Because the solar rises over Kathmandu, the town basks in a quiet stillness – a uncommon discover among the many generally chaotic streets. However the halls of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, a Buddhist nunnery on the town’s outskirts, are loud – it’s time for prayer (and chai).
The contemporary morning air takes the sting off our 5 am wake-up. As our minibus winds by way of the tightly woven Kathmandu streets, we’re glued to the home windows. The town we’d wandered in the day prior to this was completely different now. It was nonetheless.
Just a few store distributors are likely to their shows for the day, some sari-clad ladies sweep their sidewalks, whereas a handful of tiny, embellished taxis make the streets transfer.
It’s a stark distinction to the anarchy of cabs and automobiles that flooded the dusty pavement and the ocean of folks that often crowd the noisy sidewalks. And it fascinates us.
We’re on the street earlier than the remaining to achieve the Buddhist nunnery Khachoe Ghakyil Ling (that means pure land of bliss) throughout their prayer time.
Recognized domestically as Kapan Ani Gompa, the Buddhist nunnery was based greater than 30 years in the past and follows the Gelungpa college of Buddhism. It presents ladies a uncommon alternative to study commonplace educational topics alongside conventional Buddhist teachings, like philosophy, ritual arts and chanting.
We pull up, and a set of wood gates as tall as two males open extensive to welcome us. Our Intrepid Nepal chief, Sumi Acharya, gestures us to rapidly comply with her throughout the neatly saved grounds – the nuns have already begun their morning prayer.
Inside a couple of minutes we’re standing on the doorway to what should absolutely be probably the most ornately adorned constructing any of us have ever seen – the primary prayer corridor of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling.
‘Wow’, says one of many ladies in our group of six, as she seems to be up in awe, mouth extensive open. Her phrases aren’t profound, however I can’t consider something extra becoming both.
As we wait on the entrance, Sumi explains that the nunnery is dwelling to nearly 400 Buddhist nuns, some as younger as 9 and as much as 70. Some are right here to dedicate their lives to studying the teachings of Buddha and comply with the upper training program. Some are right here to serve their group as lecturers, cooks or employees of their hand-made incense store. And we’re right here to look at and pay attention as they carry out their morning prayers.
Earlier than lengthy, a small, barefoot lady wrapped in a flowing maroon gown hurries over to us. She motions for us to take off our footwear and welcomes us into the sprawling prayer corridor. We bow our heads softly and comply with her in.
Once I say each inch of the corridor is embellished with intricate art work, I imply it. The partitions and ceiling inform tales of various Buddhist deities with gold, deep reds and forest inexperienced. Sumi tells us the lifetime of Buddha can also be depicted all through these work, alongside an enormous illustration of the Tibetan Wheel of Life which represents the cycle of life, loss of life and rebirth.
At one finish, an alter with ornaments, statues of Buddhist gods (together with the Buddhist deity, Avalokiteshvara with 1000 thousand arms), candles and flowers overlook the corridor.
And there, within the center, sit some 40 nuns singing their morning prayers. To me, it appears like a mixture between a chant and a track. They sit on cushions in two rows dealing with one another, swaying facet to facet in unison. Their maroon uniform now has a deep yellow scarf, generally known as a chogu, wrapped on high. This chogu is worn most usually by nuns who comply with the Gelungpa college.
I can’t assist however grin as I discover a number of the youthful women tucking into their breakfast because the others pray, some guffawing between themselves. Though Sumi had advised us that women as younger as 9 have joined the nunnery, I’m nonetheless stunned (and delighted, in a approach) to see they’ve saved their child-like allure in what appears such a grown-up area.
When a lady devotes her life to Buddha, she leaves behind materialistic values. She trades her garments for a gown and shaves her head to symbolise simplicity and detachment.
We sit cross-legged on the ground on one facet of the corridor, mesmerised by the sights and sounds, every of us quietly grinning from ear to ear. We all know this expertise will stick with us lengthy after the morning ends.
One other nun approaches our group in her lengthy maroon gown, similar to the remaining, and a big pair of black studying glasses.
‘Chai?’ she says with a smile as she holds up a silver thermos twice the scale of my head. ‘Sure, please,’ all of us nod.
We might have solely been within the nation a number of days, nevertheless it doesn’t take lengthy to grasp that the candy, wealthy chai right here will not be one thing to show down.
The refined aromas of spice and cinnamon fill the air as we clutch our fingers round our heat mugs and hearken to the hum of the ladies and women who’ve devoted their lives to Buddha.
Sound like your cup of tea? Take in this memorable expertise for your self on Intrepid’s Nepal: Ladies’s Expedition.
All pictures by Yvette Scott.
