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 77^th 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. 

dizzy photos

 Sayadaw U Pandita with attending monk and nunSAt

 Sayadaw U Pandita during the Dhamma talk

 Assorted bunch of monks - false of not??? - in the Maya Devi garden

 Monks chanting in the garden

 Thai pilgrim group

 Sri Lankan pilgrim group

 Looking out of Nepal to India  - the border gateways

 New gate being constructed at the centre

 Kathmandu artisans making decorative pieces for the gate

 Artisans and drying cement decorations

 Visiting Burmese monk at the centre - Saydaw U Nyanajotti

Nuns from Kathmandu on a day visit for talk with Sayadaw U Pandita

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.

Flying to Lumbini

 Buddha Air from Kathmandu  - good to get a seat on the mountain side of the plane

 The cranes arrived not long ago by their own steam from Siberia - the largest flying birds in the world  - so I hear

Am still writing the next episode but these photos in my collection - taken recently - caught my eye and thought to share them. I have been struck by some weird virus - a was taken to my bed for a few days too dizzy to stay upright for long but well on the mend. Lots of rest, fresh air and a short rickshaw ride to sit in the Maya Devi temple garden has been part of my R & R. recovering just in time for the arrival of the senior teacher in this centre's tradition of meditation - Sayadaw U Pandita - an old monk about to turn 90. This has brought a few changes about to life here at Panditarama Lumbini. As yes, the centre here is named after him and he is final authority on all that happens - although generally day to day this is not usually apparent. So more to come about these next days soon.
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.

Photos for Ordination, bus and Kathmandu

 Scrubbing pottery sherds   -  washed pieces drying out

 Nwe Mu, Tin Tin Win and Moe Thu - Aunty T's Burmese nieces

 Sunset - Lumbini

 Ordination ceremony

 Offerings after ceremony - Sayadaw Vivekananda third from front

 Celebratory lunch at the Burmese temple

 Early morning - "mini" bus waiting for departure to Kathmandu

 Driver and ticket office

 Conductors alert for business

 Lunch stop

 Kathmandu city street with views over to mountains through smog

 Venerable Nyanaponika

 Clever Boudhanath dog - can read English!

 Tired dog -  too many pilgrims to watch

 Pigeons also get free feed and water in Boudha

 Kathmandu city street with some local shoppers

 Patan Durbar Square

 Patan guardians

 Patan museum

 Half god/half goddess image in museum

Final day in Boudha circumambulating the stupa with pilgrims

An ordination a loooong bus trip and Kathmandu

Today was the last day of work for me with the archaeological team. Scrubbed a few more pieces of old pots this morning then finished off sharing a farewell cuppa with four of the team at the local tea shop accompanied by some cake I had brought along from the centre. I was hoping to score a lift in their bus to Kathmandu – have planned a trip there to deliver some documents, including my one-year visa application. I’m not sure how long I will end up staying but the current visa I have expires mid February – it’s nearly been 3 months I will have been in Nepal – time has flown by and in some ways I’m only just settling into life here.

My days are fairly leisurely in a meditation centre sort of way. This morning I woke up at 2 am and sat up to meditate for a couple of hours before then doing some lying practice. As often happens in this position I dropped off after some time and work up at 6,30 just in time to get over to the dining room for breakfast – buffulo yogurt with apple, home made wholemeal bread with buffalo cheese and tea. This is my regular morning fare but occasionally I get special treatment from the Burmese ‘nieces’ and a bowl of Mohinga or Kow Shwey (fish soup/coconut broth) appears at my place at the dining table. I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve this and many other little treats but it is very pleasant. I also seem to be able to do what I like – come and go, stay in my room and meditate or do yoga, go to Kathmandu etc etc.

In the few days before heading to Kathmandu there was an ordination ceremony at the Burmese temple. A Burmese Australian man from Coffs Harbour – on a pilgrimage to the Buddhist sites in India and Nepal - took robes temporarily, and also a Burmese woman pilgrim became a nun. The monk’s ceremony was much more elaborate and formal, with monks coming from India to make up the required numbers - while the nun had her head shaved, slipped into her robes and that was it (I missed that bit as I was on my bike chasing up the water filter man who had just arrived in Lumbini from Kathmandu by bus and was lost.) After the ceremony it was photo time –many still and video cameras were in action an Westerners are such a novelty. I think thee are more photos of me floating around in strangers cameras than there are in all the family albums. Then I was invited to stay on for lunch where I had a chat with the Aussie monk and with a Finnish woman Taria who was the guest of some people attending. She was taken for my sister - had pale skin, blue eyes, light hair, comparable facial features – relative to Nepalis - and was around the same age (do all Westerners look the same?!!!!)

Have I am now  in Kathmandu - been here for four nights – and leaving tomorrow morning back to Lumbini. It’s been good to have a bit of time to myself as well as do some useful tasks for the centre. I took a “mini” bus to Kanthmandu and was assured  - twice - that it would take 8 hours max. that it would leave at 7 am (“arrive by 6.30”) and that there would be only two passenger stops and a lunch break. Mmm – a bit of an interesting interpretation of the situation. The “mini” bus (as compared to a “micro” bus which wouldn’t come to Lumbini as I was only purchasing one ticket) was an old rattler with many seats but these only made for very short and skinny people. I was packed in with a large Argentinian tourist although there were many empty seats at this stage. We finally headed off about 7.30 – fortunately I had decided that 6.45 was early enough to arrive . We then proceeded to Kathmandu – yes there were two big stops at bus depots, but also  stops at any place along the road where there were potential passengers, and a stop for lunch and two tea stops. There were two bus “conductors” – young guys who hung out the door of the bus attempting to entice people to come to Kathmandu with us. We were a mixed bunch – me the only Western woman, the Argentinian, two South African guys, families of holidaying Nepalis returning home, various locals hitching a short leg of the trip and three Indian Sadhus with tridents (Shaivites)– one who refused to sit down for the whole journey. This was quite an accomplishment as the trip actually took 11 hours (admittedly that included the stops). I had a really pleasant Nepali woman sitting next to me  for most of the time– the man moved  - who could speak a little English and shared a few snacks. There was also a sweet young girl about 13, with her mum, who chatted with me at lunch to practice her English – a favourite subject at school. The road was pretty narrow once we headed up into the hills from the plains, and it is the main route between India and Kathmandu – so plenty of traffic. For quite a time we looked from the bus down into the Trisuli River – a steep drop off the edge of the road – where a number of vehicles are known to have dropped off

The bus finally ended up at the city bus park after dark around 6pm and then I had another 30 minutes in a taxi to get to my guest house – food and bed – heaven. The trip was something not to be repeated again too soon but it was interesting to see the country in this way – usually I go to Lumbini by plane – which is how I’m returning even though it’s a lot more costly ($109 compared with 430 rupees for the bus – about $6.30).

The main reasons for the trip were to deliver visa applications and to meet up with a lawyer who is working on a brief for the protection of the Lumbini environment.  I spent three hours in his office the day after landing In Kathmandu discussing the issue and presenting him and 2 colleagues with a range of hard copy documents and downloading more into his computer from a portable hard drive I had brought from Lumbini. He kindly got his staff to cook lunch – a traditional Nepali meal, which I don’t get to eat that often.

I then had a long walk from his office into Thamel the main tourist area of Kathmandu to buy myself a few new clothes. Having packed so many extra “needs “ in my pack from Oz I realised that I didn’t have so much to wear. Clothes shopping is really not my forte –so  I ended up with a few things that I’m not sure I really will use courtesy of two vey smooth sales men – but will wait and see.

The next day I had two meditation centres to visit. The first stop was Venerable Nyanaponika’s monastery, a Nepali monk I had met in Oz 26 years ago when he accompanied the senior monk and meditation teacher Sayadaw U Pandita as his translator.  This centre was where the Venerable Mahacara – the monk who had had pneumonia was staying. He was flying back to Malaysia that day and I had a few things to pas on to him before he left. It was great to see him so recovered  - he was effusive with his thanks, to me and all others who had some part in supporting him during his illness. He really was pretty lucky to be alive. Then off to another centre to drop off the three visa applications  - one mine – that have to do the rounds of three Government ministries before final approval. My tourist visa expires on Feb 15 and it’s unlikely the new visa will be ready by then. I have been assured I won’t be thrown into prison for overstaying my visa – hope this is right! I met a journalist in a tea shop the other day who invited me to visit the women’s prison to see how appalling the conditions were – an invitation I considered taking up but in the end it didn’t work out.

Next chore was chasing up a spirometer.  I think I can safely say that a new one does not exist anywhere within Nepal, because I’m sure I went to every medical supply store in the capital, also dropped into two local hospitals and asked medical staff and rang a few other suppliers. This piece of equipment is needed in Lumbini to conduct some tests on school children to see if their lung function has been affected by pollution – (the longer version of what this is about I will leave for another time).

So with the main chores accomplished I have been lying in – have had internet access in my room so can sit up in bed and check emails, indulged in a few treats – found fresh strawberries in a street stall in central Kathmandu 2 days ago   - a luxury I was hoping to repeat and share with Lumbini-ites but not another strawberry to be seen since then, a cappuccino and bread and butter pudding in a roof top café overlooking Boudhanath stupa, breakfast in the garden in the sun at the guest house and some hot showers!!!!!! My first hot shower  for  6 weeks was the morning after the bus trip (and yes, I have washed in the interim but out of a bucket).

Today I took a taxi (actually 2 – as the first one broke down half way) to Patan, a World Heritage Listed area in greater Kathmandu, took a look at the museum and walked around the old section where there are some beautiful old buildings. Now I am sitting upon my bed my last night on the loose before the flight in the morning. It’s been hectics and pleasant but enough for the while. If other adventures are to be had I will hope to head up into the hills rather than to the city. But in the meantime there are busy times ahead as the centre is getting ready for and then having Sayadaw U Pandita visiting from Burma  for a few weeks. Then soon after that Sayadaw Vivekananda is off for two months on his annual teaching tour. Not sure how this will be for me and what I will do over this time.

Another thing I have been doing here is having a bit of a look at Oz real estate on the internet.  It was a bit of an unnerving experience I have to say -  I realise I am no closer to knowing what to do – perhaps even less so as it has been out of my mind for the last few months. But I’ll have to sort it out sooner than later I reckon – Lil needs a home and so do I – at least as a base to take off from and might be good for others in the family to use too. Send good real estate vibes to me and I’ll trust that when I get back it will all be fine.

Photos of the red rocket and odd assortment

 Moe Thu - volunteer on the way to market in centre's rickshaw

 A slow means of transport - well loaded with grass from around the temple complex

 Local resident outside centre gate

 Pheasant coucal - sometime resident of Panditarama

 Swami and me outside Maya Devi temple

 Local resident around the Maya Devi temple area

 The Library at Lumbini - Dr Cuppers  the coffee supplier works here

 A bad but difficult shot with zoom of part of a flock of endangered species - the Saurus Crane - coming in from Siberia

 The red rocket outside centre gate - ready for action

A morning meeting of local crows