At the nunnery

I have now been at the nunnery for 5 nights and am settling into a routine. It is beautiful up here on the side of a mountain an hour from Kathmandu. The ani (nuns) are really lovely, not many of them speak English, and most of those that do are too shy to say anything, but...I manage to get around. I have only held two classes so far. The first day I was here it was the day off, Saturday, then many of the Ani were away doing puja (prayers) in town so they wanted to wait until everyone was back.

The days are both long and short. The ani arise at 4:00 with the ringing of a gong. Puja in the temple below my room, I actually have my own room with a bathroom and...amazingly enough, hot water!, puja starts at 5:00. There is chanting and ringing of bells, blowing of big long horns and banging of drums. I often attend the morning puja, but...I get there a bit late. The power is very intermitent here and usually the lights turn off in the evening. The latest I have stayed up was until 9:00 after watching two movies with the Ani in the evening. An american movie August Rush, that was right up my expectations for the ani, and then a Korean movie, about a girl detective with swearing and fighting and killing? Not really bloody but still, not exactly my thought of what the nuns would watch, but they loved it, and I am not sure they understood the swearing, which at times was quite explicit.

I walk in the mornings. Have been exploring this valley and the villages walking paths that literally cross through peoples front porches. Everyone I meet is incredibly nice. Many of the children speak english as it is compulsory in school so they follow me and ask questions. Yesterday one young man, probably 10 years old told me that I walked very nicely and that I was a nice girl. How cute is that?

The Ani are terrific. They are, after all just young women. They all look younger than they are, some are quite young, 9, 11, but most are in their middle to early 20's. The other day they invited me to wrap prayer offerings with them. Small little tightly wrapped prayers that we would with yarn, all the girls sitting in a room, someone turned on their phone, they all have mobile phones, or most of them do, and there was Indian music, the phones they get mostly from China are like little boom boxes, really good and relatively loud sound.

That afternoon they asked me if I wanted to ride a bike. A bike? I thought, the roads are crap, dirt with big rocks and it is a serious downhill from here. But we walked around the back of the Monastery and one of the helper guys, a really nice young man who is mute and deaf, brought out a bike. The ani were learning to ride on the grassy, rocky, rutted but flat area in back. It was hysterical, all these young Ani with shaved heads hiking up their robes and trying out the bike. Wild!

It gets quite cold up here, there is no heat in any rooms, the Ani have only their robes when they do puja, and they must just freeze. The kitchen, which has a big wood stove, is where every one gathers at breakfast at 6:30 (if not delivered to them in the temple as they do puja), and then late breakfast ? at 8:00 and tea at 10:00 and lunch at 12:00 and then some other tea at 3:00 and then dinner at 5:30...getting the picture? If I thought I would loose weight here because there wouldn't be a lot of food I was mistaken. Also they want to treat me so they fill my plate. I have actually had to put back some rice at dinner, can you imagine me turning down rice? Anyway the food is quite tasty, filling and not terribly nutritious I imagine yet highly caloric, what a wonderful combination. Lots of rice, dahl, but somehow tastier, thinner and less hot than Indian dahl, potatoes with some hot chillies, and noodles, lots of packaged ramen. The other night my dinner was white rice, potatoes, some dahl a bit of something green like bitter mellon maybe? and some tibetan tea. Tibetan tea is milk and water and butter and salt...mmmm doesn't that sound good? It is hot though, and it is wet, and I will drink it.

And...oh yes, we are going to India. Can you beleive it? The nuns are going to a special puja in Buda Gaya, I am not sure how to spell it, it is where Lord Budda attained enlightenment. All will go, or almost all, it will be two days on a bus to get there and two days back, we will be there for 7 days and they will be doing puja from 4:30 am to 4:00 pm every day. I am of two minds about it. I really am not keen about returning to India, but...this will be such an experience, and a gathering of thousands of buddhists from all over nuns and monks and several well known Rimpoche's. I will sleep together will all the nuns in the same room and be free to wander around all day. I think I gotta go.

And speaking of which, I am using an exceptionally old computer at the monastery and a dial up connection with 32 kbs this could take all day to send, so...until next time...
Namaste