Rest and Relaxation in Boudha

It is Wednesday afternoon the 8th of January and I'm sitting at my favorite guest house, the Lotus Guest House, here in Boudha in the Kathmandu valley. , I leave for the US from Delhi in exactly one week, and it has been almost four days since I left the monastery.  I've been keeping busy by doing some shopping, I'm terrible at it, especially when it comes to buying presents, which is what I've been trying to do, doing some sightseeing, I traveled to the nearby city of Patan to see the very old and historic central part of the city and its great museum which is located in the old royal palace, doing a lot of walking so I that I don't get out of the good habit I established at the monastery, doing some reading, and getting a lot of rest.  I've also been working at keeping warm,  I have to eat some crow when it comes to this, I'm always the one for whom it is never to cold, but I have to say I've met my match with winter in the Kathmandu valley.  The first fact you need to know is that there is no heat, except at the Hyatt down the street a ways, and the nighttime temperature this time of the year is in the high 30s to low 40s, and it is always damp in the mornings down here in the valley.  The temperatures where much the same up at the monastery but we were above the mist that hangs in the valley like a cloud, if fact in the AM we couldn't see the valley for the clouds of mist below us.  I brought what I thought was warm enough clothes but i'm afraid I misjudged, I needed one step warmer wool clothes than what I brought.  Fortunately, I brought a warm sleeping bag which makes the nights comfortable, but doesn't encourage getting up in the AM. The days are in the low to almost mid 60s and are warm enough as long as you are in the sun or out of the fairly constant breeze.  Let me just sum up this rant by saying the weather lets you know that you are alive.

I've also had a chance to catch up with some friends that I met at the Buddhist teaching and retreat that started out this trip back in early November.  Many of them are students at the Buddhist College for westerners run by one of the local monasteries, and since the college's winter break lines up nicely with the western holiday season many of them have left to visit family and friends back home, but enough of them are still around or have come back for early review classes that I have company at what seems to be everybody's favorite breakfast place, Toast Restaurant.   I've also shared dinner with a few of them two nights ago, including an American who just graduated from Brown who went on a five week retreat after the teaching that I attended, so it was fun hearing stories of his time on retreat.  All in all it has been a relaxing few days here in Boudha, and I'm ready to head to Delhi on Friday for a few more days of sightseeing before the long flight back home.  

Last Few Days at the Monastery

Tomorrow I will be leaving the monastery to spend five days in the Kathmandu valley doing a little sightseeing that I postponed when I accepted the invitation to come to the monastery to help with conversational English.  After those five days I will take a one hour flight to Delhi, where I will spend four days resting and doing a little more sightseeing, before catching a flight back to the States on the afternoon of January 15th.

The past few days here at the monastery have been a flurry of activity.  Thursday was the Ladahki version of Tibetan New Years, called Losar, which is celebrated for three days.  It started out with a 5 AM, more of less, ceremony up the hill at the monastery Shrine Hall, which required getting up sometime after 4 AM in order to get there on time, and then climbing the same 200 plus steps I've talked about before in darkness.  Lots of extra people had arrived the day before, some of them senior monks, some new teachers and some family of the monks, so we had quite a crowd for meals.  The meals were particularly good, extra food is always a great way to celebrate here.  Other than the morning ceremony and another ceremony on Saturday the monks don't have any scheduled activities for the three days.  So, like at the picnic, there was lots of soccer, card playing, groups talking and laughing and some music and dancing in the snack bar, which was specially decorated for the occasion.  It has been a great end to my almost month and a half of living here.  

There are so many thoughts I have about the life here at the monastery but I'm going to have to wait a little until they all settle out in my mind before I write about them.  But for now, suffice it to say that it was a great learning experience for me, you'll have to ask my students if it was for them, and it allowed me to get outside for regular walks and those in turn led me to loose a bit of weight.  I know I could have traveled more and seen many more places and sights, but sometimes one can see and learn more just by standing still.

P.S.

Wednesday I went for a walk in the afternoon, this time by myself as Khenpo has left to visit an ailing Uncle in India, it was a beautiful day for a walk and for once I remembered my camera.  And, it turned out, it was an unusually clear day and I got some better snow mountain photos, which I include with this post.