Tibetan art

After the visit to the Karmapa, we went to the Norbalinka, the institute for training in traditional Tibetan artwork. It was absolutely beautiful.

The training program for painted tankas, or ceremonial Buddhist paintings, takes three years. Students learn how to prepare the canvas, measure the figures exactly (the Buddha's proportions were measured from his reflection in a body of water, and no depiction of him is considered auspicious unless it conforms to those proportions). They then learn how to make all the colors (which were originally made out of rock) and do these gorgeous, really detailed paintings. There are also woodcarving and metalworking students, but my favorite is the fabric applique tankas (pictured).

People cut, glue, iron, and sew all the separate pieces to make the tankas. The tanka in the temple at Sarah is a huge fabric applique one, and it was so awesome to see them in the process (the nun sewing the pieces places all of them together so I could take the picture).

After lunch, during which I practiced my Tibetan with Geshe-la, we wandered around. Their gift shop sold painted tankas, bed sheets, stuffed animals, and gold Buddha statues. They Oslo took credit cards (when you see that weird charge, don't worry about it, dad!)

At night we had dinner in the guest house dining hall with all our roommates. It was a lot of fun to eat together, practice Tibetan and english, and make a lot of jokes. There was one particularly funny moment when I was spelling something in Tibetan to Hong Kong. One of the Tibetan letters is pronounced "ah," and after I spelled it, Hong Kong made the same noise, which we often do when we understand something. Her roommate then cracked up since it sounds the same.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

A 25 year old reincarnated lama

We had an audience with the Karmapa on Friday.

For those who haven't been following, the Karmapa has recently been accused of stealing money and being a chinese spy by the Indian government. He is also really important in Tibetan Buddhism, second to the Dalai Lama, and is being talked about as the new political leader of Tibet when the Dalai Lama no longer is.

Julia and I went to prayers with Sonam, and Nellie joined us for breakfast and dressing up (we may be in india and refuse to shower in cold water, but we all still do makeup when we meet important people). We all got dressed in our chupas (Sonam even lent me her Tibetan flag pin to wear) and went over to his monastery. For some reason i was nervous the whole morning. After waiting and going through security, we walked up some flights of stairs to an incense filled landing. Then we walked into the Karmapa's quarters. The first people started prostrations, but the aids told us not to, so we lined up and offered him katas (white scarves) which he then placed back around our necks. Then he offered us envelopes with blessed strings and special pills in them. We were seated on the floor and he sat on a couch.

We asked him about the differences between our lives and his life. He said he had a lot of restrictions, but it was for the sake of tradition so he seemed to accept them. Anna asked a great question about reconciling Buddhist thought on emptiness with the Judeo-Christian idea of God. His response sounded like he meant that they were two strands of the same idea, which I'm not sure is really true. The answer was kind of confusing and hard to follow, though. He also talked a lot about non violence and particularly internal non violence, which I like because it pretty much emphasizes not being too hard on yourself.

The karmapa also gave a ted talk at tedindia, which is not the best ted talk I've ever seen but is informative on his life and also really cool because now I've met him in person.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Debate

On Wednesday in philosophy class we got a taste of Tibetan debate. Debate is traditionally part of the monastic training here, and since ani-la is a nun, when she and Ryan got into an argument we got to watch and participate.

Picture this: while having a normal discussion in class, Ryan and ani-la dispute a point. Ani-la gets up out of her chair. She stands in the middle of the room, in nun's robes with a shaved head, and begins to debate. While asking a question, she steps with her left foot and stretches out her left hand. Her right hand makes a gracefully circle over her head, and the end of the question is punctuated by the smack of her left hand on her right.

In traditional debate on the grounds, the questioner stands and steps, while the opponent kneels. There are only four answers you are allowed to give, so the pressure is high. Debate ground can be really loud when you walk by. Apparently ani-la debated the monks at Sarah (who are novices or recently ordained) and schooled them.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

...but the colors are amazing

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

...but the colors are amazing

Black mountains, white snow, blue sky, yellow sun, pink rays, purple mountains, orange sunset, green leaves, brown earth.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

We can see our breath...

The mountains. And Julia.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Lost in translation

Going abroad means existing in another language.

More than eating different food all the time and lacking heat, running hot water, and a multitude of other creature comforts, the language barrier makes getting around difficult. The other things can be trying, but once you adjust your mindset, you can deal with almost anything. Not being able to communicate, though, makes life hard.

Today, Julia, Liz, and I walked to Gagal with our recently purchased fabric in search of a tailor to make us real Indian suits. Claudia, who is ahead of the game, already has one and gave us directions to the tailor she used.

Apparently, none of us have any command of the English language anymore, because we initially ended up in the wrong shop. The lady tailor we encountered did not speak a word of English, and we don't speak any Hindi. I never would have thought it would be so difficult to explain that I wanted someone to sew me a shirt and pants, especially because you can point to it, but we just could not get through to her.

We left and went across the street (Claudia told us later this was the correct shop), where they people inside the tailor (which was the size of a hallway) spoke minimal English. Enough to specify long or short sleeves, and to tell us that it would take one week. Hopefully we will look like real Indians by then!

This evening, Geshe-La gave a talk on the rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. He spoke in Tibetan with a translator, and I kept thinking that it would have been so much more educational if we could actually understand Tibetan. It didn't help that I misheard peacock feather as pickled feather, which created a lot of laughs when I finally figured it out later.

In other words, oy vey.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6