To answer a request from brother Billy, I am gonna go into a little more detail about Boud Gaya and this adventure. I apologize in advance for 1) being long winded, I still have not learned the art of brevity, and 2)to those people who love to travel and stay in India. My perceptions are my own and it is perhaps my lack of vision and imagination that brings me to experience India in the way that I do. I certainly mean no disrespect.
Okay with that...
At the Gompa. It is a dust bowl, but then to me that seems endemic of the entire town. A squat complex of cinder block or brick buildings probably 6 or so set around a large enough to drive a couple of buses into courtyard. The ground is all dirt. The buildings are yellow, where they are not smeared with dirt and grime. Our room is on the 3rd floor. A large room, the size of two good sized star of the sea classrooms, is lit by only one working flourescent bar light on one side of the room only. We have placed small futton mattresses, although they really don't feel like they have any padding, against the walls on either side, mattress aside mattress, heads against the wall, with a middle path for walking. I sleep in the corner on the entrance side of the room, the older ani sleep on this side, the younger ones are across the isle, or so it seems. There are 20 mattresses lined up, but I think we are only 15 in this room. There are three rooms of us.
The bathroom is next door. It has a long sink when you enter with 5 faucets looking like outdoor faucets to which you would attach a hose. One long tray drains them all down a hole in one end, that hold is just that, a hole. There is a corresponding hole in the floor under the sink, but no connecting pipe so water just drips, and inevitably, falls all over the floor. This sink is used to brush teeth, wash dishes, wash clothes, feet, faces etc. As a result there are remnants of rice and noodles, toothpaste and laundry soap pretty much anytime you come in. The floor is filthy because it is wet, and when you enter from the dust trap outside into the wet tile floor, well, it gets muddy.
One of the things I learned early, because I didn't have to keep a schedule, if I waited until all the ani were gone to prayers and then a bit, the cleaning lady would come and spray the floor down and wipe it with her twig broom, that is when I would go and have my shower, use the toilet, brush my teeth.
The toilets are squat holes, as expected, not particularly clean with all these women using them. And...it turns out that the ani can be really piggy, leaving paper and trash everywhere.
The showers actually have shower heads, although I think that is for decoration as I have been unable to get water out of them. Instead there is a faucet that sits about hip high. So...on goes the cold water, and I squat under that faucet to wash my hair an the rest of me, desperately trying not to get any water in my mouth.
Then...off to the Temple. The road is full of rickshaws either moving ot the temple or asking you if you want a ride, or auto rickshaws loaded with at least 6 ani or monks or both. I think we had 10 in one once, that included me standing on the back grate holding onto the roof!
You can walk, it isn't far, it is squeamy though. Rank water sits by the roadside and who can tell where the cars and rickshaws are gonna go...so...mostly I opt for some ride. On the way to the big temple though, is an absolutely beautiful sight, it is the Thai Buddha temple halfway between our gompa and the big temple. It is stunning, the grounds are beautiful and the temple itself really is a serene oasis in this chaotic place.
As you approach the big temple there are small stalls along the road selling all kinds of things from shawls, to prayerbeads, to images of Buddha and Tibetan crafts. Then come the kids selling face masks, cd's, flowers for offerings, prayer beads, post cards, you name it. They are in your face as soon as you mount the outside steps. Then in the complex itself, before you enter the temple, are more stalls selling more...stuff, and outside stalls as well. Then come the beggars, small girls with babies on their hips, deformed boys crawling on the ground, little kids. They may have no education, but they all know how to say hello madame, which htey repeat and repeat with their hands out as you try to walk through. If you give to one, you are in trouble, the group magnifies, even if you get your wallet out for any reason you are immediately engulfed. And I should mention the dogs. There are dogs, oh yeah and goats everywhere. Not too many cows but some. The dogs all seem to have varying degrees of mange, and look awful, they eat from the myriad of trash heaps leading to town, and will sit waiting for any scrap you may want to toss of anything you happen to be eating.
Then the temple, you have to fight through the sellers of items to actually get to the entrance, and then you are in. The temple itself is quite old. Not sure how old, seems it was added to over and over again, and it is impressive. Still one is bothered by the obvious litter. I must say though, that I see people cleaning all the time, there are just so many visitors. And maybe that is a good thing. It is a very approachable place. The buildings are not really to go into like a big temple or church, they really just house a statue of the Buddha, or different structures house different statues. Most of the ground near the Bodie tree itself, a 5th or 6th generation supposedly of the original tree, it is walled off, only recently I understand, because of pressure on the tree's roots. There are grounds that are covered by tents and lots of small structures, little monuments, or rises that one can sit on, not sure what they are for, but sitting on is probably it. Some of the grounds are planted around some of the sturctures with roses and chrysanthemums and those little gold flowers all over India, loosing the name at the moment, sorry.
In many of the open spaces at the temple level, they have prostration areas. Chock full of small wooden platforms, about the width of a small bed set up on two bricks in the front and like half a brick in the back, so that they slope upward. The platforms are polished smooth by the work of the people doing the prostrations. Usually they place a pad underneath where their bodies will hit, and another for their head. They use pads under their hands that slide them forward so that they can land on their knees then belly and then put their forehead down with their arms outstretched, and then they pull themselves back to standing and do it again. Over and over, it is quite wild to see.
Because of our ceremony, the place was packed to the gills with people sitting everywhere they could. on platforms under some tents set up for the occasion and just anywhere.
To enter the immediate temple area, where we sat for the prayers you have to go down a flight of stairs. All shoes must be removed before you head down. If you don't go down, there are two grassy areas where you can sit and still hear the prayers. When the Lama was speaking though, there were two chanting groups going at the same time so it was a cacaphony of different prayers in different asian languages. Kinda fun and kinda skitzo at the same time.
Outside of the temple proper is a magnificent meditation garden. No one is in there. I found out that it costs 100 rupees if you want to go in and meditate. I could pay 20 rupees backsheesh though and get a tour, which I did. It was really beautiful.
I forgot to mention my favorite place. Also in the area surrounding the temple is a little tea shop, outdoors, with three beautiful, dirty, but beautiful young boys working. Everyday I went and had a tea, or a puree or a lassie, or sometimes all three there, it was a good thing.
Out back, through the main entrance and the swarm of beggars is a road with a row of restaurants. These are all tented structures with hanging lights serving mostly Tibetan, Bhutanese, or some form of asian inspired food. Mostly I have gone with the Ani and we have momo, either steamed or fried, or noodles of some sort. The food can be dull or tasty depending on the place, I have been too frightened to look in the kitchen of any of them, but...I have not gotten sick yet, so...that is good.
And that is my detail of Boud Gaya. It is warm, about 78 degrees and humid, I am gonna get out from this small dark internet place and try to enjoy the last day. Now that all the hubub of the Karmapa Lama prayers is over, it is more peaceful and less...aggressive. So...out I go. Leaving tonight back to Nepal!
Cheers
