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.