More Photos from Lumbini and Chitwan

Our visit to Kaplavastu or Teleraco (the Palace of the Lord Buddha)

Emily made it to INDIA

We all illegally stepped over the Indian border! (Yes, I went to India)

It was a very muddy border crossing 

A WHOLE PACK OF GOATS

MY DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!! (please note everyone looking at me like I'm crazy!)

The most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen in my whole life. It was a complete (tripple) rainbow

Zack, Ben, myself and Pema 

You must take your shoes off before before entering the Maya Devi temple 

CHITWAN:

Our boat ride down the river

Yes, Prashanta (in the red) is sleeping!

"white water rafting"

Elephant orphanage--they were all chained up! :(

What an awesome view to wash ones clothes (Himalayas in the background)

This is a huge controversy with India and Nepal--where was the Buddha born?

Our ride on elephants (more pictures to come maybe?)

Our elephant friend!

Participating in a "cultural dance"?

Our Jungle Adventure World Hotel--aka Chitwan's version of Disney World...

I went to India Illegally!

I am baaaaaack in Kathmandu after a weeklong excursion to Lumbini and Chitwan (see previous post for more information on those). Basically the trip consisted of a 3-night stay in Lumbini (the birth place of the Buddha) and a 2-night stay in Chitwan (national park). I will not bore you with all the details of Lumbini but basically all you have to know is that there is a whole museum, town and multi-billion-dollar facility dedicated to this place! (OH MY BUDDHA!) The trip to Lumbini was filled with lots of information and also lots of Buddhist and Hindi pilgrims from all over the world—pretty cool actually! We became good buds with a local restaurant owner, 365, and at one point during the trip bought out his whole restaurant of food (there were over 25 of us)! We stayed at this beautiful Gompa Buddhist Monastery and I was able to run every morning around the lush compound.

CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK…was absolutely beautiful and one of the most touristy places I have ever been. The first morning we woke up we were told that a Rhino had walked through the compound that night…we saw the foot prints and even a dent in the fence to show proof. We later figured out this was all a hoax! It was almost like finding out as if Santa Clause was not real! Well anyways…being touristy served us pretty well because we got to go on a canoe ride down the river, a jungle safari walk and even ride elephants! Yupp, you heard me right…we rode ELEPHANTS!!!! I was hoping to see a Rhino or even a Tiger during my time but we were not successful just lots of deer and even a dead boar. Better luck next time? Over all we saw some pretty incredible things and are very lucky to be doing everything that we are!!!

Here are photos from our adventure!  

The Himalayan Mountains--the view from our plane ride to Lumbini 

So close...yet so far

The Buddhist Gompa that we stayed at in Lumbini

Inside the shrine room (shh, I was not supposed to take a photo)

SO many prayer wheels

Pretty walk through the garden 

Drew and I taught the gardener how to take a photo!

Zack getting tooooooo close to that monkey

The "Eastern Gate Way" where the Lord Buddha left for is worldly life

Ben and Pema on our bike ride! 

Ben, Pema, Tenchoe and I exploring the Monasteries by bike 

The Sacred Garden (the birth place of the Buddha)

Behind the Maya Davey Temple 

MANY more photos to come! I just have to do them in batches when the internet is working! Hang on!!! 

Hello my name is: "The Enlightened One"

So you are all (hopefully!) wondering what I have been up to. Well, here it is. I am a newly ordained Bodisattva and therefore have been busy doing all my Bodisattva duties. So for all of you that did not click on that link and/or do not know what a Bodisattva is I will tell you. Basically I have taken the vows to become “one of the four sublime states a human can achieve in their life”. Yes, to answer your question I do want to be referred to as “the enlightened one”.

The funny part is I am only sort of kidding. This past weekend (Feb 8^th and 9^th) I went to Dzongsar Jaymang Khyentse Rinpoche give a teaching on the Buddha Dharma and even more specifically on how to achieve Aspiration. To some of you this sounds dull, however it was awesome. Dzongsar Rinpoche is not only hilarious, but a great public speaker and also, yes, very wise. The teaching went from 8am-1pm ever day with a tea break in between. Other than the fact that it took up the greater part of our day (because it starts to get dark around 5:00 pm here) it was really awesome.

What did I do with the rest of my weekend? Funny you would ask. I went to a MOMO FESTIVAL. A momo is a Tibetan version of a dumpling and it is delicious. A few of the other kids on the program and I took a bus to this a park where there was supposedly a Momo festival going on. (Now I must preface this by saying nothing is ever set in stone in Nepal and so when I said that supposedly a Momo festival I really meant that it was a crap shoot as to if it was really a thing or not). Much to our surprise there was actually a Momo Festival going on. We could tell because the second we stepped off the bus there was BLASTING American dub-step music and lots of people flooding the gates. We paid our ticket, got a stamp and headed in. The festival had over 30 different kinds of Momo’s; everything from tofu and pannier to meat lovers to yack milk and chocolate filled ones. For all my veg lovers out there, don’t worry there were plenty of veg options! On top of it being an all-you-can-eat place (sadly I only could manage 9) there were also many different contests. Some of my friends entered into the momo making competitions, momo eating competitions and even a beer drinking contest. The entire festival was catered by “Café Bakery” which was different than I thought—I thought it was going to be a small festival where each family produced their own signature momo. Either way it was all a huge cultural experience and I am very glad I went.

Updates on my host family:

My host “parents” are not much older than me—from what I gather they are about 25-30 years old. (They do not actually know what their birthDAYs are.) This is cool and fun and makes everything a little different then the other kids on the program because I have a different dynamic with my family. However, communication is still tricky. With my lack of Tibetan language and their lack on English language we are limited to talking about “how was your day” and “no I do not eat meat”. They find it THE funniest and most peculiar thing that I do not eat meat and consistently make fun of me for it (in a loving way of course). For example: last night they were eating buffalo off of the bone (like HUGE pieces of buffalo) and they kept offering it to me and then laughing after I politely refused it. Hah. While we are on the topic of food: food= carbs. I have consumed more noodles, bread and rice than I have every in my whole life. Secondly, I have never NOT eaten veggies so little in my whole life. (Yes, this makes being a vegetarian difficult. Perhaps, I should just be a carb-a-tarian.) Don’t get me wrong, I am SO SO SO grateful for all the food that I am eating and it is delicious (bay shimbudue) it is just an adjustment from home that’s all.

On Thursday (Feb 13) I am going to Lumbini and Chitwan. Lumbini is the birth place of the Buddha (although this is a huge cultural debate between Nepal and India). And Chitwan is the first established National Park in Nepal. I am hoping to finally see a real Tiger (refer to previous blog posts in Kenya to get that joke) and possibly ride an elephant! I will be out of communication from the 13^th till the 18^th!

I hope you are all enjoying your abroad experiences and or snow at home! Jay la Jail young (see you).

The Chorden (Stupa) in Boudahnah 

This is not a very good picture but you can see the Himalayas behind those hills around 4:30pm!

The Chorden again. Yes, the white blob behind the mountains is actually the Himalayan Mountains

Momo Festival

Lulu and Zack feasting on Momo's

Spinach Momo's (Each momo came with a complementary sauce too) 

...also the bowls were made of leafs! COOL. 

Drew modeling our complementary beer... Everest

SO many momo fans! 

Slightly out of order, sorry! Sitting on the Chorden doing homework with Emily! 

Lulu, Drew and I LOVE Momo's!

Drew and me...YUMMM!

Horrible picture...but this is where the Rinpoche's teaching was. (We were not supposed to take pictures in the shrine room when he is in there)

The location of the teaching

INTERESTING FACT!!!! Every drink in Nepal is served HOT......... I ordered a 'milk shake' (obviously thinking it would be cold) and it was steaming hot. I tried to capture the steam, but it was some what unsuccessful.