Namo Buddha Monastery

It has been awhile since I posted anything but it is difficult to load this blog in Nepal as the upload speed is very low - anyway here goes.....

I spent two glorious days up at Namo Buddha Monastery where the Himalayan Mountain Range stretches long across the horizon with its vast, snowy peaks visible when the mist settles in the early morning.

It takes two hours to get there along some paved roads but mainly the roads are full of holes, pits and crevices. It is amazing how the buses get along these roads let alone the motorcycles and scooters. The drive takes you up along the mountain roads to farmland that is unique to asia where it is cut along the hillside to crow rice and other crops.

The road to the monastery is filled with rocks and runs along the hillside - bit hairy but our driver was familiar with the route and was non-plussed and trucked along. Got to say Toyotas rule here as far as this rough terrain goes. I travelled up with a woman who was a journalist in Afghanistan living in California again and SB my longtime friend. Our driver was once an SMD school kid and now works for the school - he did an outstanding job.

On the first day at Namo Buddha I spent the afternoon watching the Lama Dance which was an amazing event that took hours to complete. I will try and post some pictures but the upload is slow. The event was magnificent with many amazing and beautiful costumes. The little monks also performed and were very splendid too. My favourite part was the Snow Lions where two monks were inside the costumes - really well done and Rocky the monastery dog (Tibetan dog) thought he had to defend the monastery and challenged the two big lions.

I spent the night in rather sparse conditions with a roommate that snored, bossed me around and talked in her sleep - but it was only for the night so I made up for lost sleep last night.

On Saturday I met up with a woman who takes tours into Tibet (she speaks it too) from Copenhagen who has been coming to these parts for many years. She is off to explore Himalayan plant fibres for the next two weeks. She took me to where the cave is where Buddha gave his life for a starving tiger and her cubs. This is a famous and spiritual site that is much honoured by Buddhists for the love and compassion showed by Buddha.

Simply - Prince Mahasatwo gave his life to the starving tiger and her cubs and a few hundred years later was reincarnate as Gautama Siddhattha Buddha and the tiger cubs became his disciples.

If you add Namo Buddha to your Facebook links you can read more about this amazing story and see what the monastery is doing. The Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche has built not only a monastery for his monks to study but also a hospital for the community and a secular school for the surrounding villages.

I was very priveledged to have the opportunity to sit in the shrine room and participate in the Pujas and wat breakfast with the monks and nuns and to also give a Khata the Rinpoche plus receive a Long Life Empowerment from his and his lamas. There were over 5000 people there for this event and the love and devotion that the Tibetan people showed for Rinpoche was quite amazing. His love emanated to them all and he gave everyone there that day the Empowerment. I was very lucky that I was with SB as we were given the first Empowerments and did not have to wait in the long line.

Yes I took lots of photos but unfortunately I can't upload many.

I hope to make it to Tara Abbey to visit the nuns this week sometime. Wish you all could come and experience such a beautiful place as Namo Buddha.....