It's about time to give an overview of my classes (I'm still working on how to describe homestay, because it's so awesome and so out of the way I traditionally think of things that it's difficult to put into words. Suffice it to say that I really am enjoying homestay and it forces me to think about a lot of things really differently than I would normally). Classes are much easier to put into context for people not in India.
Tibetan class is just ridiculous. Tibetan has many different scripts, but we're learning the most basic one. You don't pronounce all the letters in the words, there are superscripts and subscripts, and there are things called "particles." If anyone knows what a particle is in English, please fill me in, because it might help. Also, we learn how to say things like "the cat is on the table" in class, which isn't helpful because I want to say things like "I'm going to Stephen's house. What time is dinner? I will be back at this time. Do you think it will rain today?" I normally end up making sarcastic comments, which elicit a "huh?" from Tashi Sonam-la, because sarcasm doesn't translate. I also crack up at least once a class, and have gotten berated for saying things in Tibetan "too harshly" (Tashi Sonam didn't use the word harsh, but he would have if he'd thought of it. Being from New Jersey strikes again). Thankfully, Amala and Pala are teaching me how to say more useful things.
Philosophy class is AWESOME. Partially it's amazing to learn from a real live nun, inside His Holiness the Dalai Lama's temple (our classroom moved when we came up to Mcleod), and partially I really enjoy Buddhist philosophy and am finally feeling like I can ask pertinent philosophical questions. Buddhism asserts the existence of a separate mind (from the brain and the body, while allows for past and future lives), which I have trouble accepting, and also asserts multiple consciousnesses (this is complicated, and about three people reading actual care, so I won't get into it, but I am really interested and so class is really good). We have memorization assignments which I find really difficult while learning and normally end up yelling at Julia while she gives me looks that say "why don't you know this already?" but at the end I feel accomplished and it's made me want to memorize poetry.
Culture class is hit or miss. I really enjoy some sections, and others I sit through (like the one on the day where I could have been making capse at Sarah. Honestly, is that not culture? Whatevs). Today's class was great. We had a guest speaker named John who is an archeologist and scholar of ancient Tibet. Pre 7th century, when Buddhism was imported, most Tibetans practiced the Bon (pronouned bun) religion, which is kind of a pagan religion. He had a lot of cool facts, and told us about how there are sites in Tibet dating back to 800 BC with metalwork, funeral sites, and other stuff. Or like the fact that oral histories record dragon sightings (Sara: they are very auspicious, bringing good luck and fertility) and that according to some stories, the whole wheel of existence rests upon a golden flaming turtle (Megan!). This reminds me of the book with all the turtles stacked up. I really want to read that book now, but I can't remember the name of it, so please help me out. Mostly I like the idea of everything resting on a turtle.
We also met with Ama Ade yesterday, a woman who spent 27 years in Chinese political prison for aiding the Tibetan resistance early in the PRC takeover of Tibet. She spent 3 years with almost no food, and of the 300 women who began the time in prison with her, she was one of four to survive. They ate shoe leather because the Chinese only fed them water and minimal amounts of cornmeal. The other three people survived because they had been given the task of feeding the pigs, and always kept some animal feed for themselves, but Ama Ade was the only woman without any other source of food to live. Her story was amazingly sad and powerful (she had a one year old and a four year old at the time of her imprisonment) and it was a real honor to meet her. The opportunity to speak with so many different types of people and learn about their lives is the real beauty of this program and the best way to learn about the culture, so I kind of wish we just had talks and field trips all the time.
Tibetan class is just ridiculous. Tibetan has many different scripts, but we're learning the most basic one. You don't pronounce all the letters in the words, there are superscripts and subscripts, and there are things called "particles." If anyone knows what a particle is in English, please fill me in, because it might help. Also, we learn how to say things like "the cat is on the table" in class, which isn't helpful because I want to say things like "I'm going to Stephen's house. What time is dinner? I will be back at this time. Do you think it will rain today?" I normally end up making sarcastic comments, which elicit a "huh?" from Tashi Sonam-la, because sarcasm doesn't translate. I also crack up at least once a class, and have gotten berated for saying things in Tibetan "too harshly" (Tashi Sonam didn't use the word harsh, but he would have if he'd thought of it. Being from New Jersey strikes again). Thankfully, Amala and Pala are teaching me how to say more useful things.
Philosophy class is AWESOME. Partially it's amazing to learn from a real live nun, inside His Holiness the Dalai Lama's temple (our classroom moved when we came up to Mcleod), and partially I really enjoy Buddhist philosophy and am finally feeling like I can ask pertinent philosophical questions. Buddhism asserts the existence of a separate mind (from the brain and the body, while allows for past and future lives), which I have trouble accepting, and also asserts multiple consciousnesses (this is complicated, and about three people reading actual care, so I won't get into it, but I am really interested and so class is really good). We have memorization assignments which I find really difficult while learning and normally end up yelling at Julia while she gives me looks that say "why don't you know this already?" but at the end I feel accomplished and it's made me want to memorize poetry.
Culture class is hit or miss. I really enjoy some sections, and others I sit through (like the one on the day where I could have been making capse at Sarah. Honestly, is that not culture? Whatevs). Today's class was great. We had a guest speaker named John who is an archeologist and scholar of ancient Tibet. Pre 7th century, when Buddhism was imported, most Tibetans practiced the Bon (pronouned bun) religion, which is kind of a pagan religion. He had a lot of cool facts, and told us about how there are sites in Tibet dating back to 800 BC with metalwork, funeral sites, and other stuff. Or like the fact that oral histories record dragon sightings (Sara: they are very auspicious, bringing good luck and fertility) and that according to some stories, the whole wheel of existence rests upon a golden flaming turtle (Megan!). This reminds me of the book with all the turtles stacked up. I really want to read that book now, but I can't remember the name of it, so please help me out. Mostly I like the idea of everything resting on a turtle.
We also met with Ama Ade yesterday, a woman who spent 27 years in Chinese political prison for aiding the Tibetan resistance early in the PRC takeover of Tibet. She spent 3 years with almost no food, and of the 300 women who began the time in prison with her, she was one of four to survive. They ate shoe leather because the Chinese only fed them water and minimal amounts of cornmeal. The other three people survived because they had been given the task of feeding the pigs, and always kept some animal feed for themselves, but Ama Ade was the only woman without any other source of food to live. Her story was amazingly sad and powerful (she had a one year old and a four year old at the time of her imprisonment) and it was a real honor to meet her. The opportunity to speak with so many different types of people and learn about their lives is the real beauty of this program and the best way to learn about the culture, so I kind of wish we just had talks and field trips all the time.
You might be thinking of the turtle story that Stephen Hawking uses at the beginning of A Brief History of Time. According to Hawking's version, a woman interrupts an astronomer's presentation on gravity and the solar system to insist that the world really just rests on the back of a turtle. The astronomer smiles and asks her what, then, the turtle is standing on. The woman is confused for a short time before replying "it's turtles all the way down." Which makes me laugh because the idea of an infinite regress of turtles is pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought Michelle was referring to "Yertle the Turtle" by Dr. Seuss . . .
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