Old Rumtek

Near Rumtek Monastery, where I'm staying / studying / teaching, is Old Rumtek Monastery. Unlike Rumtek, which as I said before is owned by the Karmapa, Old Rumtek is owned by the government (Indian or Sikkimese, I'm not sure which). This means that it receives regular care, despite the fact that there are very few monks there these days (when I went I only met 2 caretakers, though they teach classes there for younger monks).

(Old Rumtek from New Rumtek, it's the shiny gold-roofed building)

Getting there is a relatively quick walk, maybe half an hour, and though it is not a very exciting, it is beautiful in the way that everything around here is (sub-tropical forrest covered steep hills, a house with terraced rice patties, you know the drill).

(the drill)

(the entrance gate) 

(the misty approach, with a traditionally built building of wood, stone, and mud)

Because this is the rainy season, and we are so high up (Denver, I win by about a hundred feet), sometimes you find yourself in the middle of a cloud. I'm not sure what about it feels different from fog, but something about the way it moves gives everything a Miyazaki surreality.

(the gate from the other direction, walking toward's the laypeople's prayer hall)

(laypeople's prayer hall, with long white prayer flags on bamboo poles)

(Rumtek Monastery, as soon from the laypeople's prayer hall at Old Rumtek)

When I visited the prayer hall, at the urging of the person I was with we circled the building clockwise 3 times. The number three and the clockwise direction (see: prayer wheels) keep showing up. When monks go on meditation retreats (primarily the Kagyu and Nyingma sects do this, spending long periods of time cut off from the outside world, meditating under the guidance of a high lama) they go for periods of time like 3 years, or 3 years and 3 months.

Several of the monks who I've been spending most of my time with are going on a 3 year retreat starting this December, and they've been preparing in various ways (learning ritual instruments, reading certain texts).