I took off for an extended walk. It was a beautiful morning with a pale blue sky streaked with light pink glowing through a fine mist. I walked to where a group of impressive and ornate Mahayana temples are located. They surround a artificial lake and their reflections shone back from the surface of the water while a vivid blue kingfisher skimmed the surface. There was also a group of white egrets keeping an eye on things from the grassy bank and a local dog and her pup, both very mangy, were sitting in the sun.
