Beautiful Bodhgaya
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2008
1
13
31
Trip End
Feb 08, 2009
Bodh Gaya,
Bihar,
India
Sunday, January 11, 2009
[Before you start reading, I just uploaded a butt load of photos to yesterday's post so please check those out first. Amazingly, I'm in the place most off the grid, and I just found the most advanced internet place so far! Fantastic!]
I started the Cipro the night before last and am feeling much better. I wasn't feeling bad before, but those minor
cramps have stopped. I'm also getting my appetite back which is a good sign. I've probably lost between 5-8 pounds.
To keep my fluids up, I've taken to putting two tablespoonfuls of table salt in my nalgene and drinking boiled hot water with ginger, honey and lemon. I'm still doing great. ;)
As you can see, the internet access will be spotty for the next two weeks - I'm not sure what the access is like in Bhutan, but we'll see. I happened to find a good computer in Bodhgaya so that was lucky (most are pretty crap and the keys stick). Not good for travel writing...
So where was I...
My last day in Varanasi was spent roaming around the steps of the Ganges, getting a DVD of my photos burned, and visiting a nearby temple, which locals refer to as the Monkey Temple because of all the monkeys around.
Its an Hindu temple which Catherine recommended for being so culturally old. You can see that the building
itself and the deities represented are somehow 'older' - maybe its that the look less 'polished' and 'commercialized' (can deities look commercialized? That's a grad thesis for ya!)
You walk around the temple clockwise and at the end there was a pot of bright orange paint. I wondered what that was since people had clearly smeared it all over the walls, like a thick and poorly done job of painting, but only 5 ft off the ground. A family came over and they each dipped their middle finger in the orange and gave themselves a bindi. I was too modest to partake, but a Dad who was holding his young child offered to put one on me. I couldn't refuse and he pressed lightly and then smeared upward.
Only later did I get to a mirror and see what I looked like. I got this gorgeous flaming third eye! The smear at the
end is key - it really looks like a flame shooting upward. I saw it as symbolizing a lit consciousness. And its so brilliant looking - such a rich orange...
After the temple, I went back to Assi Ghat where I negotiated a boat ride up the Ganges (one way) to watch the Ganga Aarti.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aartia
Its a ritual blessing of the river at 6pm that's been happening the same way along the Ganges for the last several thousand years. Amazing to see the detail of the ritual - turn this way, light this, turn this way, throw the water, etc. To say the least, the boat ride and the event were an excellent way to say farewell to beautiful Varanasi.
The following morning, I looked up my train to Bodhgaya (and also had my hotel call to be sure) and there was a two hour delay. Not a problem, since I could just hang out and relax over breakfast outside. At 10:30am I finished paying for the room, and took a rickshaw to the train station. The train just arrived as I walked down the stairs and was a piece of cake. Hardly any hecklers compared to Delhi or Varanasi (or maybe I've just become old hat at this).
The train ride was scheduled to last 4 hrs and in fact was about 4 1/2. Not bad. I took an auto rickshaw from Gaya (the train depot) to Bodhgaya (a 20 min ride) and was let out at the Tibetan Monastary where I got a room.
The monastery is great! The cleanest rooms I've been in by far and very reasonably priced. And they have hot showers! Ahh the simple joys...
I immediately boiled my clothes.
When I arrived at the monastery I was helped by a kid who went into this shpeel about he would show me around ad in exchange maybe I could donate something to this orphanage school. Call me jaded, but I was like whatever, this is a scam. But then I thought... He did help me get the room at the monastery... And he does have a motorcycle... So I thought what the hell. (That's a mode of transport I haven't tried yet in India). ;) I agreed that he would take me around that night and again the next day. 8am sharp.
So after hanging my clothes to dry he took me on the back of his bike down the road to town.This took 2 minutes.
Bodhgaya is a welcomed change of pace from the places I've been so far on this trip - a small town, roughly a mile long - and surrounded by farms and plants. Its not the congested bigger city of Gaya (about 20 min away) and as such has a wonderful serenity about it. Its relaxing, people are more peaceful, gentle, and there are travelers from all over the world. Clearly this is a sacred Buddhist place.
Noticeably, there aren't any free roaming cows here (a particular contrast to Varanasi). Being a smaller place, there are few cars (basically only rickshaws) and without any cow poop on the street, the place is less polluted and smells cleaner. AHHHHH.... I can breathe again.
I just realized that I've progressively moved to smaller and smaller locales on this trip. Its interesting how they've
in turn become more peaceful. I wonder what the 'countryside' is like...
As a working Buddhist center and considered a 'must' destination in ones life for any practicing Buddhist, monks in
crimson robes abound. There's a great, natural cheer to the place as monks and Buddhist practitioners are clearly thrilled to be here. The place has a gracious energy, and a general sense of contemplative and appreciative happiness.
So I've talked about smell before in this blog, but I realize there's another important sense and that's
sight. More specifically color...
Catherine, who (again) is a retired photography professor made a really interesting observation about color in the developing world versus in the Western world. She proposed that in developing countries, there is so much dust on plants, in the average person's environment, their homes, etc that they rely on color to add boldness, symbolism and personality. In contrast of course, in our culture - where there's so much vibrancy, lights, and artificial stimulation - we seek colors that reflect the more natural and earthy to ground us (Banana Republic anyone?!)
I must also say though (and its amazing that I haven't mentioned this earlier), is that Indian women are GORGEOUS! Their faces are very striking. Young women - even those selling fruit on the side of the road - have beautiful skin and delicate features. Older women, most who have wrinkles and are shriveled, look wizened and rich with life perspective. Its amazing to think of how that is celebrated in their culture, whereas in ours we Botox away the years (to be fair, financial limitations are a consideration). Then again, I did see a number of ads for woman's face whiteners in Delhi...
But in their Sarees, India women look so *vibrant*, delicate, sophisticated, and elegant. I'm jealous we don't
have anything like that in our culture. Maybe a really classy (but not pretentious) woman along 5th Avenue is the closest? Even with the hustle and bustle of poo and mud covered streets, these women in sarees glide down the side of the road with such elegance, centeredness and grace that it astounds me.
It's interesting that that I see them as these precious floating urban flowers, yet culturally they are
viewed as so beneath men. Someone I was speaking with mentioned that husbands routinely use their wife's saree to wipe their mouths after eating. I have no idea if this is true, but its a good metaphor for a woman's place. They're just a walking napkin.
Speaking of which, I chatted with a local today and got a better understanding of how marriages work here. Weddings are divided into 'arranged marriages' and 'love marriages', with the latter being quite rare. Love marriages
- the marrying for love that we take as standard and so for granted in our culture - for most Indians is greatly frowned upon. Basically, its seen as pointless as it doesn't help the family or the community get out of poverty.
The consequence for having a love marriage is that at best, the community would so frown on you and your child
that you would have to take your partner (really the man would take his wife) and move far away. To this end, its quite rare. It sounds like its standard to have an arranged marriage at 18 years old. A woman is expected to have a monetary dowry (though I imagine in the countryside, its still cattle or something).
So back to Bodhgaya...
My (possibly scamming) tour guy with the motorcycle took me to the Mahabodi Temple. This is THE temple of Buddhism as it commemorates the spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in 663 BC. The temple was built in the 6th Century AD atop the site of a temple that was erected by Emperor Ashoka 800 years earlier (200 BC). However, amazingly, there are still railings that surround the site that date from 184-72 BC. Clearly, this is cool (and old) Buddha shit.
The original Bodhi tree that the Buddha meditated under and where he formed his philosophy of life was cut down
by Emperor Ashoka's wife (what the deal was about that one, I don't know - it sounds like she was jealous of her husband spending so much time with it, but that sounds rather ridiculous). Ashoka's daughter, Sanghamitta, snuck a sapling of the tree and secretly brought it to Sri Lanka where it was replanted. What grows here now on the site is a
cutting of that tree that was carried back to Bodhgaya.
http://www.ebudhaindia.com/holy_sites/bodhi_tree.htm
The temple is magnificent, though has a number of neon lights on it which makes it seem a little bit like Buddha Disneyland (the bazillion Buddha tchotche sellers on the streets don't help much either).
The reverence and devotion some of the monks show is striking. There's a branch of Buddhism which is called Vajrayana Buddhism where you do a full prostration and wind up on their stomach face down on the floor. It acts as a meditation as well as a act of reverence.
To see people do this a hundred times in twenty minutes makes your mind spin. You think, that is really hard core. Who knows how many they do in a lifetime. Or how many have back problems...
Most monks put cloth sliders on the ground for their hands to slide across on and some tie extra cloth or a cardboard to their stomachs to help with chafing. Some do this clockwise around the temple. Others are in 'permanent' wooden platforms down below are seeing doing them endlessly into the sunset. They've been doing the prostrations in that spot for so long that they're body simply sliding down has created a body shaped groove in the wood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostration_(Buddhism)
I'm not a Buddhist expert by any means and this is just my interpretation of Buddhism, but I think this reverence towards the Buddha wouldn't sit well with him if he were alive today. He made it clear that the Darma is his teaching - a gift to us all to take or leave or interpret or improve upon as we see fit - and he himself should not be revered.
So all the idolatry - the tchotchke, the reverence, the statues - seems very contrary to my sense of his original philosophy.
But regardless, its a magical place. I'll be returned tomorrow again.
I went into one of the small side temples and sat for a while. I started thinking about my Mom.
After thinking for a while, I realized that she gave me the one thing I most value in life - an appreciation for and training in the arts. She always said she wanted to give me all those dance, art, photo and music classes because those were things she never had when she was growing up.
I never realized or appreciated that before.
She may have been absent in many ways, but its striking to realize how much of a powerful and lasting legacy she left by giving me that artistic enrichment. When I really think about it, its the most precious thing anyone has done for me.
What else came to me as I meditated in there?
Fill your heart. Empty your mind.
Have compassion for the suffering of others. We're all doing our best.
Love as much as possible.
On a final note, I've been thinking a lot about the cultural divide that exists between here and my home country. Ruthie, you really picked up on this in your reply post and I thought I would expand a little further -
I come here as a traveler, brainwashed by my own culture that America is one of the best, if not the best, country to live in. We're the most advanced. We have the best schools. We have the most opportunities...
But from my eyes here our culture looks so empty.
In the States we celebrate our 'independence' and celebrate our "individuality" - our love of the open road, get anything and everything we want at Costco, we go to the mall and be (buy) who we want to be...
But within that desperate need for independence and individuality, we've lost something.
We're forever desperately looking to get ahead. Have more. Get more. Be more.
We have no sense of community. We move 3000 miles away from our families. We live in individual, freestanding homes with only our nuclear family. We don't know our neighbors. We don't play outside. Kids get 'thumb cramps' from playing World of Warcraft for five hours in their basement. We get so much sugar and fat in our diets that we have the luxury of needing to 'burn extra calories' at the gym. We get cultural exposure at the Mall. We pay $3 for a thing called a Frappucino... The list goes on.
We have such privilege yet such emptiness.
In our culture we have therapists to help us "process" our childhoods. Here Catherine's simply trying to de-worm her school's kids. She's been trying to get a glass eye for one for three years now...
Here kids are naked, making cow poo sandcastle piles prepping the patties for their mother to make fuel. Men sharpen the side of their axe against the pavement on the roadside. Kids are not required to go to school and most don't. They learn English from the "college of life" as one kid told me.
They struggle, but they seem happier. They have their family - brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, grandparents - all living together under one roof. Kids play together. They use their imagination. They play outside. They take care of their relatives and bury their own. They face death in the face.
Though raw to our eyes, they seem more alive than we ever are.
And I ask you, which culture is more civilized?
Comments
The India Experience
Hey Amanda! You are having the experience that everyone always talks about getting from a voyage to India -- a fuller appreciation for all the color of life. It's just so great to read about it and see the photos. I am running out the door but I wanted to quickly post and let you know.
Re: The India Experience
Thanks Jon! Glad to hear you like reading it!