The people of Mustang are Buddhists and nearly all the
monasteries in the region are of the Sakyapa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Other
than the main temple in Lo Manthang and the monastery at
Tsarang few of the religious establishments are particularly
impressive or interesting. According to Tucci this is because so many were
destroyed during the Tibet-Nepal war of 1856 and never really recovered
their former glory. Nonetheless, Buddhism’s
influence is apparent in the friendly, good-natured demeanor of the people.
While at Ghami I wandered into the temple to find the monks assembled and doing
their puja. Immediately the senior monk motioned another monk to find me a seat
and as soon as I sat down a lady brought me fried bread and butter tea. While I
appreciated this hospitality I was not looking forward to sitting through one
of those endless Tibetan pujas, or having to drink cup after cup of butter tea.
As it happens the puja only went for another 20 minuets and after the first tea
they brought me tea with sugar in it rather than salt. As soon as the
puja was finished I was invited to join the monks for a meal – rice, yogurt and
what they called ‘grass’, some sort of vegetable. One of the younger monks
spoke good English and explained to me what was going on and he in turn
translated all the questions the other monks asked of me and
my answers to them. Soon the subject got to robes and I showed them the Thai
way of putting on a robe. They were both amused and impressed.
At Tsarang I was asked to
briefly address the ‘morning parade’ of the novices. I noticed that they sung
first the Tibetan national anthem, then a prayer to Chenrezi and then the
Nepali national anthem. None of these people are refugees from Tibet and yet they apparently they identify
themselves as much with Tibet
as they do Nepal.
The most impressive temple I
saw during the whole trip was the main one in Lo Munthang. The
first time I went there the huge wooden doors were ajar and I walked in to
the large pillared hall lit only by the sky light. There was no one
around. Through the gloom I could just see the wall paintings and the
wooden scaffolding built against the walls. The next day when I went there were people
on the scaffolds absorbed in restoring the paintings which were all illuminated
by large flood lights. Buddhas, bodhisattvas, various deities and mandalas and
floral designs all made bright and alive by the lights, fully visible probably
for the first time since they were painted. I just stood in the shadows and the
silence and watched the restorers work.
There is a documentary about the restoration of these paintings at
Note. Having got familiar with
the standard way of blogging the whole system was suddenly changed about two months
ago without notice and without guidance for how to use the new system, leaving
me completely confused. I’m just a simple monk. Only yesterday I figured out how to enlarge pictures, hence their
bigger format in this post. However, I still can’t get the pictures in the
sequence I want. Be patient!
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Such beautiful people and smiling faces, thanks for sharing with us Bhante.
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