On the Road

Sunday morning was the start of a another amazing adventure.  At 8 am, we boarded a bus with 35 Tibetan monks and nuns for a "field trip" to Sera Monestery.  As we all piled into the bus, we said "Goodbye" to Geshe Lhakdor who was off to give several talks in other parts of India.

Once on the bus, the monks all brought out their cameras and took photos and videos of each other.  Some had iPods or other music devices and blasted what sounded like Tibetan pop music.

The Sera Monestery is very large, with about 2,000 Tibetan Buddhist monks.  It is located west of the large city of Mysore, approximately 4.5 hours from the Tibetan Childrens Village College where we were staying in Bangalore.

Halfway to the monestery, we stopped for tea.  this was welcomed by everyone as a chance to stretch our legs and get something to drink.  Then it was back on the bus for the final ride to Sera Monestery.  Many of the monks brought out snacks to share with everyone.  I especially liked the pineapple chips.

At the Sera Monestery, we were welcomed by Geshe Gima, who I met last May in Bir, India, during the first workshop with this group of monks.  He ushered us to the guest quarters where we dropped off our bags and freshened up after the long bus trip.

After this short break, we headed off as a group to explore Sera Jey Monestery.  Some of our monks make this monestery their home and showed off their science room that they had created.  We also visited their temple as well as the place where they hand make their bread.  Next to Sera Jey Monestery is Sera Mei Monestery.  Again, we visited the science room set up by different monks who were at the workshop.

But this was just the beginning!  We reboarded the bus, and traveled a few miles to the Golden Temple (photo to right).  One of our monks had the key to one section of the temple that is not open to the public.  We got a special tour of this temple and were able to climb up to the very top section.

When we exited this section of the temple, we became the objects of great curiousity to the Indian tourists.  Men wanted to have their pictures taken with Kelly right by their side.  At first, Kelly declined, but the tourists were very persistent.  Finally (and unfortunately) she allowed one man to have his photo taken with her.  Suddenly everyone wanted a photo and Kelly fled to safety behind a wall of our monks and nuns who protected her.  When we stopped on a hill behind the temple to rest and have a snack, tourists sat down right beside us just to have their photos taken with us.  We appeared to be celebrities.  I think we were as interesting as the Golden Temple to them.

When we returned to Sera Monestery, the monks went one way and Geshe Gima took us another way back to the main temple where 2,000 monks were chanting.    We were able to observe the ceremony from the balcony overlooking the main floor.  As soon as we sat down, several monks brought us glasses of warm milk.  We were able to enjoy our drink as we listened to the low rumbling of 2,000 monks chanting in unison. 

The next day (Monday), everyone climbed back into the bus to visit several of our monks' monesteries on the way back to Bangalore.  I honestly cannot remember the names of the 4-5 different monesteries we visited.  However, each monestery was different and our host monks were very kind and gracious, offering us personal tours and serving us lunch or drinks and snacks.

We did not make it back to Bangalore until 8 pm.  We were lucky that there was a Tibetan Childrens Village College graduation party going on, so we joined the festivities and had dinner and then watched a Tibetan talent show.  I was very tired after this long, two day trip, but the memories I have will last a lifetime.