Tango and Cheri Monastery
I just had a thought….well as all countries agreed to give a percentage of their GDP for humanitarian aid, I think 0,5% was suggested, ( but I guess except the Scandinavians no country gives as much!)
one could imagine a sort of contribution of each country of about 0,01%of their GDP to Bhutan, for their contribution through meditation and prayer to the wellbeing of ALL.
Humanitarian aid is an essential contribution to help whenever one “of
us” countries is in need of help after a catastrophy, natural or man made.
But just imagine what the world would be like without these endless prayers of all the women, men, monks and nuns who pray for the well being of all,
And here in Bhutan they do pray for all of us day and night!
So my idea was for all of our countries to contribute to Bhutan to be able to continue praying for us so that all these catastrophes might not even come about….
Well just one of my “ideas”, you might think :“I am a dreamer…but I am not the only one….”
What a great day!
Yesterday Saturday Tandin,Tho and me took a hike to
two monasteries near Thimpu, Cheri and Tango Monastery,
The weather was delightful! Very few people, we were almost the only people on these two hikes. (I start to get Bhutanese…the more isolated and lonely…the better )
We drove about 35 minutes outside of Thimpu and started first our ascencion to Cheri monastery, Bhutan’s first monastery. On the way we crossed the very impressive rock painting of Guru Rimpoche.
Guru Rimpoche, Padmasambava
is the most important religious figure in Bhutan. In 746 AD he came to Bhutan and brought Buddhism to the country. You see him in every temple, monastery and there are so many stories of his miraculous life and deeds in the country.
It
is a nice hike that takes us up to 2960 M.
About 50 monks live in Cheri and it is basically a meditation center with many isolated meditation huts for long term solitary meditation periods (3 years, 3 months, 3 days)
We arrived auspiciously during a a very important retreat of 45 days when monks pray day and night for the well being of ALL beings. They were just about to start a very auspicious ceremony. We were invited to join and we even could name some specific friends
and family in need of support to be included in their prayers.
The monastery is so beautiful, like a fortress blending into the mountain, one with nature, full of spiritual energy being cultivated for centuries,
In
the monastery there are many like prayer caves, temples, always higher up, you have to climb on STEEP wooden stairs almost like in a labyrinth up up…
All on top there is a special prayer temple not allowed for foreigners to enter
as it contains the image of a protective deity and as a foreigner you need to get a special permit to be allowed in.
We must have arrived on an auspicious day, the monks with friendly smiles invited us in, explained us the different representations
an we could even sit with them a while,
There was a sign in this special temple “Please do not walk beyond this point, monk in solitary meditation”. There was a monk siting behind this room since 4 months in meditation.
They invited us for nice milk tea (no more butter teas in temples…they have become health conscious!!!), all these young monks were very friendly and relaxed. Most of them had graduated from Tango the Buddhist University on the mountain
opposite from Cheri, that was going to be our next stop!
So we walked down, down and on the other side up up again to 3060M altitude to Tango the Buddhist University,
It really was an auspicious day, we arrived just
the moment when a young Rimpoche, started a very auspicious ceremony with the 300 monks of Tango.
This Rimpoche had been discovered through one of the queen mothers in a very poor and remote area and he is now in his early twenties, still studying here,
But at the same time he is the head of Tango as he founded this monastery in a past life.
We received his blessing and we were also invited to join.
Those of you who know Tibetan Buddhism and who have joined such
a ceremony can imagine the smell of the incense, the colourful temples and images (you cannot take photo’s in a temple…sorry) and the very special chantings coming from endless time….
At one point in my meditation I
saw the ocean with its glittering of tiny waves in the sun, the sound of their prayer chanting is like the sound of the earth itself….
We also were invite for nice milk tea as we were the only guests this day,
We saw sweet wild mountain goats on our way down, a solitary white horse climbing on steep mountain paths, a red rose blooming at 3000m altitude, soft sweet rain, a rainbow
May all beings be happy and safe