Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Some photos from Lumbini
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Life around Lumbini and thoughts of moving on
A hot sunny day today after a glorious evening sky yesterday – this is maybe what I will have to look forward to if the uni placement to the top end comes through in another month. Yes – it seems possible that this Nepal trip will be cut in half due to a less than perfectly timed email from the Field Work placement supervisor. I headed off to Nepal with plans to return to a Melbourne city-based placement in November - albeit a bit of a late start – but now this has turned up. So perhaps I will be in Darwin by this time next month.
In the meantime I continue along as usual spending some time meditating, doing a very little environmental work for Sayadaw, emailing, reading and having the occasional foray out into the wider world beyond Panditarama’s gates. There have been some changes around the temple area while I was away and not all to the local people’s liking. A “Master Plan” was designed for the Lumbini area by a Japanese architect Kenzo Tenge, now deceased, many years ago and there has been slow progress. Now there is a push by a number of people and groups, including UNESCO, and particularly a Japanese contingent who want to see the architect’s plan for Lumbini completed. However, some of this has recently involved moving the businesses of local people to a less accessible and less pleasant area located quite a distance from the main pilgrim site/tourist attraction. And the taxi drivers also have less chance of picking up business. Already there has been a protest delegation to the Lumbini Development Trust office, quite a bit of general disgruntlement and lots of discussion going on around the traps. From my perspective the new situation is definitely much less appealing as now my favourite tea shop, where I used to enjoy having a cup of masala tea under the shade of huge mango trees, is gone. It seems to me that the local people have been marginalized and were not consulted as to their needs and wishes – let alone me! Now it’s too late for them unless they resort to strong measures, which probably would cause them even more grief. I just hope they can retain their livelihood. I sent an email to the Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Lumbini Development Trust expressing my concerns – most likely to little avail. So another lesson in anicca (change) – one of the 3 universal characteristics of all phenomena in Buddhist teachings – the other two being anatta (non self) and dukkha (unsatisfactoriness).
Yesterday afternoon I went with Birjesh to Bhairahawa, for my first shopping trip of this visit (perhaps my one and only!), and as well as the usual buffalo carts, bikes, motor bikes, buses, cars, vans, goats and cows there was an elephant lumbering along the road on its way to some business of other. Bhairahawa was reasonably pleasant that day – a bit of a breeze to relive the humidity – at least in the shade with an icecream and a pomegranate as refreshment it wasn’t too bad. I enjoy heading out and getting around the local area and with the monsoon in force the countryside is a beautiful verdant green.
Here the monsoon rains come sporadically, with many days of hot humid sunny weather before some respite brought about by rainfall, which may be a heavy downpour or a constant few hours of showers. I enjoy either – both for the coolness it brings and its soothing sound. This monsoon is more along the lines of a Broome one than a true tropical monsoon where there is rain most days. And it rather feels more like the build up time – with hot and humid weather and little respite.
No internet at the centre for the last week so a daily trip to the local village to check emails and organize latest travel plans has become part of my routine. I seem to have caught a bit of a flu and feel the heat more what with slight fever so took a rickshaw one day but found I have preferred getting back on the bike to enjoy the breeze that riding creates. It is a cumbersome process to try to organize the changes required to get back to oz and onto Darwin flights and get in touch with uni on a computer that fades in and out with the change in power - a good lesson in patience.
Yesterday escaped the oppressive heat of my room and the centre’s enclosed walls, which seem to keep the heat in and breeze out – and walked to the Korean temple. There is a huge high ceilinged meditation hall/shine room and I was hoping to find a bit more coolness and a change of scene. It was an opportune visit and perfect timing as I ran into two friends from my last trip – an English woman Sandy (called Santi here by the locals as it is a more familiar name - & means peace) and a Melburnian, Gwen – both teaching for a local Dalit (untouchable) NGO. I had a brief chat with them as they had things to do but we organized to meet up later. In the meantime I went and sat up in the shrine room but found there was a cooler spot by the well where I could catch a bit of a breeze and by entertained by a passing parade of locals coming to cool down and get a drink. I came back when Sandy and Gwen were having their evening meal (included brown rice! A rare sight here in Nepal) and we sat on the verandah, I regaling them with my latest adventures in oz as they ate. It was so good to have normal conversation – without the contrast its difficult to fully appreciate how different this feels from being ensconced in the meditation centre absorbed with the daily machinations of Panditarama politics, the environmental issue and my own internal chatter.
Back in Lumbini
A bit over a week has passed since arriving at Panditarama and there are a few differences from the last time I was here. Firstly, and most apparent, is the monsoon weather. Although it was getting hot in the last month of my stay up to mid April it is definitely hot and humid now – the rain comes and goes, sometimes as a light shower but this morning a huge deluge, which was a welcome relief. So some of the paths are under water and it’s a pleasant walk through that coolness. Any opportunity to feel slightly cooler is eagerly taken – so walking in the rain, a drink of cold water fresh from the freezer, a cold shower, bare feet on the cool tiles in the dining room, etc etc. But these provide only momentary respites from the general sense of feeling hot and sweaty. It is the humidity together with the heat that is the most difficult to take. In the meditation hall their is a network of electric cables snaking around the room taking fans to each meditator – and the breeze they raise cools the body and makes it reasonably comfortable. Last night I sat in the hall with the group and the electricity went out for the last one-hour session from 8pm. It was a different experience without having the fan on, feeling the sweat build up and start to run down the body.
However snakes like the warmer weather and apparently a few cobras were recently seen around the centre – but, touch wood, I have yet to come across any. Other times I’ve glimpsed and occasional one hanging around or in the pond hunting for frogs. The ants also are in force at this time of year and while I lie on the floor typing, large black ants scamper across my legs. Fortunately they seem very benevolent – only needing to get from a to b via me.
Today I prepared a salad for lunch a rare treat that is not on the Burmese nuns’ cooking repertoire. This has been a bit of an issue of contention apparently but as a newcomer I was able to break through the stalemate of opposing sides and radically prepare a tomato, cucumber and olive (left from my last trip) salad. Now it has be made and all eaten the precedent has been set, at least while I’m around, and maybe more can follow.
I have ventured out for short forays to escape the confines of the centre and walk along the canal or across to the lakes where a bit of a coolish breeze can be had in the evening. On the Burmese Full moon day I went with the young nun – Sayalay Dhamma Deepa – to the Burmese monastery to drop off some treats and meet the resident monk- Venerable Kovida. Sayalay took many photos of me and obviously not having seen too many Westerners thinks I am beautiful – so proceeded to take many photos of me in different combinations of me and monk, me and pond, me and pagoda etc. We then walked with the monk down to the Maya Devi temple - the archaeological area – so they could pay respects to the Buddha’s birthplace. After visiting the temple itself we walked around the ruins then sat under a tree and I gave Sayalay an impromptu English lesson while watching pilgrims come and go. Although it is the hot season a few individuals and pilgrim group still come – especially the Sri Lankans, who possibly find the climate comfortably ok – being equatorial dwellers.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
More photos from Kopan and kathmandu
Friday, August 12, 2011
An auspicious rainbow at Wando Grove and the first few days in Nepal
Back in steamy Lumbini
After a gap of three and a half months spent in Melbourne here I am back for another spell in Nepal; and it is an enchanting country, although not without its challenges. This trip I flew via Hong Kong and with a few hours in transit had a chance to enjoy some steamed shrimp wontons and a mango pudding while looking through expansive glass windows out across the tarmac to the hills and waterways of Hong Kong. The ongoing flight provided some more fantastic views over the harbour and then after a brief stopover in Dhaka landed late at night in Kathmandu. I had pre arranged an airport pick up and room at one of my usual haunts, Shechen Guest House, and so was met by Shankar, yoga teacher and taxi driver extraordinaire, and Tashi, the lovely smiley manager from Shechen. It was so good to see a familiar face amongst the waiting crowd and arriving late there was very little traffic, a rare and pleasant treat in Kathmandu. So a smooth start to a bit of an impulsive return trip. It had been really great to spend some time with family in Melbourne, my hometown, and indulge in some of the pleasures it has to offer – movies, galleries, brunches and lunches, walks by the beach and several of Brunetii’s decadent Italian hot chocolates with cream – so much for watching the cholesterol! Now I am back in Nepal to get another injection of Dhamma as well as just hang out.
My first few days were spent at Shechen where I met up with a friend from Oz, Fab, who had just returned to Kathmandu after completing a retreat in Lumbini. It was really good to have his company and enjoyed hanging out talking about the Dhamma and whatever else came to mind, sharing meals and pots of masala tea or lemon and ginger, shopping in Thamel, walking around the beautiful Boudhanath stupa and lighting butter lamps for the well being and happiness of our families and friends - furry (Lil – me, Freida –Fab) and otherwise. It is such an uplifting experience to join the throngs of devoted locals and pilgrims, as well as an assortment of tourists, in circumambulating the stupa, particularly in the early morning or evening when it is at its busiest. There is a wonderfully contagious sense of devotion and camaraderie.
The day Fab flew out I caught a taxi from Boudanath a few kilometres up the road to Kopan monastery to attend a four day retreat led by an Australian nun entitled working with difficult emotions. I was interested to learn how she would approach this subject - being both a psychologist and Mahayanan Buddhist. Kopan monastery has been around since the 1970’s, established to enable Westerners to come and learn about and practice Buddhist teachings in the tradition of FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition – perhaps a bit of an unfortunate acronym but memorable for that). The location is wonderful – set high on the very top of a hill looking out over Kathmandu and across to the foothills of the Himalayas. Being the rainy season, there is always plenty of cloud cover but I guess in the dry there would be some great mountain views. Kopan may have started out small but it’s now a huge complex of buildings with accommodation for hundreds of monastics as well as for lay retreatants. Typical of Tibetan Buddhism, there is incredibly elaborate decorative work in the gompas or shrine/meditation rooms – statues, murals and thankas – and there is a beautiful stupa, which is lit up at night, set in the well kept gardens, which are at their luscious,lushest greenest – as are the paddy fields, which surround and are looked down on from Kopan’s hill Ah, the rainy season - I haven’t been In Nepal at this time of year before and it’s great to see the flourishing vegetation and as well the luxury of almost 24 hour electricity as the rains mean lots of water rushing down from the mountains turning the hydro generators. Although Kopan and Kathmandu don’t seem to suffer an influx of mossies at this time of year I fear I have plagues to contend with at Lumbini – and I think I’ve lost my good Aussie repellent in the move from Shechen to Kopan. Oh well, will have to smother myself in the local weaker brand.
The retreat here has given me some food for thought both for my own Dhamma teaching and for my social/welfare work practice. There has been some interesting discussions by the teacher, Ani Chonyi, linking ideas and practices of Western mental health with Buddhist teachings, there’s been some general info and teachings from Mahayana Buddhism and some lovely chanting. There are definitely a lot of commonalities between the Mahayana and Theravada – the four noble truths, dependent origination - but also some distinctive differences, the ritual practices of Mahayana being the most obvious. While this retreat was going on all the other activities of the monastery life was going on around us. The school for the young monks, the chanting and debating groups of the older monks and while I was there a ceremony – perhaps what’s called a tsog – was conducted over a couple of days where decorative butter carvings and tormas were displayed in the gompa amidst much chanting and rice throwing while outside various substances were ritually offered in a fire. I would have like to know more about what was going on but nothing was forthcoming during my retreat and I never got around to asking. I did feel a bit like a fish out of water at times – although there were some very friendly and interesting people attending and quite a few Aussies. One, a woman, had been driving giant trucks in the mines in remote WA and was now travelling around India and Nepal for a year planning to learn much yoga and meditation so as to set up a yoga business on her return to oz. Another woman from the US, a dental hygienist, had been working in a clinic in Kathmandu, had previously done some volunteer work in Jordan and was next off to Bhutan for 2 months work before travelling around NZ. And lots of other long term travellers – working, volunteering or just moving around.
After leaving the retreat and Kopan late morning I spent the middle of the day driving around Kathmandu, going to the UNESCO office and onto a public interest lawyer to sort out a few things for the Sayadaw in Lumbini. Then one night in Kathmandu back at Shechen, a final irresistible early morning walk around the Boudhnath stupa before flying of to Lumbini at 9 am. I was picked up at Bhairahawa airport by my young friend Birjesh – it was lovely to see him again – who took me to Panditarama where I was given a warm welcome by Sayadaw, Sayalay and the rest of the staff – as well as by the weather which is very hot and steamy. I’ve been here for three days each a bit over 30 degrees which isn’t too bad of itself but the humidity is the more difficult – lots of sweating going on, so lots of cold showers and sitting by the fan. Fortunately the rainy season brings much needed water to drive the hydro- turbines so the electricity supply is pretty constant – unlike winter when shortages mean no hot showers, dark nights and little heating.
This morning was my first full moon chanting at the Ashoka Pillar – the 2000+ year old monument raised to honour the Buddha by the ancient Indian warrior king Ashoka, who brought peace to a large area of the Indian subcontinent after his conversion to Buddhism. With the weather hotter there are less monastics around but there was a reasonable turn out nevertheless – with Nepali, Burmese, Korean, Tibetan, Japanese and Vietnamese monks and nuns in attendance, only the Thai contingent was missing due to a big ordination ceremony being held at their temple later in the day.
I sat and listened to the chanting then walked off for a while to look around the temple area to reacquaint myself with it and surrounds. There has been some upgrade work done both to preserve the archaeological ruins and to landscape the area. It was already getting hot just after 7am so an umbrella as sunshade was necessary. Fortunately I was sitting in the shade with a breeze at my back but some of the monks weren’t so lucky and ended up stuck in the hot sun for a while politely and respectfully waiting until all the different groups to have their turn to chant.
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