On the road to Tansen
The rooftop view across Tansen from my homestay 
A typical Tansen streetscape in the older part of town
Friday, March 11, 2011
Hilly photos
On the road to TansenThe rooftop view across Tansen from my homestay A typical Tansen streetscape in the older part of town
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Heading for the hills
After three plus months at a meditation centre I have been feeling the need for a bit of an escape. Iit can get quite intense and sometimes oppressive being there as a helper – what with all the yogis going through their inner turmoils and the staff upholding a certain demeanour that sometimes begins to show the cracks when interacting with each other – no doubt myself included. However, I do have the aussie cultural tendency to and the luxury of being able to speak my mind more openly - so in this case I did and said I needed a break. I have been worrying and thinking too much about what to do when back in oz re houses and dogs and supporting myself etc – which has contributed to the desire for time out.
So took a taxi – with Birjesh at the wheel - and we headed up into the hills above Lumbini – a 2 and a half hour drive with a quick stop in Butwal, a large town, for a brief snack of local bananas and muesli bars before winding our way up a narrow and sometimes rocky road looking down into a river gorge to Tansen. The views were wonderful – with terraced fields laid out along the hill sides running down to the river and small settlements of mud walled thatched roofed houses dotted on the slopes.
We got to Tansen at lunch time and Birjesh and I sat on the hotel terrace and ate a traditional Nepali lunch of dhal bhat tarkari – dhal, rice and curried vegetables with piickle and pappadams on the side. The view from the terrace was quite something – looking down over the town of mutli coloured houses and into the valley below then across to the far of hills. As I had to move from this hotel, the Sreenagr, the next day I spent a quiet arvo walking down into to town for a quick look and to sort out a room for the next night. The hotel sits on a ridge 2 kilometers above town and has views south down to Tansen and the hills beyond and to the north is the giant Himalayan range – amazing views.
I met up with a lively local Man Mohan who runs a tourist info office from his home. He has a small homestay so I booked a room situated on the roof for the next nights and after my one night at the Sreenagar walked down the hill with my pack to my new home. The room is little
(and pink) but the bed backs onto the window, which looks out over the roof tops of Tansen and beyond. Out the door is the roof top terrace where I have spent some pleasant times chatting with the irrepressible Mana Moha. And just this moment his son brought me my cup of morning chiya – so I am typing on the bed with tea on the window sill with the noises of birds and people waking getting ready for the day ahead drifting through.
Tansen is a charming town set out up the hillside with many steep streets and houses of bright aqua and green and pink as well as the more traditional earthy reds and browns. This is a town with a large Newari population - who havea distinctive architectural style – featuring timber roof struts and carved posts and window frames. So I have explored the town and yesterday had a 3 hour walk into the countryside through villages of earth houses with tidy vegetable plots and terraced fieds of wheat. Accompanied by Man, we firstly went to the college where he teaches business and tourism. I became the lesson for the day and in front of a small class of 5 students talked about my perceptions and experiences of Nepal as well as asking them about their lives. The two young female students - 15 - were very shy but started to open up as the time passed. At the end of the class I took a group photo then Man and I headed off. It was a beautiful clear sunny day and the scenery was gorgeous. The walk was made even more pleasant with the addition of several stops along the way for refreshments – freshly made samosas and tea, a pepsi further on and an invite to a past students home for another chiya. We finally reached the valley floor and caught a very packed local bus back up into town. I became a interesting diversion for the passengers - at least for the first few kilometres when it became apparent I wasn’t that exciting. Arriving back into Tansen we finished the outing with some buff momos and ginger soup.
Although I walk everyday, I realised that the plains of Lumbini haven’t given my calf muscles much of a work out and they are now experiencing the effects of walking in the hills again – a good feeling.
So have been having a lovely time but seem no closer to any answers to my questions of what to do back in oz, which I have been asking here every morning when I wake but so far no great clarity arises in my mind- oh well – Ke Garne – (Nepali – What can I do? Sort of equivalent to the Aussie “whatever) Maybe I’ll be back in oz before long to try to deal with things from there or stay and suffer the apparently unbearable heat of a Lumbini summer and agonise over it from here! In the meantime I will try my best to enjoy the simple pleasures of Tansen before heading back to Lumbini and life at the meditation centre – where some retreat time might be in store.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Photos from the last Blog blurb
The banner and band members at the Ashokan pillarWednesday, February 23, 2011
Some time alone after a busy week
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.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
dizzy photos
Monday, February 14, 2011
Feeling Dizzy
Recently I have been feeling strange – dizzy, nausea, headaches – not sure what the cause (maybe old age or maybe the stress of deciding whether to buy a house in Melbourne at auction from Nepal! No house bought - it was quite cute but also quite exe - at least for me but maybe not for Melbourne. Had Pixy and Adz and Meang on the job.) Once the worst of the symptoms settled and I could get out of bed without totally spinning out I had strong need to be outside in the fresh air. I went down to the Maya Devi temple garden to hang out and watch the passing parade. It is probably the cleanest and quietest accessible place outside the centre, which is what I needed after being confined for a while and feeling delicate. A lot of people come and go into the garden here including monks and nuns of various traditions either from local surrounding monasteries or visiting from various countries. Frequently these monastics are accompanied by a group of their supporters who are travelling on pilgrimage to all the major Buddhist sites. The people on pilgrimage often choose to wear white – the colour of purity – and so are very distinctive as they weave around the garden looking at the various points of interest. Sometimes the monk leading a group will have an attached mike and amplifier or megaphone and give a running commentary as they walk around – not so peaceful! Or they sit in a group and receive a talk, or chant and meditate together. In their devotion (if somewhat misguided - at least for the preservation of the ruins) pilgrims throw milk and coins and various other things onto various sacred objects or use the remains of 2000 year old stupas to sit on for a rest or to have their photo taken on.
Lumbini, being Buddha’s birthplace is high on the list of pilgrimage places – although it is slightly inconveniently located in Nepal while all the other main sites - the Buddha’s place of enlightenment, where he gave his first sermon, where he died – as well as various other sites related to his teaching life are in India. This means a trip over the border for this one place. I recently heard that India is creating some other Lumbini to keep the tourist pilgrims within its borders. At this stage it seems unlikely that it will succeed in redirecting people. But it is often the case that the large pilgrimmage groups doing a flying visit to Lumbini, sometimes in and out of the country in a few hours – the border is about one hour away.
Other people to be seen in the garden are general tourists either Nepali’s on holiday, who do generally have some sense of veneration to the Buddha, at least as part of the Hindu pantheon, and foreign travellers on there to or from Kathmandu or Pokhara. Also there are, in Sayadaw Vivekanada’s words, “false monks” locals in robes who hang out for long periods of time aiming to look ‘holy’ while scrounging for donations from unwary and devout pilgrims. And the local staff, a local police presence, a variety of bird life and the odd dog, squirrel or monkey are there too. So an interesting mix to sit observe.
A few days ago I travelled to the border with 4 yogis who needed to renew their visas. It wasn’t a very inspiring place but it’s the closest I’ve been to India for some time. Sunauli – the Nepali border town is a dusty busy strip of hotels, moneychangers, food stalls and shops with lots of people and traffic on the move. I do still have a few months left on my Indian visa before it expires so maybe I’ll try to do a bit of a trip somewhere in the interim. While waiting for the visas I walked over the the tourist info office and chatted to the tourist police who as it turned out I had met when taking the monk to hospital a month or so ago. They were very friendly and gave me lots of freebies to give to people here at the centre. After the visas were I went with the yogis to Bhairahawa, where they proceeded to make the most of their day of ”escape” from retreat and indulge in some serious talking, a meal out, the use of the internet, shopping and ice-creams at the supermarket.
At present the retreat with Sayadaw U Pandita is going on – and all the people who came down from Kathmandu are settling down into the retreat. They have made a few demands on me, after finding out that I have been helping out with people’s needs – and I also get some of the complaints. One of which was about bells not being rung to end a session – I’ve missed two - which was due to my forgetfulness and getting caught up with work on the computer or talking with Sayadaw. So although I may have been watching the time for the last 45 minutes the critical bell ringing time seems to fall in the midst of some other task, which means the meditators had to sit patiently but uncomfortably on until they realized that the hour was well past. Obviously bell ringing is not my forte.
At present at the centre there are also a couple of young men from Kathmandu staying here hand making the decorative cement work for the new back gate. They are vey lovely and quite talented. I have been swapping language lessons with them during theri evening meal - am trying to learn Nepali but it's a slow process - I don't get a chance to practice much and my skills as a linguist are virtually nil - school girl French was my last real foray into learning another language. But I was heartened by an English woman today who has been here a number of times and speaks passably good Nepali although says she was also very slow. I meet some interesting people here - Sandy, called Santi here is in her 60's and is a volunteer teacher in a local school. I sat outside the Nepali temple today drinking tea talking with her and the resident monk, Venerable Sagaradhamma who is fluent in English. He organised the tea and then invited me to come for a meal sometime.
And the other evening just before dark while I was having a short walk one of the rickshaw drivers - a young teenage boy called Ali, who was on his way home - offered to give me a free ride. When I asked why he wanted to do this he said because "you are my friend". So I finished the day yesterday with a ride around the waterways surrounding the Maya Devi temple area at sunset - very lovely.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Flying to Lumbini
I took the photos of the cranes just outside the boundary of the temple area. It was quite a treat to see 3 of them together.
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