Chadar Day 5: Hanging out with the Buddhist nuns of Lingshed

Today was truly amazing. It's dark now. Everyone's doing their own thing. Tania is getting her hair cut by Thakpa. I'm in the other room. We are staying in someone's home/ hut - more like a guest house. Reminds me of the time in Lesotho somewhere - the local people vacated their hut ofr us. Jeff and I discussed whether we would do the same with our homes? The entrance is by a sheep/ goat/ horse stand - at the basement, which leads up to the main area - a small courtyard with two rooms and a kitchen. There's a spot to brush teeth and then there's the huge Ladakhi bathroom - where you take a dump and cover it up with mud. The dump hole was two-storeyed. So if you were in the bottom-most - technically someone could be taking a dump on your head from top!

We had aloo parathas for breakfast and chole-batura for lunch - what luck! It was unexpected, exciting and very tasty. A bit much for a hiking trek. I promptly pooped whatever I overate. It's been snowing all day. There's also a local brew and two bottles of Merlot in the neighboring room.

After a Dumb Charades game and mostly a listless morning, I stepped out in my gear - it's a pain to get into it - polyprops, thermals, goretex, double socks, shoes, gators over the shoes, gloves, stick, neck gator, cap...oh tiring. I stepped out to figure Lingshed out. Started by going towards the monastery because it's Pradeep's 30th birthday today. Also because that's the only dig I knew about in this village of 86 people - other than of course, the satellite phone place. I took the first path that I found and followed it. I was happy I did.

It took me up and up to the unknown. I must say that the houses and construction are pretty well-made for a small village. Perhaps the snow and weather demands good construction. The women inside the nunnery spotted me outside and invited me to come up. Inside, there were about 10 people - 3-4 elderly women and the rest kids (girls). There I met Otsal (means "clean light" - a name given to her by the Dalai Lama) - she as the most communicative, very sharp and bright. She spoke nearly fluently in both English and Hindi and told me she needed to know neither. Everyone told me their names - names I can't remember now. But it was nice to hear. Some of them found my name amusing and kept saying it aloud - Prawind, Prewin etc. even deriving Ladakhi meanings from it. What fun! They told me it would take me an hour to reach the main monastery so I decided to stay put and not go - given it was get dark in a short while. They said, stay longer and I did.

I visited the Buddha at the temple. It was very nice. There was a huge picture of the Dalai Lama - he visited Lingshed the previous year. I returned to the main room - after a bit - everyone started their evening prayers. It was surreal. They offered me butter-tea and tsampa (barley powder). I mixed the tea and the powder in a little cup and make balls out of it. That's what everyone did. They were amused at my clumsiness. The barley ball sticks to your mouth and creates a certain lingering bland taste. You feel that it produces heat instantly and provides quick energy.

I left a little later after clicking pictures with them.

I don't know what it was but the whole experience touched me deep inside. The fact that they didn't the many, many, many trappings that I need. Including the need to "do stuff", "create meaning", "experience things" "make myself useful" etc. etc. I asked them how they decided to become nuns. Otsal said that she decided to become so herself but some others came because their families decided for them. I wonder what's what, who's who, where's where. What's the meaning of this all?

I also went to Otsal's house and met her parents, her brother's son - Legdup - a four-month old boy. Very nice day!