Around the Wet Kathmandu Valley with the Passage Students

In Boudhanath, Kathmandu:

Rice transplanting underway in my neighborhood Boudha on the east side of Kathmandu. Before the monsoon, rice is planting in tight bunches in a small section of the field, and when they reach about 10 inches are transplanted into rows in the flooded field. As you can see, new residential construction is rapidly replacing the rice paddy in the Kathmandu Valley.

Local women carrying hay from the community-owned forest in the hills north of Kathmandu. This is the method that 95% of Nepalis transport goods, and usually women collect fodder to bring back for the animals.

Nyungnay (Simple Living) Retreat at Nagi Gompa:

A nun walking around the inside of the lhakhang (chapel) at Nagi Gompa during the Nyungnay fasting retreat in May. I attended two sets of two-day fasting retreats, which include one meal only on the first day. During the retreat, the practitioners begin chanting prayers and making prostrations at 4am, until 6pm. In this fasting practice, no one is allowed to speak, drink water or even swallow their spit, as well as observing the 8 vows (no killing, no stealing, no lying, no sex, no intoxicants, no purfume/jewelry, no eating while fasting, and no sitting on high seats).

Here Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is ordaining two Nepali young women (one Tamang, one Newar) to be novice nuns, at Nagi Gompa, on May 31, 2007.

My friend the Newari (Maharjan) monk, Lama Monlam. Lama Monlam has been a monk since he was 14 (56 years ago) at Nagi Gompa, on the northern slope of the Kathmandu Valley rim. He has spent many years in solitary meditation retreat, and now has his own small gompa (monastery) near Swayambhu on the west side of Kathmandu.

Passage Project for International Education, Summer tour:

I brought our Passage students to see Lama Tsering Wangdu, a realized master of meditation and ritual. He threw dice to divine the most karmically appropriate Tibetan name for each student. Lama Wangdu will be traveling to the United States in about a month for a few months, see if you can catch him in New York, Boston, Portland, Seattle or one of the other cities he'll visit!

A semi-traditional Newari wedding scene, with each the bride's and bridegroom's families' brahmin priests standing by to conduct their parts of the ritual union. Our Passage students attended this wedding (and I think a few may have gone to the after party...) as a culturally enriching experience.

The very beautiful Newari bride (Yanik Srestha's cousin for those who know him) in all her finery, trying not to cry. I've noticed that many South Asian brides shed tears at their weddings. I don't think it's an indictment of the men, but rather the sadness of moving away from the joint-family home of their parents into that of their husbands.

A traditional folk band at the wedding.

An amazing collection of traditional wooden Newari hookha. Newar men have been fond of the sheesha for many generations.


Chapgaon Monastery:

One of the many beautiful trees that grow in Nepal, next to the unpainted gateway of the monastery in Chapagaon.

Some village women chanting prayers together in the monastery in Chapagaon. They meet every morning, and nowadays since the weather is pleasant there are about fifteen that assemble. It is interesting to me that they they chant devotional prayers in Tibetan (Guru Rinpoche, Amitabha), some dharani and mantra in Sanskrit, and then sing devotional hymns in Newari language.

July's Cute Monk Photo:

Our Newar monk Ngedun Gyatsho (Ocean of True Meaning) playing a game on one of our youngest, Rangjung Dorje (Naturally Arisen Diamond).

Exporting with a Cause

Next week I will be sending a few cubic meters of manufactured items from Kathmandu to New Orleans via Sea Cargo. It should take about two months for the boxes to be driven to the coast in India, and slowly make a journey halfway circumnavigating the earth to our favorite dirty port city.

It will mostly be prayerflags of various sizes, and I'm including some scarves, clothes, wallhangs, doorhangs, prayerbeads, Nepali paper, soap and incense as sample items (to feel out the future market potential) and as gifts.

In the future I hope to set up regular shipments of certain items to raise awareness and money for the education of monks and nuns in Nepal. I have worked closely with both the Khari nuns in Tramo village, Khumbu Nepal, and the monks at the Vajravarahi monastery in Chapagaon, Nepal. We have already begun to teach higher Buddhist philosophy to the nuns in the mountains. It is rare for nuns to study philosophy here. I am also already sponsoring one lama to complete a traditional three year mediation retreat, and hope to continue doing so. We are also hoping to turn the monastery in Chapagaon into a training center for monk translators of Tibetan to French, German, Chinese, English, Spanish, Nepali and Newari.

Otherwise, I've been spending my time helping out our six summer Passage students and working on a Tibetan translation for some Nepali Dharma friends.

Some Things May Last a Long Time

Congratulations Lee and Chokey!

Lee and Chokey Rostosky, friends who were married last week. Lee is from Philadelphia, Chokey is from a Tibetan family in Nepal. Congratulations, Tashi Delek Bumsumtsok!

Me with local activist Sakya Suren and the historian/retired politician Bhuwan Lal Pradhan. I have sponsored a translation of Bhuwan Lal Pradhan's history of the Vajravarahi temple in Chapagaon, which we will edit and publish in English this summer, for the sake of the local tourists, volunteer workers and researchers who cannot read Nepali easily (like me!)

Some Tibetan Art:

One of two similar thangkas (Tibetan scroll paintings) that I had commissioned recently from a family of Tibetan artists I know. The central figure is Samantabhadra/Kuntu Sangpo (All Excellent One), who represents the Dharmakaya Buddha, the truth body of the Buddha. The bottom left image is of Vajrasatva/Dorje Sempa (Adamantine One), who represents the Sambhogakaya Buddha, the psycho-cosmic body of the Buddha. The bottom right image is of Padmasambhava/Guru Rinpoche, who represents the Nirmanakaya Buddha, the emanation body of the Buddha that is physically born on earth to help people. All three images are in "playful union," representing the inseparability of wisdom and compassion, or wisdom and method, or emptiness and appearance.

The monk Rabjam Sangpo holding up the veil curtain to the thangka painting. The thangka is typically matted in stylized silk, with a veil to cover it if desired. I usually keep the thangka veiled, since it is esoteric in subject.

There is a beautiful simplicity to the beginning stage of the thangka painting, basic line drawing.

View from the roof of the monastery in Chapagaon of the himalayan mountains to the north, shrouded in clouds.

Burnt Offerings of Various Sorts:

Here Lama Wangdu and the monks and ngagpas (lay Buddhist tantric adepts) are circumambulating the fire where a great variety of various substances were ritually offered to the peaceful and wrathful deities on behalf of the deceased.

Lama Wangdu wearing a black bird hat. I think this has something to do with a death ritual where there were symbolic offerings made of the ego of all present to the birds, but I'm not sure at all on that point, I'd have to do a little research.

A particularly nice burnt offering chimney at the Norling Resort, where Lee and Chokey were married. On many occasions (before rituals, on holy days, at high places like passes, on the roof, etc.) various fragrant herbs and auspicious substances like white flour will be offered to the buddhas, bodhisatvas, protectors and local spirits who either enjoy the flavour or can gain sustanance from the fumes, oftentimes to placate beings who could possibly have malicious intentions.

Lee Rotosky, the groom, offering fragrant herbs (like juniper) to the burnt offering fire.

Some Work, Some Play:

Me on my Royal Enfield Indian Bullet 350cc motorcycle in my suit after Lee and Chokey's wedding.

A few days ago one of the older monks arranged a football (soccer) match against a local team in Chapagaon. We drove about 4 kilometers down to Sunakothi town, where there was this fantastic field (large flat open spaces with grass are quite rare in Kathmandu), with a beautiful panorama of the Kathmandu Valley rim mountains. I played sweeper, because in Nepal I am the huge guy with the strong kick, compared to the skinny short Nepalis. It was fun, we tied 2-2.

Cute Monk Photo of the Week:

Happy Buddha Jayanti!

Today is the full moon of the month of Vaisakh in the Buddhist Lunar Calendar, and is celebrated as the anniversary of the Buddha Shakyamuni's birth, death and enlightenment. As such, it is considered to be the most holy day in the annual Buddhist ritual calendar. Although the Tibetans consider this day (Saga Dawa'i Tsewa Jo Nga) to be next month, let us not split hairs and yell out a hearty Buddha Saranam Gacchami (I go for refuge in the Buddha) if we feel so inclined, like the marching school kids have been this afternoon:

This morning for the full moon, we performed a feast offering ceremony at the monastery in Chapagaon. It was the first time many of the young monks participated in this particular ceremony, or even attended it. They requested me to sponsor it, and I heartily agreed, $60USD well spent, if you ask me, as I have a connection with the ritual: the Lama's Heartpractice Which Dispels All Obstacles, the Essence of Enlightened Activity (bla ma tugs sgrub bar che kun gsal sphrin las snying po gshugs), a short version of an offering feast to the protectors and dakinis combined with an essential tantric practice involving the meditation and recitation of Guru Rinpoche, Avalokitesvara (Compassion) and Amitayus (Long-life).

Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche (The Precious Master), was the historical Tantric super-adept who is credited with bringing the esoteric form of Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th Century. Many rituals in the school of the Earlier Translations (Nyingma) involve visualizations of him, who is considered to be inseparable with the Buddha and one's own teacher.

One of our twelve year olds, Jigme, reading prayers this morning in assembly.

A local Chapagaoni sitting calmly in meditation during this morning's rituals.

IN OTHER CHAPAGAON GOMPA NEWS, last week His Eminence Phagchog Rinpoche spent the night at the monastery. He had a nice opportunity to interact with the monks: Rinpoche gave some teaching, made offerings to the assembly, and had time to watch some evening futbol matches.
Phagchog Rinpoche meeting with the monks.

Phagchog Rinpoche chatting with the monks.

We also developed plans to give specialized language training to monks that show promise as translators for the future. We have selected two for Newari and Nepali language, two for Chinese, two for English, two for French, two for Spanish and two for German. It will be a challenge to find suitable teachers that can come to Chapagaon for the monks, but we will work hard now to plant the seed of these languages in their young minds, so that in the future they can become expert translators. That said, if anyone wants to come and live out in Chapagaon Nepal for a while as a specialized language instructor you are most welcome!

In Celebration of New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival: Parades!

Dustin' off the mitts after a bit of climbin'.

Oh I am missing my Jazzfest these days!

Although my experience of parades and religious processions of various sorts in Nepal cannot compare to what I've witnessed (and done) on the streets of New Orleans during the magnificent celebration of the pre-Lent carnival anticipating Mardi Gras, two parades last week reminded me of the fun of getting out in the street, maybe a little drunk, to beat some drums and yell and throw things at God for whatever reason, in whatever form, may it be Bacchus or Rato Macchendranath or the Buddha.


MERIT BUILDING PROCESSION BY THE BARAGAON VILLAGERS:

Shot taken from my balcony looking north towards the Kathmandu Valley. A line of about five hundred Newari villagers from nearby Baregaon coming to make offerings to the images of the Buddha in our monastery. The villagers have recently erected a new stupa (reliquary mound built as a basis for worship for future practitioners), and to commemorate the great even they walked on an all-day long procession to all of the surrounding villages to have darshan (holy vision) of the images of the Buddhas and other dieties and to make offerings to gain merit.

The local lovelies: Newar women wearing their traditional black saris.

Beat them drums! The wicker tray on the ground is the pile of offered rice, coins, food, candy, candles, incense, etc. given by the villagers in circuit.


THE FESTIVAL OF THE BODHISATVA KARUNAMAYA/ RATO MACCHENDRANATH:

The chariot of the red Karunamaya (popularly known as Rato Macchendranath).

The wheels of the chariot go round and round... slowly, some days not at all. When Karunamaya comes to your neighborhood, it is important for your family to provide a feast for all visitors (friends and relatives from other places), and to generally party. I dropped by the large family of some Newar Dharma friends of mine, and was forced to eat a plate of 6 kinds of blessed food from a ritual and then a 10 course feast tray. If I hadn't been vegetarian, it would have been a 14 course meal!

Ganesh, the obstacle clearer, is probably the most ubiquitous deity dwelling in the Kathmandu Valley, and here he is (as is common) enshrined on the streetside in the form of a rock that resembles an elephant head.

A local village low-caste girl (who I mistook as a boy at first) waiting by the pile of offered food as the offering procession goes by. She patiently sat there until the monks gave her some of the food, and she happily skipped away. A beautiful but hardened face for the young age.

Here the great chariot has run amok into the neighborhood homes, and a crane is pulling it loose from the roof. The locals won't fix the chariot until it falls completely over (which is as dangerous as it sounds, people die in this festival all the time), so it is still marooned in Jyatha Bahal as far as I know, inching along as the locals heave on the massive ropes, taking windows and watertanks with it.

A lovely stupa in pastel colors, near the Sundhara (Golden Waterspout) in Jyatha Bahal, Patan.

Every festival has its vendor of gaudy Chinese toys! This guy is probably wearing all white as he is in mourning for one of his parents.


CUTE MONKS PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:

Living in the monastery has truly tested my personal boundaries. I thought living with my brothers in a New Orleans Mid-city shotgun house was bad. I no longer have any privacy at all. The little monks come in my room whenever they like (I can't lock it as they have to come through to gain access to the roof). They take small things as they like (vitamins, incense, lighters, matches, water bottles, candles, clippers, razors, etc., which can be aggravating at times. I can't blame them, though. They share everything and don't realize that everyone doesn't always share everything. Anyway, a few of the monks found my camera and had some fun, about which I didn't discover until uploading the photos on the computer. Luckily for us, they took a couple of good ones, including this glamour photo of Rabjam, age 14.

The monk Ratna Mangalam, one of my best English students, teaching one of the new monks from Ilam, Nepal, how to read the Tibetan script.

A Reminder: Death and Impermanence

This has been a week of death. I heard that today was a national day of mourning at home. My heart and prayers go out to all those affected at VT this week, and to the Nepali families of the four Nepali UN contractors killed in Afganistan. Everything that is born must die. Although that sounds obvious and trite, how much a difference if we pay attention and remember!

Childhood friend and fellow Troop 10 Eagle Scout, Tommy Robinson, should be emerging from the intermediate state between death and rebirth these days. Traditional theories of reincarnation teach that most normal beings spend about 49 days in the intermediate state. He will be missed.

But, with death, comes birth...

And after winter, spring has come to Chapagaon!

...which gives us roses, as well.

Props to Shyam Karki for his photos of Chapagaon, the red rose, and the soaking wet Nepali baby.

Back in India!

I have arrived with ease back in McLeod Ganj (Upper Dharamsala), Himachal Pradesh state, India, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama has made his home in exile. I will attend his March 4 to 14 public teachings on the classic 8th Century Mahayana Buddhist text by Santideva: Bodhisatvacaryavatara (Entering into the Conduct of an Awakening Being). I will return to Kathmandu on March 15 by air from Delhi.

I have travelled here with two other Nepal Fulbright scholars, we had to walk to the Kathmandu airport because of a general strike in the capital on Wednesday, but had no trouble upon arrival in Delhi, where we hitched a cab to the amazingly clean new light rail metro, which we rode to the budget tourist hippy district for shopping and food. After a great cheap Indian meal, we took the metro to the Old Delhi Train Station, and caught the 9:15pm overnight sleeper train to Paratganj. We arrived refreshed from a gentle train ride sleep at 7.30am in Paratjanj and took a bus to Dharamsala, and I am very excited that I have met up with my two old roomates from Kathmandu, Dan and Amber, who are both working as TA's for Emory University's Semester Tibetan Studies program in Dharamsala.

My birthday was on Feb. 24, and I celebrated it in a new way. Instead of having a party with booze and cake for me and my friends, I wanted to do something for the monks at the Chapagaon monastery. Therefore, I sponsored a Tara (female buddha) offering ritual in the morning. For the ritual, I had to distribute blesed food and money to all the monks (tradition of generosity). We then had a vegetarian feast, about ten friends came to dine with me and the 45 monks at Vajravarahi. I then went on a long walk around the countryside and played futbol with the monks in the evening. There were enough leftovers from the feast to feed all 50 of us again at night! It was one of the greatest birthdays I've had, inspired by Newari tradition of giving.