Monlam World Peace Ceremony

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  Bodh Gaya, India
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Being part of the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo was certainly a mixture of experiences no tourist would ever have.  It was so much more interesting to actually be inside the butter lamp houses, counting unlit lamps, slipping and sliding on the greasy floor, getting coated in soot, and wondering how long the body can withstand temperatures of around 150 F before passing out.  Or handing out the flimsy banana leaf plates to rows of beggars squatting in the dirt by the side of the road, waiting for a meal of rice, daal, and potato curry.  People are funny.  Some would try to scam you out of a 2nd plate, some would complain if the plate had a small hole in it or the sides didn't curve up, one little girl even made faces like saying the food was no good after she got some.  But others would smile shyly and say thank you or put their hands together in namaste when taking the plate.  Sometimes people passing in the street, who weren't there to be fed, would smile or bow to you, as if to say thank you for doing this.  One very old man took my hand in both of his and touched his forehead to it, smiling a pretty toothless smile, and saying things I couldn't understand but the meaning was clear enough.  That is a memory I will carry with me.  Several of the monks and locals who help us I have gotten to know by sight if not by name.  My favorite is a hefty monk, maybe in his 30s, who helps in many ways, but his job during the beggar offering is to carry a big stick to keep people in line in case they get rowdy.  I think they chose him because of his size.  But it is truly funny, because a kinder, more gentle soul you could never find.  He does raise the stick at people and I have even seen him tap someone on the head with it, but I'm sure he would never hit anyone.  Our helper monks handled most of the offerings that were distributed to all the monks and nuns who were participating in Monlam.  There were daily money offerings, and we also gave out new robes, alms bowls, prayer wheels, some books, some thangkas and these little fold-up altars but I think the last 2 only went to the more important lamas.  There were almost 10,000 people there for the 10 days.  Not all monks or nuns, but it was always crowded during the daytime while the chanting was going on.  We (the volunteers) did get to give money offerings and katas (the long white scarves) to the head lamas each day.  4 of per day, because there were 4 different groups, one on each side of the temple.  I got to do this twice, once to the Nyingma lamas (3 of them) on the west side, and once to the nuns group on the east side.  There is protocol to be observed, and I was worried I would make hash of it, but I guess I did ok.  No one seemed dismayed.  When giving katas, they must never touch the ground.  You lay one on the table in front of the lama, and then usually he takes it and puts it around your neck.  The first time I did this, one lama never made eye contact with me, but the other 2 gave me the warmest smiles.  It was lovely.  I'm sure they realized I was clueless, but they didn't seem to mind. 
 
We had a fairly small group of Westerners as volunteers, about 20.  All have been associated with the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley or one of its foreign branches for considerably longer than I have.  Several live and work full-time at Ratna Ling or Odiyan.  All 3 of Tarthang Tulku's daughters were there, as well as 2 of their husbands.  There were 2 German women and I'm pretty sure everybody else was American, if I'm not forgetting anyone.  Except my roommate, Karen, who was my friend at Ratna Ling this summer.  She's Brazilian/Dutch and has been living in Amsterdam for the last 4 years, but now has made a 2 year commitment to Nyingma to work as project manager for the school they are building in Sarnath here in India.  I really like her a lot.  It was great to see her again and fun to have her as a roommate.  Now it seems rather lonely - no one to watch late night movies with on TV!  She says the same.  I admire her adventurous spirit.  I truly don't think I could live in India for 2 years.  6 months is going to tax my tolerance. 
 
The books finally started arriving on Tuesday night.  That gave us 3 days left to do what is normally done in 12 - a couple days preparation and then 10 days of Monlam.  Considering that, I think we did a remarkable job, magic almost how it all got done.  I know some people were working very long hours, but I didn't really have to work that hard.  I was happy to finally get some hands on sort of work. Wed. we helped slap labels on prayer wheels and fold the altars.  With lots of monk help, we folded 4000 altars in 2 hours! Thursday evening was the wildest.  From about 4 til 8 we were giving out boxes of books, mainly to the shedras or schools.  Karen and I manned the tables for boxes 1 and 2 and we were kept hopping continuously.  But Friday night was much quieter.  That was mainly monasteries with big orders that would come for 20 or 40 or 100 of each box.  But they just got a pallet and piled them up and usually another volunteer was "minding" them and counting boxes, so we didn't have to do much.  Ditto for Sat. morning, and then I had to pack up and leave around 5 PM Saturday.  Most of the others are staying for the Longchenpa ceremony that started today (Tuesday) and only runs 3 or 4 days.  There is a Theravadan ceremony after that, but only a very few will stay for that.
 
I will post a few pictures to try to illustrate some of the highlights.  The Mahabodhi Temple is a special, spiritual place, and it was wonderful to be able to spend so much time there, absorbing the atmosphere and making countless revolutions, walking, walking, around and around.  The crowds would jostle you, especially on the upper level.  The little old ladies were the worst - they can be really pushy.  Tibetans in particular, but Asians in general, do not have a sense of personal space like we do.  When you see them sitting in groups, they are practically in each other's laps, and this carries over to the way they walk in crowds.  Bodh Gaya is the place where the Buddha sat under the bodhi tree and became enlightened.  The tree growing on this spot today is descended from the Buddha's very tree, 2500 years ago.  That original tree was destroyed by the wife of a king who had converted to Buddhism (she obviously had not similarly converted.)  But a graft of that tree had been taken to Sri Lanka, and eventually a graft from that tree came back to Bodh Gaya where it stands today.  It is quite remarkable to sit under it and contemplate its history.  The town of Bodh Gaya, unfortunately, does not carry the same air of peace and tranquility as the temple grounds.  It is, in fact, about the dirtiest place I have ever seen.  Dusty, full of car exhaust, garbage everywhere, and people burn trash every night, plastic and all, so the air is toxic.  We were all sick.  I came down with the upper respiratory hacking cough, stuffed head, sore throat and fever about day 4.  The group doctor put me on Xithromax, which I actually took because I was terrified of getting a repeat of the Russian bug I had a couple years ago that took steroids and heavy duty antibiotics to kill.  The Xithro nipped it in the bud, thank goodness, and I felt fine within a couple days, except for the gross glop coming out of my nose and throat that lingers til today.  I have hopes the "fresh" (comparatively) mountain air of Darjeeling will cure me. 
 
So, first leg of the journey complete.  I have moved on to Darjeeling, which I love.  I suppose if you were coming straight from the US, you would notice the garbage in the streets, but to me it looks like Switzerland here.  It's cold, and there's no central heating, but I have my down jacket and I bought a heavy sweater!  The Kanchenjunga massif (3rd tallest peak in the world) looms over the town, totally snow-covered.  Back in the land of momos and thukpa - yum!  I have developed a taste for hot lemon ginger with honey, great for a sore throat and just plain good when it's cold.  That's it for now.
 
 
 

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prostration corner	Mahabodhi temple	beggar offering	wins prize for cutest kid
young book recipient	butter lamp houses	butter lamps	main Buddha statue   Comments!
making the circuit around the temple	the bodhi tree

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