Right after the morning teachings, His Holiness’s motorcade
headed for the Nyingma monastery where most of the monks are
staying. The monastery was build especially to offer lodging and
meals to monks attending the Nyingma prayer festival, and the
doors are also open to monks from the Kagyu Monlam Chenmo. Able
to house almost 4,000 people, the rooms are dormitory style
varying in size from twenty to forty beds per room. When His
Holiness arrived, monks were already lining up in the wide
courtyard for the noon meal, cooked with wood from a four meter
pile near the kitchen.
During the Monlam, this monastery also provides space for dental
and medical clinics. His Holiness went directly to the dental
clinic, where he greeted our dentist, Hannah Karlin, who has
brought from the States a machine with portable drill and
suction that allows her to clean teeth and fill cavities. She
is also able to do root canals and caps them with steel crowns,
which come in all different sizes and are stored in what looks
like a large pill box. Hannah has taught a monk to clean teeth
and he will take the machine back to Bokar Rinpoche’s monastery
in Mirik and also to villages, becoming a “barefoot dentist”
until the next Monlam, when the clinic will function again.
Hannah has donated to the Monlam all the equipment she brought,
including an x-ray machine along with medical supplies. With
the basics here, it will be easier in the future to set up the
clinic each year. The dentist showed His Holiness the equipment
and the supplies stored on a meter high shelf running along one
wall. His Holiness picked up and inspected a needle, used to
give shots that numb dental nerves which can be so sensitive.
The other half of the large room had tables where the Tibetan
doctor Drupgyu oversees the administration of traditional
Tibetan medicine. Along the wall near the door, six people were
sitting in bright red chairs and waiting for treatment. His
Holiness is, of course, very familiar with Tibetan medicine, so
he did not have questions, but simply greeted the staff with his
warmth and kindness.
Next door to the dental clinic is the general medical clinic,
which was very busy; extending out the door were lines of lay
people, monks, and nuns waiting to be seen. Open from 10am to
1pm and 4pm to 6pm, (but actually until the last patient is
seen) ,the clinic is staffed by four volunteer doctors from
abroad, three men and one woman. They sit at tables along with a
translator, who facilitates the communication across languages
and cultures. His Holiness greeted the doctors and asked Dr.
John Barnhill from Canada how things were going. He also shook
the hand of a young Tibetan woman who was volunteering in the
clinic. Then he walked over to the far wall to speak in Chinese
to the two people who were dispensing medicines from long rows
of bottles in all different sizes. His Holiness asked if they
had any H1N1 vaccine for the swine flu, but it was not
available. Many of these medicines are donated by Taiwanese
sponsors. The clinic has been very busy and just in the first
three days of operation, the doctors have already seen 807
patients.
From the Nyingma monastery, His Holiness took the short trip
back to his residence at nearby Tergar Monastery. Here he would
share a meal with fully ordained monks and nuns (gelongs and
gelongmas) in the shrine hall where they eat lunch every day.
There was a short wait while the sangha returned from the stupa,
a good twenty minute walk from Tergar. Finally all had come,
and to signal that it was time to enter the shrine hall, one
monk hit two wooden clappers together in a crisp, descending
rhythm. As they entered, the monks and nuns took their seats in
eleven long rows that had been set up with a bright red strip of
material that ran the length of the mats and served as a table
cloth. Set at intervals along the cloth were black, lustrous
begging bowls on a circular stand. A small plate sat on the side
for the desert—two white balls made of a tuber resembling
taro—and also papadam, an Indian specialty that is spicy, thin,
and fried like a large potato chip.
Along the back wall of the shrine hall, dressed in their green
vests, the servers waited beside large metal buckets of food
that were covered with a metal plate. The cooks have been
working since early morning to prepare a delicious meal. This
will be the last one for the day as monks and nuns keep sojung
vows, meaning that after the noon meal, they do not eat until
the next morning when a breakfast of tea and a round flat bread
is served at the stupa.
During the serving, His Holiness roamed he shrine hall,
observing the more than 250 monks and fourteen nuns and also
pausing to talk with reporters, photographers, and the servers.
When the serving was finished, he took his seat on a tall,
curved-back chair upholstered in soft gold. On the table in
front of him is a bowl like all the others. On either side are
long tables, each with three tall pyramids of oranges draped in
bright, multicolored tinsel. The chanting begins, and during a
pause, all remove the cover of their bowls; with a few more
verses, the chants are complete. The bowls are carefully lifted
and held at the heart with the left hand. A sense of dignity and
peace pervaded the room. His Holiness finished first and again
walked around the hall. He stopped at the back door to look
outside and then turned around to gaze at the immense Buddha in
front of him on the shrine.
As he came to the side door, where outside on the veranda the
cooks have been filing the serving containers, His Holiness
steps outside and greets the group of about fifteen. On the
temple wall is posted the menu for the day in Chinese, and His
Holiness mentioned that there’s a famous Chinese desert. It was
the one served that day, and he was immediately offered a plate
with the white round balls on it. His Holiness popped a whole
one in his mouth to the delight of the staff. They asked him for
a group photograph and he said to bring a good photographer
tomorrow. He passed back into the shrine room, walking up and
down, viewing the monks and nuns from different angles. When he
passed this door one more time, he was again offered the special
dessert with the request the take part of several so that they
could have his blessing. He did this and also took one, split it
in half, and gave it to two children, young brothers who were
standing nearby.
When the sangha had finished their meal, His Holiness took the
wooden clappers and their sharp, clear sound resounded in the
hall to announce the end of the meal. With a bow, the sangha
began to chant dedication prayers, vowing to attain full
awakening for the sake of all living beings. After further
chants, including the Heart Sutra, the discipline master gave a
short talk reminding everyone of proper conduct and discipline.
His Holiness then departed for his quarters upstairs. Folding
their yellow shawls and draping them over their shoulders, the
sangha slowly exits the shrine hall into the bright light of an
Indian afternoon.
