The Karmapa's Birthday: The Afternoon / The Tea Party

After the Cultural Exhibition finished, and the party broke up, everyone had several hours to kill before the evening's activities were set to commence. Some went and took naps, but I was still too pumped from the performances to sleep, so I wandered around a while.

Several Thai monks were visiting Rumtek, in their distinctive saffron colored robes, and some of them struck up a conversation with me and the monks I was hanging out with.

(the Thai monks)

One of the Thai monks gave a couple of us small sculptures he had made, out of what appears to be chalk, of the Maitreya Buddha (the foretold future Buddha). They are to be used during meditation as focus objects, to be held both in the hand and in the mind.

(the sculpture, only slightly less distinct than it is in person)

In birthday-unrelated news, as I was wandering around that afternoon, I stumbled across the room where all of the masks from the lama dance are stored. It was beautiful, though a little eerie, to see them stacked around an empty concrete room (especially considering how gruesome some of their imagery is, taken at face value).

While the light and the weather lasted, a few monks and I decided to take a walk down the hill. It was rather windy...

... and so included a few attempts at flight. And general, wind unrelated silliness. 

(silliness, between the rice paddies)

Then it was time to grab some dinner, at a hotel in town (becuase during the Summer Retreat, there is no dinner at the monastery or Institute). Dinner included one of the things that sometimes happens when you spend time around monks, which was the spontaneous chanting of some of Milarepa's songs (Milarepa was Tibet's most famous yogi, and an important link in the chain of the Kagyu lineage, who is also well known as the composer of many songs).

After dinner, with the sun now completely down, we went back up hill to find the Institute decked out in lights.

(not great pictures, but it was beautiful in person and I wanted to share some of that with you guys)

The evening activity was to be a Tea Party (their words, not mine), held in the same room where the VIPs had eaten lunch several hours previous. 

(all decked out, with the Karmapa in the place of honor)

(the roomful of monks)

(the MC for the evening's festivities, as smack-talking as the best of them)

The evening kicked off with the lighting of candles...

(the young Rinpoche lit the candles and cut the cake)

... and the distribution of treats, like any good birthday party. Most of the monks, being in Summer Retreat, were not able to partake in the cakes and cookies, but everyone was able to drink (though not drink, these are monks after all). Not tea, however, as the name of the party would suggest, but coffee. Seriously, the very first monastery event I've gone to where tea wasn't served was also the first one I've gone to with 'tea' in the name.

(the distribution of treats)

(the teachers)

And then it was time for the entertainment. Anyone who wished to could get up and perform, and quite a number of monks did so. The offerings included a fair bit of karaoke, though I'm not posting any video from that because the sound quality just isn't good enough to do anyone any justice.

(karaoke!)

(more karaoke!)

One monk did some decidedly modern dancing. During the dance, the abbot kept looking at me and gesturing a thumbs up / thumbs down question, apparently deciding that (as the representative westerner) I was the best authority to help him decide if this was quality or not.

And then more karaoke!

There was also a bit of singing without background support, which is always impressive because it takes a good bit more guts. I'm including this short clip of a monk singing in Chinese style, doing things with his voice that you'd never hear in American or European popular music.

My personal favorite of the night was the monk who performed a more than passable, and incredibly jubilant and enthusiastic, Gangnam Style. To general approval. And more questioning looks to me from the abbot.

(Gangnam Style!)

And with that, the Karmapa's birthday was finished. Though not my adventures, so make sure to check back later! And continue to let me know what you think, I love to hear from you all.