Search for the Bodhi Tree

Place - Tashi Lhumpo Monastery

Location - 200 kms from Mysore
How to get there - KSRTC Bus, Kushal Nagar Busstop
Ticket cost - Rs.47

So after fixing the date with my Monk friend 'Lama' Lobsang Norbu ('Lama' means monk.. hence Dalai Lama) I started from Mysore at 10.30am on a saturday morning with a backpack and waterbottle. I always travel with atleast two books for company. So started my first one, 'Memoirs of Geisha' when I boarded the bus. The bus I was in, was quite crowded. I got absorbed into the book . Needless to say, reading about a Japanese Geisha and getting into eastern culture was quite a start for the two-day journey.

I've taken upto reading books that have been made into movies. Its very interesting to see how the stories are adapted to screenplays and then finally the screen. Though more on that later, on another day, in another post.

I reached the Kushal nagar busstop at 1.00. I was greated by two monks, one, my friend, the other, the driver for the monastery. Imagine, after all that book talk about the monk who sold his ferrari.. I guess these guys settled down to a Qualis, that was parked to pick me up! After I had lunch while they had 'chai' which they pronounced as 'cha' and finally reached the monastery by 2:30.

The way to the monastery brought that unknown calmness, that the city-bred-us are unfamiliar about. It was green, greener fields, sunflowers popping out of nowhere, and lush vegetation.. And tibetan people all around! Only after reaching there, I found that there were tibetan communities of about 5000 and more people all around!

We reached and they put me up in their guest rooms, which I fell in love with. It had two beds, one by the window which opened up to such greenery that I felt quite pampered. And the windows themselves opened in such a way that you could sit with your legs dangling ouside.

I was told about their very simple schedule.
6.00 - 8.00am - Chanting and breakfast + Cha
11.30 - Lunch - Dal + chaawal
3.00 - 4.30pm - Chanting + Cha
6.00 - Dinner
6.30 - 78.00 - Chanting + Cha + Debates

When I said I was in a guest house, it is necessary you should understand the geography. I suppose the monastery area covers about 4-5 acres.. which housed The monastery, rooms for all the monks, the place/ hall where lunch and dinner was served, the guest house and a small hospital and a two floor place which had libraries and a grand room for Dalai Lama to stay if he visited. So all these were connected as a small colony.

My room was in the first floor and the ground floor had a small shop and canteen maintained by monks, thankfully a PCO+STD+ISD. I had to let one of my friends know that there existed people who drank more Chai than us! After a few calls, I left for 3.00pm chanting.



Tea that is served, is very light and very sweet. And is served during the chanting! by the kutti monks. It was so cute to see small ones running around with huge kettles to serve all of us. The monastery I was staying in, hosted 300 monks. I used to always think, that monasteries are pretty strict places, and I was surprised first to be allowed to sit with them during chanting, also allowed to take photos. But to be served tea and eatables, was quite unexpected. The smaller ones whom I was seated next to, peeped at me, once in a while out of curiousity and chanted vigorously when I caught them. They were absolutely adorable. Wanted to grab one and bring him with me.. Little ones, with shaven heads and red attires and so shy.. and the chants! Oh, the chants, all two hundred odds did not once go out of tune. It really calms your mind, to just let go off all thoughts and dwell in those tibetan verses. Almost all chants were in Raagam Mohanam. This raagam itself is so pleasing.. almost all chinese/jap songs are based on this raagam.. We have used it quite a lot in our films too.. typical example would be, 'Sayonara, sayonara' in the movie 'Love in Tokyo'. 'Return to Innocence' by Enigma also falls under this raagam. They also used the long horns quite a lot, the same one that was played in my concert.

At 4.30, when the chanting was about to get over, the children started fidgetting and they rushed out, just like how we did when the school bell rang.. the monks I heard, join the monastery at the age of 5. Nobody is forced to stay in the monastery. Not all of them stay. They had lost some monks over the years, though it was a small percentage. And what do they do after becoming a monk? They engage in buddhist studies. Turns out, they have colleges, Buddhist universities some 5 kms away.

As I was trying to gather information about their life, I came across a small rundown place, right next to my guest house. I walk in and see Tibetan paintings being done on canvas! The lines and the colours were extremely beautiful. I saw them as they were being sketched and painted. And there were so many tibetan gods that I lost the count. They also have God of love, of wealth etc. The style was very different and very detailed. I was given a tour of the monastery. I met the head of the monastery who gave me a very warm welcome. After which I was taken to the places I mentioned above. They also had a small vegetation land, when the monks grew their own vegetables and fruits. They even had a basement factory where incense sticks were made. The hospital had a swiss nurse who I met earlier as she was staying in the room next to mine. She again welcomed me and we chat for sometime. All this while, I saw little monks studying in their own corner spaces. One video which I had already uploaded.

By the time I was done with the tour it was back to the monastery for chanting. And this time, it was outside on the grounds. It was becoming a little cold though the monks had no problem. I was shivering and sitting with them trying to take photos and videos of the chant.





After which I returned back to the guest house canteen to have soup and eat a tibetan food called Momo. This was a wheat flour mix stuffed with spinach and paneer inside and is steamed and looked like tibetan kozhakattai. The monks who ate with me gobbled up and got more plates..(Each plate had about 15 of them and pretty big in size) while I could not cross more than a pitiable three. It was fun to see them eat though. Finally I left for my room to crash cuddling into a comfy quilt they had provided.

My phone alarm jerked me out of my sleep, quite rudely. I got ready for the morning chant and left for the monastery. If the evening chants were charming, the morning ones with the hesitant sunrays slowly filtering through the hall, in that beautiful dawn, felt like tapas.. Only after about forty five minutes I realised I had a quite smile on my face all the while. There was no hurry, no pressure, nothing. Just a laid back meditation.. ofcourse with 'cha'!

Being there and experiencing something that I knew was quite above me to comprehend. So I did not question it. Just accepted the inner peace and let it sway my line of thought. And after coming back from there, I 've noticed that I've become a little subdued and laid back when I'm with people. Things that used to bother me, doesnt seem to matter.

At 9, after tibetan bread and omelet, they had the vehicle ready for me for a tour around the monastery. First thing I attended was the Buddhist University which was started by Dalai Lama himself.Imagine my astonishment to find 2500 monks seated in a great hall, reading verses from what seemed like 'olai chuvadu'. All were seaed on the mat and had a little table. And the background were three Tibetan Gods with Buddha in the centre. I could, I was told, to take snaps and do whatever I want. That moment I yearned that I did not bring my Canon. Still, the sight is still etched in my mind.

From there, to another University hall, which was quite empty. Though it had a courtyard high up where the monks were. Here I found them doing a debate. Their style of debate is unque and needs careful studying. The debate usually happens in a pair consisting an elder monk and a younger one. The elder one is seated and answers question while the younger one is standing jumping and dancing and clapping everytime he asks a question about Buddhism. I have provided a video clip of that below.. for better understanding. This was such a fascinating sight, kept me quite captivated for some time.



After this, the Qualis took the turn for the thing I had been waiting for all this while. Called the 'Golden Temple'. The entrance was stunning. The architecture sans people transcends you to a different place. Since all this while I was reading, 'Memoirs of Geisha' (I know its japanese, still)I was living the experience of being in the real oriental world.

At the side, they had a huge hall which had a 60ft Buddha.. that was so overwhelming that I had to pause for quite sometime before switching on the camera. Quite a lot of toursits since it was a sunday, though not distracting thankfully. I sat down for some time to take in all the colours and details. We went around the golden temple to see a few more structures.. with monks everywhere doing their chants and prayers, banging their cymbals..


We even saw a nunnery, (Women monks!) though didnt stop by. The nuns looked quite the same.. shaven heads and same attire.. reminded me of the scene from 'Anna and the King'.

I have an italian friend who had tibetan flags in his hall, and I had been wanting to get that for a long time. This I found in one of the tourist shops. Each flag represents an element, earth-sun-wind-water-soul. And all sorts of prayers are written on them. Supposed to hang it in such that the wind flaps them to spread the prayers. Now it hangs in my room by the window..

After Golden Temple, returned back to the monastery.. Needless to say, I was quite pooped. Rested for a while after a dal-chaawal lunch and got ready my painting things for afternoon chants. I wanted to do a painting of the monastery while the monks were busy chantin inside.

I started my work at 3 and finished by 5.The result was not that great, but it was my first live water colour structure..

After some snacks, returned back for the 6.00 pm chant and sat with the monks again. It was more pleasant than the previous evening. I had another encounter with another Tibetan delicacy for dinner.

The next day morning after a beautiful walk through the fields, Lobsang gifted me a white silk shawl and some incense sticks and led a quite hesitant-me to the busstop to reach Mysore. My two day stay was more than wonderful. My eyes had got quite used to the red attired monks everywhere doing their own chores in their own speed. I never knew before I encountered monks, that one could see peacefulness, on faces and feel that positive energy vibrating from them. If I could call it being complacent, but not in a negative way.



Everytime I heard their chants, I remembered this phrase, that I was taught in my Balavikas classes some 12 years ago..

'Aham Brahmasmi'
meant, I am Brahman, I am God',
where 'I' is not referred to self, but to the athma within.

'Tat tvam asi'
meaning, 'you are that' wherein,
'that' referes to a nameless form..
meaning you exist, but without form.

I am God, so are you. Nobody is any lesser neither are we greater than the other.. Is that why all the monks sported red-attired-shaven-head look? To look alike and to think alike? That when you address the other, you are addressing your self? And hence you would treat the other, the same way you would like to be treated and respected?

Understanding and realising these phrases, maybe.. maybe, brings upon that peaceful element in the eyes that I saw in those monks. It quite questions the way of one's own life. We can brush it away saying, each to his own.. and that's what we do anyway. Even when I visited Auroville, I felt the same way.. that, when there are places that does practise better living standards, with no evil extravagance associated with them, why do we still choose the dirty one? I have no answers except to only cluelessly run back to the chaos, ties and attachements and the materialistic malignant world.