Tag: buddhism

Today continued a completely remarkable stay and experience. I hadn’t slept much, surprise!, and got up really early to walk the stupa. In the agenda, it had mentioned the idea that everyone would walk the stupa 108 times. I thought how cool to walk it early in the morning. I started around 5:45. It was quiet with just birdsong – so many birds – and i was able to walk for at least 30 min before anyone else came. Only a couple did, but one was Tandin. She brought up her prayer materials, set up a small altar for her reading chant and then started singing her chants. It was so beautiful. 

My notes below were taken from talks by Dorji Wangchuk over the course of our stay.

We were in the monastery built by the Bhutanese tulku often called Khandro Dorje Phagmo Rinpoche. The site of the monastery was established in the 8th century. Padmasambhava was fighting demons in Tibet from all directions. He had 25 disciples, a number of them were women, including Teshe Tsogyal (Tibet/Bhutan) and Mandarva (India). He sent one of his female disciples, Tashi Khuden, who was introduced to Padmasambhava by Yeshe Tsogyal. Tashi Khuden was sent to this area of Bhutan, to fight back the demons approaching Tibet from the south. She set up a temple and became revered. When she approached her death, she told her followers do not keep this temple fixed up and do not rebuild. Long in the future, there will be a Dakini who will come and build a new temple. 

The 15th century was the start of Dorji Phagmo. There was  a woman studying healing and was so helpful to the community that  the Iron Bridge Builder became her teacher. Today’s Dorji Phagmo is the 13th reincarnation – she’s considered a fierce/wrathful deity with the curved knife to curve through ignorance and there’s always been an edge to this lineage. There were predictors from the 12th Dorji Phagmo that the 13th would be born in Bhutan. People were on the look out, but not finding the baby. The 4th king (the present king’s father) was also searching for her. 

A baby was born with fur and marks all over her body, especially chest and shoulders. The village was horrified and wanted the family to kill or abandon her. Her father refused and put her on his back and walked to get an interview with the king. The king looked at the baby and said I want you to take her to these senior teachers. The king suspected that she was Dorji Phagmo, but wanted confirmation. They now say that Dorji Phagmo is the only rinpoche recognized by both the king and the senior teachers. 

On our first full day, we had breakfast that was actually pretty good with eggs and very buttered toasted bread. There were other options, but that’s all I could handle. 

We then had another ceremony – Reusangchu, The Mountain Smoke Offering – a purification and cleansing ceremony, this was also a high offering for the deities. They gave each of us a plate of a mix of 7 kinds of sacred grains and incense and a small juice box. We started this ceremony by being given the local dress outfits, a Gho for the men and a Kira for the women. We’d all sent in measurements before we left and the outfits were gorgeous. 

Dorji Phagmo gave us these gifts one by one. Both the night before and this morning, she’d had a very stern manner. However, as we started to all get dressed in this big room, she started smiling. Then she really smiled because my skirt was way too big for me and both a man and Landin were trying to figure out how to keep it on me. 

They managed to wrap a belt/string around me and off we all went to this wonderful ceremony. They had been chanting and then a few at a time went up to get their plates of incense to take to the fire. I have no idea what was happening with my skirt – with just underwear under it – but Tandin jumped up and was trying to fix it while I’m standing in front of the alter. I have a feeling I might have flashed a group. And it kept going because I thought she had stabilized it, but after I walked outside and put my plate of incense on the fire (to burn all my past/current obstacles)  and spread the juice around (not sure what that was about), I came down the hill and both Tangin and the guy who’d helped before both jumped to help me fix my skirt again! Hmmm.

Then a cool thing – at the very end of the ceremony when we were back inside, the last song was one that we sing. I found myself singing along. It’s startling to listen to all this chanting and singing and then suddenly there’s something that’s in my practice too. 

Dr. Dorji then gave another talk giving more details about Dorji Phagmo. One detail he added was related to the tradition of this lineage being fierce. Dorji’s sister is a nurse and was supporting Dorji Phagmo for some time when she was getting treatment for leukemia. His sister was making all the travel arrangements as well as health arrangements. She’d been able to get Dorji Phagmo to Delhi for treatment for four days of intense treatment. They’d had 2 days and Dorji Phagmo thought they were not respectful and she didn’t want to stay so she said, no, I’m done here, I want to go to Bangalore. Just make it happen. 

Then Dorje Phagmo gave us a talk about Tara and a short recitation mantra for us to do – I loved this. She doesn’t speak English and had a translator who was very calm and great, but Karula had a distinct presence even though she wasn’t talking to us directly. First, she had a senior nun come in for the talk and made sure she was sitting on a pad with an extra cover on it before she started. So wrathful, but loves her kids. 

People were tired, so we had choices after dinner and a lot of people went up to walk the stupa while listening to the nuns/monks chant an evening chant. Later, we found out that their last chant finished at 10. 

Rick’s and my room was next to the boys dorm room (I’m assuming, didn’t see it) and they came back after 10 full of beans and like the night before, played and chattered until about 11:30. The best thing about our room is that we had an overhead fan, Rick put on the water noise machine and we got some sleep.

Today was wonderful from start to finish. 

We started with another bike ride. Best bikes yet, actually. So we were all comfortable. We first visited a market that was fascinating, per usual. Fish still alive being set up for the market, sad, but meant they were fresh. All kinds of veggies and other goods.

We rode along a village road, seeing the houses and people. Later passing the driveway of the little boy who yelled and waved happily when he saw Pat. 

We then turned onto a much smaller lane, seeing the houses and gardens. At one point, we could hear music and Sam stopped us and said let’s go in. This turned out to be an impromptu visit to a musician who was at his brother’s house along with 2 wives and a couple of small children and a bunch of puppies, who were eating trash. The people were lovely and welcoming. The main musician was blind and Sam knew about him from the musician’s band that he had seen recently. The main singer was raising funds for this musician to be able to buy a new instrument. Turns out he had just gotten the instrument the day before and they were celebrating by practicing. Then Sam was given the same kind of instrument and he started picking out a song, then the others joined in. It was so much fun and Sam was just delighted. Really fun to see him loosen up and be so happy with this surprise stop. 

Scott tried too – it was an interesting instrument because the strings went between the bow and its strings. From looking online, I think it was a spike fiddle. The drum the brother was playing was clearly made of snake skin – they ate snakes here, not that we saw that on any menu. 

We continued on, seeing both water buffalo and Brahman cows. These cows were thin, some painfully so. Evidently they’re honored in the Hindu tradition, but when I asked Sam if that was how they were regarded in Cambodia, he said, no, we’re Buddhists and they’re used for plowing. Kellie said that their build was always thin, but it still looked like a hard life, though they were grazing just as the water buffalo were. 

We ended this morning ride at a Buddhist temple. First we explored the cemetery. They have a practice here of burying a person, within 3, 5 or 7 days, depending on how long they need to gather enough money to feed the monks and people who come to the service. The body is then buried for a year. At the end of the year, it is cremated and the ashes are put into a stupa. If a family can afford a stupa, they have their own. If not, they can rent space from a wealthier family. The stupas have enough room, some just enough room, to walk around in prayer. Evidently you walk counter clockwise for a burial stupa and clockwise for a prayer stupa.

Series of stupas, close together, but you could walk around each.

We then went to the actual temple (Wat Por Bonteay Chey area) with stories and traditions painted on the walls, and within were stories from the Buddha’s life. We walked into the temple and saw a technicolor buddha. Huge and mesmerizing with the lights. We gathered around a monk to get a blessing, instructed to sit with our legs going to the side, crossed if we couldn’t manage the side sit. This turned out to be wonderful. The monk recited from memory in Pali, a blessing for health and happiness, continuing for 10 minutes? It was meditative and I slipped into that quiet space quickly. Even when Sam took my phone and started taking photos and videos. I just let it go and listened to the chanting. A surprise gift. And we’d thought of canceling the morning. 

The monk gave each of us a blessing bracelet. 

Our last stop of the morning was to an artisans factory. Wonderful, weaving, carving, lacquering, all crafts that have been following old traditions. I found the silk weaving to be the most amazing. It can take up to 3 months and more just to set up the loom, the threads were SO thin!

We returned for lunch to the hotel and then Sam said he could add on another temple that Scott had wanted to see – the temple in the lake. It was so tempting to stay in the cool of the hotel, maybe go to the pool? But no, how could we not go see more.

Turns out this was a wonderful little temple designed for medical purposes.  It was one of the many hospitals that Jayavarman VII built in the 2nd half of the 12th century. We walked across a long bridge crossing a Barray – or a rain water collecting reservoir – to get to this small temple. The Neak Pean ,“the entwined serpents,” had two giants carved snakes which wrapped the center island temple in the small lake, we could just see the remnants. This was a  Buddhist temple built within its own small reservoir on the island out on the lake.  The center temple was surrounded by water at a slightly higher level than the 4 small surroundings blessing pavilions with their own pools at east, west, north and south points. A person could be blessed or healed  by going into the small pavilions and water would pour over them from the upper lake. This was also built by King Jayavarman VII in the 12th century. I’m so glad Scott asked to see it.

We then went to one more temple, before heading back. On our way up the main temple, we saw this small beautiful temple, one of the first and oldest that was built as a pyramid with bricks. Then we continued to the “sunset temple”  That’s my description. I guess Angkor Watt is for sunrise, this was clearly for sunset. 

The Phnom Bakheng Temple, both Hindu and Buddhist had the form of a temple mountain. It was built in the 9th century. Incredible By now poor Holly was starting to get really sick from the heat and Kellie belatedly realized on our way back down from the temple visit that it was probably the beginnings of heat stroke. And we’d left Holly for an hour sitting below while we climbed up and down. We were definitely on auto and not thinking well in the heat. This last temple was where people went to see the sunset.

The details of this skirt are just remarkable, and I loved seeing the monks at so many of the sites.

We came back and cleaned up and then kept going, though Holly stayed back and was able to cool down and recover, quickly going to sleep. We went by tuktuks to a wonderful restaurant that Sam had recommended. This was our first tuktuk ride, it was a great temperature and fun to see the city at night. Sam joined us for dinner and then we went via van to the Phare circus. 

Phare artists are students and graduates from Phare Ponleu Selpak’s vocational training centre in Battambang. The association was formed in 1994 by 9 young men coming home from a refugee camp after the Khmer Rouge regime. They were greatly helped during that time by an art teacher using drawing classes as therapy and wanted to share this new skill among the poor, socially deprived and troubled youngsters in Battambang. They founded an art school and public school followed to offer free education. A music school and theatre school were next and finally, for the kids who wanted more, the circus school. Today more than 1,200 pupils attend the public school daily and 500 attend the alternative schools. Phare Ponleu Selpak also has extensive outreach programs, trying to help with the problems highlighted in their own tales.

So cool mission, sweet little circus and the performers seemed to be having fun. I sent little videos home to Holly so that she could see that it was fun, but it was ok that she was missing. 

And back to the hotel for a free morning tomorrow before we all fly out. Me to Singapore and the rest home to CO.