Pullahari & Thangkas

We spent the past few days staying at a different monastery called Pullahari. Here we went on a two day retreat where we were isolated from the business of Boudha and tucked away in nature. Each morning we hiked the steep stairs from the rooms where we were staying to the building where breakfast was served.

After breakfast we broke our normal routine of having meditation because we were gifted with early morning lessons from Chokyi Rinpoche at Pullahari. We sat on mats in a beautiful temple which was the perfect environment to absorb his lessons in. The first day he taught us that Buddhism is a balance between nihilism (belief that nothing matters) and eternalism (belief that everything matters). The next day he taught us about the 3 poisons in life: Anger, desire, and ignorance. These 3 poisons prevent us from reaching nirvana and living a good life. Not only did he teach us but he was able to answer our questions and have a dialogue with us. We feel very blessed to of been able to absorb his knowledge.

We spent our afternoons working on our group presentations for the monks back at Shechen. We are doing presentations on various concepts central to Buddhism philosophy. It was nice to be in a calm environment to get a kick start on our projects.

Today is January 29th and we are back at Shechen! Today we took a trip to a Thangka painter's studio apartment. His name was Noedup Rongae. Thangkas are a Tibetan Buddhist art form depicting different deities, stories, or objects from the Buddhist tradition.  He told us that wrathful deities are typically done on black backgrounds and peaceful deities are painted on red backgrounds. They are made with paint brushes that only have a few fine hairs to create the detailed designs. He took us to where he kept the Thangkas he was in the process of making. Everyone was in awe of the intricacy of each piece. He also explained the importance of keeping this tradition alive in the tumultuous modern world. We were also introduced to tibetan tea, a kind of salty butter tea.

We are continuing to learn more each day and are absorbing all that we can from Kathmandu with the short time we have left! We can't wait to see what adventures tomorrow holds!

-Katherine and Max