The day started a bit colder. A beautiful sunrise, breakfast and we were up and away. Clare was refreshed and not feeling so weary as the night before, although her bruises looked pretty awful. One was black and about 8 inches round on her leg!
The mountains were looking closer although I can’t quite work out why, maybe it was the angle. As we walked we realised we could pretty much see the whole range, even far to the east to where Everest lives. Not that we could identify any of them, just as rows of jagged teeth.
We were slowing ascending and looking out over the valleys in the hazy sunshine. Layers of misty hills as we headed East.
Our next destination was to stay at Nammobuddha the place where Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama ) fed himself to a hungry tigress and her cubs and therefore sacrificed himself. He was reincarnated afterwards. Not many tigers around now I suspect.
While we were walking a woman hailed us from a homestead, to our surprise she was English and from Hertfordshire. There was a Nepali chap holding a baby and Clare asked if we could go down to see them and have a cuddle with the baby. Clare loves a baby (I couldn’t eat a whole one!) We went to say hello and met the young woman who initially told us the baby was hers but, actually this wasn’t so, she was on a “work away scheme” and was just happy to see us. Clare had a cuddle with said baby and of course we were asked to stay for tea but, Rajkumar wanted to get going and I didn’t blame him. Clare’s short stops are of a somewhat indeterminate duration especially when there are babies to hold. We always seem to be in a time warp, the day just flies.
We started to see different styles of buildings, older and not earthquake proof. Not too dissimilar to old barns in the UK some of them.
At some point we managed to walk past a party going on in a forest and we joined in of course. The ladies were all dancing and delighted when we danced with them. They were singing along to the Nepali songs and doing all the arm and hand actions, all very expressive, I didn’t have a clue what they were singing. Rajkumar virtually had to drag us away! Dancing v uphill slog, well what would you choose?
We eventually walked up to the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery, this is Buddhist Monastery (Tibetan practice) where we would be spending the night.
The complex is large and home to 350 Monks, of which 130 are children and all are male. The boys are from poor homes and are offered education and food, clothes (red robes) and shelter. We saw the boys playing with sticks just like all other boys, pretending they were weapons or running along the many pathways, jostling each other.
Rajkumar gave us a tour of the Monastery and it was utterly sumptuous inside. As before, no photography was allowed. The main colours were red green and gold, it felt slightly Christmassy to me with all the hangings and the pillars covered with long strips of bright fabric. The walls were painted with the different Rinpoche (religious teachers of high standing) through the ages, including Milarepa who attained enlightenment in one lifetime, (having started off using dark arts to kill people). And of course the huge gold Buddha statues at the back with tiny Buddha statues in little glass cases behind (all 1008 of them). The benches for the monks are padded with carpet. They face into the middle of the room in long rows.
Afterwards we wandered up the steps to the top of the hill to view the prayer flags and the huge complex that is the Monastery. Actually I raced Sabin and was absolutely knackered when I got to the top, he is 24, what was I thinking?
Dinner was called by a gong and we made our way into a huge room with little platforms and tables for the Monks to sit and eat at. It was mostly children in the hall and Rajkumar said he thought it was because many Monks may have gone to thier family homes in the winter. We also sat on little wooden platforms but, I put my feet on the floor as I cannot sit cross legged that comfortably. There were several other guests including some sat in a different part of the room and Rajkumar explained these were family members of the children. Metal bowls were handed out in a well oiled process, then cutlery and then dinner, soup and dumplings. This was served to the Monks first and then in the same manner to us. No one ate till a little bell chimed. The food was delicious and the boys were offered seconds (we were too) and at the end the bell chimed again and a boiled sweet was handed to the boys as they left the hall. Clare felt it was very reminiscent of boys having dinner at Pilgrims school Winchester.
We then headed to our rooms in the Monastery Guest House where we had a tot of whisky or rum ( clearly we are not Buddhist) before retiring early, mainly because we would have to be up very early for Puja (prayer).
The Travelling Bee 