Bir pronounced "Beer"

For the weekend we went to a Tibetan settlement called “Bir”. More specifically we stayed at “Sherab Ling”. Sherab Ling is a monastery that has an absolutely stunning temple and guest quarters that rival four star hotels. Despite the fact that we couldn’t get the hot water to work in my room (hot water is make or break for a good stay) the location and surrounding atmosphere was amazing.

Friday we left right after breakfast and stopped at Tashijong, the seat of Khamtrul Rimpoche. He is famous for supporting the Togden’s at his monastery. A togden is a yogi that we would call a hermit. They are really dirty looking people with crazy dread locks and are absolutely amazing in their meditation practices. Due to their control over their bodies and mind through meditation, it is believed that after death many of them hold a certain power. We were fortunate enough to see a togden that was preserved in salt. He passed away five years ago.

After seeing the togden we were fortunate enough to meet Khamtrul Rimpoche himself! (Thank goodness we wore our chupas!) When we entered his “house” we waited in a waiting room. On the table there were dried apricots (like they were probably picked off a tree in the back yard, set to dry and then put on the table, no sugar added no pit extracted..), marconia almonds and regular almonds in their shells, and orange fanta. In Tibetan society, it is polite to drink/eat what is given to you so for the first time in a LONG time I consumed orange soda. After our “snacks” we were invited upstairs to meet Khamtrul Rimpoche. On our way upstairs we ran into a togden. It is extremely rare for togden’s to be seen (usually they are secluded in a cave) so this was a huge treat!! When we entered the room of Khamtrul Rimpoche, we prostrated three times, offered him a kata and then he put the kata back around our neck. Then we sat down and had a very awkward five minutes. Cynthia la asked him about motivation to study Buddhism because we were just beginning our journey through Tibetan Buddhism. I think he needed a translator because we didn’t really get an answer. However, we have met a lot of important monks and nuns and for the first time I walked in the room and really felt intimidated by this man and to be honest I probably was a lot taller than him. After meeting Khamtrul Rimpoche we received blessed cords.

We then went back down the hill to the cars and had noodle soup. Kalsong says she thinks its called chi tsi but I really don’t know. Personally it resembled top ramen. I was so hungry I didn’t care.

After lunch we sped off to Ani Tenzin Palmo’s nunnery, Dongyu Gatsal Ling. Ani Tenzin Palmo (I’m going to call her Ani la for short but she’s not Ani Kalsong Wangmo the program Buddhism professor) spent twelve years in a cave meditating. Her book Reflections on a Mountain Lake is AMAZING and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good spiritual read. Ani la is an activist for the movement of improving the education and status of nuns in the Tibetan community. Steven (Scuba Steve) asked her a question about full ordination for nuns. Tibetan nun’s cannot be fully ordained within the Buddhist faith because the Tibetan Buddhist community used to flourish in seclusion. They had very little to no contact with Indian Buddhism. The way a nun is fully ordained (and not just a novice nun) is four fully ordained nuns must be present. There are not four fully ordained Tibetan nuns, therefore there is no way for them to be fully ordained. Ani la is making a lot of progress in changing this and having the education of nuns be a pressing issue in many monasteries and nunneries. Many other philosophical questions were asked but Claudia asked my favorite question. She asked if Ani la found anything difficult when she first started studying Buddhism, such as the idea of a separate mind. Ani la said everything made sense, but I still thought it was a great question. After our teaching from Ani la we got a tour of the beautiful nunnery. They are in the process of building a new temple and Geshe la taught us many of the requirements for building temples (such as the direction they face and the day they are erected).

Many nuns begin their study at a very young age. Families give their children to religious instituations because they can educate, feed, and house these children better than some families. Two little nuns followed us around on our tour (or should I say they gave us the tour!)

After the nunnery we left for Sherab ling. It was only about a 20 minute drive and then we arrived at the guest house. That evening some of us walked over to the temple and saw our first puja (spiritual ritual). I absolutely loved the music! The monks were chanting and the room boomed with the thumping of the huge barrel drums. Then there was the blow of the Tibetan horns (very long instruments that make a deep sound) that echoed so loud you could hear them kilometers away! There must have been hundreds of monks of all ages at the puja.

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and left for an absolutely stunning hike to Bir. We climbed down a mountain, trekked through some fields, wound through a couple towns and then finally made it to Bir. The first place we stopped was a TCV (Tibetan Children’s Village). The kids who flee from Tibet and do not have any parents or family are raised here. They live a very modest life but are warmly received by the TCV staff. We took a tour of the house that houses the very small children that come over. It looked quite similar to the rooms at Sarah!

We then walked into the town of Bir. Took a tour of the noodle factory and saw another puja. At this puja I was offered butter tea, I took the butter tea, I drank the butter tea, and then I regretted drinking the butter tea. Why would you put butter into tea? What part of that sounds like its necessary (outside of nomadic farming society)?

On Sunday we woke up and drove to a beautiful Gompa Monastery and Monastic University (Chandra). I really love seeing all the wonderful Tibetan Buddhist artwork (despite the fact that I know VERY little about it). Then we visited a Baijanath Hindu Temple. What a cool place! The little structure looked like a huge stone from the outside but housed a lovely little alter. The rain didn’t stop us from taking off our shoes and stripping off our wool socks to take a peak inside! After the temple we ventured over to our Ani la’s favorite tandoori chicken shop (yes, monks and nuns eat meat, as long as they don’t kill the sentient being it is ok to consume it..). The naan at this tandoori chicken place was TO DIE FOR. Supposedly it was only flour and water… but I beg to differ… there is no way something that delicious could have only been flour and water.

Finally we made our journey home and I quickly passed out. This weekend was absolutely amazing and I think I learned more this weekend than I have in a long time!