I'm Like Yoda....In a Zoo, Send in the Next Group! - Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

So I'm in Kathmandu, Nepal, and it is fabulous! I may never want to leave here....ever. I may just end up being an expat here. Now what's really funny is when I tell the local Tibetans that they're always like "Yinney yang chu minduk, lok minduk, dewa minduk. Gareycheney kherang kyipo dukge?" (but also, there's no water, no electricity, no peace. Why are you happy?) Okay so of course I just wrote that to brag about my awesome Tibetan. Which really isn't that awesome, but we just took a one week intensive. And by intensive I meant for six hours a day, with two conversation partners each for an hour. And then, because I am sort of masochistic, a couple of us went to Nepali class for an hour a day. So basically I was in classes from 8 in the morning till about 7 30 in the evening, for the past week. But it's over and now it's awesome!!! On the other hand, my language skills have both tremendously improved, I no longer hate languages, and I really want to continue studying languages once I go back home. Also, apologies in advance if my grammar sucks...the tibetan and nepali grammatical structure is quite different from our own, and it's really done a number on my english skills.

Right now it's a really interesting time to be in Nepal. The november elections that brought the maoists into power is now a decision regretted by, I'm willing to bet, most of the population. For anyone interested in a humanistic perspective of the 10 year civil war in Nepal, I highly recommend the movie "Sari Soldiers." We watched it in class earlier this week, and no joke all of us were crying. But it really does a good job of presenting multiple perspectives and just how much Nepal has been torn apart from this conflict. Unfortunately, judging from what the Maoist have, or have not done, corruption, government inefficiency and caste is worse than ever before. However, the Maoists say that if they don't win the next election, they will return back to the jungle and restart their guerilla warfare...way intense and absolutely terrifying. Their example is followed by many disgruntled ethnic groups. Right now, they are rewriting their constitution, a big for a country that was, just a couple of years ago, a monarchy. One of the groups, known as the Taru, were angry that they were being lumped with what they considered to be a lower ethnic group called the Madeshi in the constitution. Both of these groups share the southern jungle of Nepal known as the Turai. Anyway, the Taru were calling for a Bandhe, which means that virtually everything would be shut down in the city for the day if their demands were not met. For the past month, they have been stopping trucks carrying goods from India, so food and oil prices have really skyrocketed... it sucks. So the strike was supposed to be today, fortunately the government for once acted sensibly and agreed to sit down to talk with the Taru. It's such a mess, but an interesting one. I'm sure this is only one of many scares to come. As my teacher put it, we're going to be in Nepal at the height of the demonstration season. excellent!

So in the less political scheme of things. We also had the opportunity to celebrate Holi on March 10th. Our teachers warned us that things get really rambunctious and gave us all the options of staying out of classes. But no one wanted to be inside because a. this is a ridiculously fun holiday regardless of the dangers of being a woman and b. because it was also the anniversay of the 50th March 10 Uprisings in Tibet. Oh and also I would like to insert here that I've been staying in Boudha (nath...no one ever says that nath) which is like Tibetan village central and has the most amazing view of the most amazing stupa ever. I promise to put up pictures, but internet bandwidth is precious...as is power. We've only had power for eight hours a day because of load shedding. If you think India power cuts are bad, these are eighty times worse. So anyway, it was really cool being outdoors on holi because we were definitely prepared. My friend Jyn and I had bottles with tiny holes at the top so we could squirt colored water at people. They call it "playing Holi" and the question "Are you Playing?" really had severe ramfications on clothing. For those of you who don't know, Holi is the festival of colors, and basically means that the day is spent throwing color powder, dumping water, and throwing water balloons with colored water at each other. It's brilliant and messy. For most of the night, my hair was blue like the wonder woman cartoon. hehehe. Of course it was nice when it was finally over, particularly because in Kathmandu, the pre-Holiday celebrations lasted about a month and involved being pelted with water balloons whenever you tried to walk anywhere. We would end up completely soaked just walking from where we had our classes at a Monastery called the Shedra (www.shedra.org) to our hotel near the Stupa. And despite the Stupa being apparently ridiculously holi, it didn't really stop anyone from throwing colored balloons in, around, and at the stupa and the people walking around it. But while Holi was a smashing success, March 10 anniversary was definitely not so.

Since last years protests against the Beijing Olympics, the Nepalese police have cracked down hard on the Tibetan movement. Things have also been rough since, surprise surprise, the Maoists came into power. Okay so maybe it's been a little rough since before then...in like 2002 I think there was a massacre of the royal family in which the crown prince drunkenly and madly macheted his father the king, and nine other members of his family before killing himself. Since then, it's been pretty much down hill for the Tibetans. From talking with our language partners, we heard rumors about how the Nepalese police would illegally detain Tibetans accused of being involved with any sort of demonstrations. It's been pretty hardcore. But then again, I don't know how much is fact versus fiction. In addition, on March 10th, the entire area of Boudha looked like a war zone....I mean besides all the people throwing balloons at each other the Nepalese police/army were all over the place. You couldn't walk ten feet without running into a group. They were pretty intimidating and so I'm no surprised things were quiet here. I would say that it was so sad, but that really doesn't begin to cover it. On the other hand, Tibetan buddhism really seems to be thriving here in Nepal.

As I mentioned earlier, we're taking classes at this place called the Shedra which is a monastery attached to which is a school for western scholars studying Buddhism. And these aren't hippie people, they are very hardcore and many are fluent in Tibetan, which let me tell you is in no way an easy feat. Virtually everyone I talked to, and I mean people who know like eight languages all in different language groups, say that Tibetan is the hardest language they know. So anyway, this Shedra is spectacular. While we were there the monks were in the middle of a nine day puja called the Drubchen Puja which is massive and involved virtually every monk in the monastery...and I mean even the little ones that are like eight and so cute. and I also mean for nine days straight. The huge ceremonies go from like 7 to 7 and then during the middle of the night, groups of monks take shifts to recite the neccessary mantras. On the last day (I think it was this past Thursday but my days are all fuzzy), a couple of my friends and I went at 3 in the morning to watch them take out the Mandala (where they've been putting blessed substances for nine days). We sat literally amongst monks and watched the ceremony for a good two hours before deciding we should head back to the hotel to catch some sleep before our intense Tibetan classes started. It was quite the experience sitting there. In front of me were the monks that had to play these massive drums that I thought were seat dividers before that's how massive they were. And behind me were these other two playing ridiculously loud horns. I jumped every time they played...it was phenomenal. lol of course the two monks sitting next to the horn players were just gossiping the entire time. I mean these monks that we were sitting near were probably around our age and no older than late 20s. But they were laughing and joking and pointing almost the entire time I was there. They must have been soooo relieved that this puja was almost over. I mean it's pretty exhausted. The younger monks could barely keep their eyes open in order to chant. Later that day when we returned to the school to start classes, the entire field in front of the temple was covered with lay people. This we were warned about of course, but it's still one to thing to see it as opposed to just hearing about it. All of these people were waiting for the blessing given at the end of the Puja. Our teachers saw how much we wanted to stay so classes were cut in half and we also waited with the lay people outside to receive a blessing. It was so damn cool.And when the Rinpoche came around to do the blessings, he saw me and was like "You're Indian!" Now I get this alot here from Tibetans, but it was funny to watch him stop the entire procession just to say "You're Indian!" and then proceed to talk to me in Hindi and figure out where I was from. And hey, no one else got to talk to the Rinpoche. Hahaha.

Speaking of Rinpoches, we've gotten to meet alot of cool important Tibetan people on this trip in Nepal. Every day we've had a teaching on "The Ways of the Boddhisattva" by Shantideva by Khenpo. Now a Khenpo is like the Buddhist equivalent of a Ph.D. except for that in order to get the title, you have to study for 12 years! All of you guys who hate school, imagine that! haha. but he is the sweetest. most awesome monk we have had the pleasure of meeting. Before his teaching I really really really was not that interestd in Buddhism, but he's really helped me see how I can apply just basic principles to my life. Also, he spoke no English and used a translator, so it was really cool to see the interaction between Khenpo and the translator. All valuable experiences I think. Monks can be the most amazing individuals. On the same day as the end of the Puja, some monks returned back from a 3 year meditation retreat. For 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, and 3 minutes they sat and they meditated. It's absolutely incredible. Plus only about half of the monks returned...the other half are doing the whole thing ALL OVER AGAIN. Second, just yesterday we went to see a Tibetan Lama whose a healer. Our teacher, Thinley-la has been seeing him for years for protection blessings and has been taking SIT students to see him for a long time as well to bless us before our trek. I mean, I personally am pretty skeptical of the whole thing, but he just has such a calm aura about him that it's incredible. He gave us all some protection cords, incense, and salt that is a cure all for apparently anything. After the lama, a couple of us went to a teaching by the Rinpoche mentioned in the title. He's the abbot of the Monastery and is absolutely hilarious. We've now tried to make plans twice to have a private audience with him, but things just keep coming up. The second time we saw him for two seconds and he gave us a blessed cord from an empowerment ceremony he had just done. That was when he told us that ridiculous, yet apt, quotation about being yoda. So his teaching was also amaaaaaaaaaaazing. And SO funny! the last fifteen minutes he just went on this ridiculous rant about how the english language was inconsisten because there's a difference between Bull Shit and Cow Dung. haha and of course his laugh is so amazing. It makes me laugh thinking about it. My friend Rebecca and I were talking about how much we love how Tibetans get into their own jokes. Even if the joke is not at all funny, you just have to laugh!! And of course it was really awesome when he gave a special shout out to us SIT students and blessed us again after the talk. I so appreciate being here. I think the last exciting event was two nights ago. We had asked for an example of South Asian Music as a group and so our teachers arranged a concert for us in which one of Ravi Shankar's sitar students with a flutists and tabla player accompanying. It was absolutely fantastic.

So that's pretty much how my week has been...next week is a lot more chill and alot more exploring the city. Our group knows Boudha, Naxal, and Thamel pretty well, but that's like a ninth of the total of Kathmandu. And I really can't wait to explore the rest of it. When we first looked out over the valley my first thought was that Dr. Seuss would be very happy here. The city planning is absurd and amazing all at the same time. For the two weeks after that we're going to Solu Khumbu to climb Mount Everest....okay so maybe I'm just kidding but we are going to climb to base camp, which I think is still pretty cool!!

Till next time. Galer Shoog!