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| My Fifth Graders |
A couple of weeks ago, a sad event turned into a unique day
filled with beautiful moments that I will never forget. It all started one morning when I
arrived at school and was unexpectedly swarmed by my fifth graders. All at once they informed me that one
of their classmates father had passed away. I felt terrible for my student’s loss and I wasn’t sure what
the proper Bhutanese costume was to send my condolence. However, my fifth graders knew exactly
what to do and they rose up like an army of leaders while I followed.
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| Walking along the paved road |
First, they told me that we would walk to a few temples to
light butter lamps for their friend’s deceased father so he could find his way
to heaven.
Therefore, they simultaneously
agreed they would each bring twenty ngultrum’s in order to buy butter for butter
lamps, snacks to offer the deities at the temples and incense candles as
another offering.
Then whatever
money we had left over, I would also add some money to their pile to give it to
my student’s family to show our condolence (Bhutanese custom).
So on a Saturday morning we gathered in front of the school
ready to embark on our two-hour walk along a paved road leading high up into
the mountains to some temples. There
were no such things as parent consent forms, a list of emergency numbers or chaperons. It was just my students and I with
their backpacks filled with offerings for the temples, lunch and water. In addition, I wasn’t too sure how to
get to the temple, so I was following them.
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| Hiking in the forest |
As they led me up a windy road, it turned out to be the most
beautiful day in August.
However,
the powerful sunrays slowed us down causing us to take many breaks.
Exhausted from the heat, my students begged
me to let them take a shortcut along a trail through the shaded, cool forest.
Since I was also feeling hot dressed in
layers of the Bhutanese national dress, I agreed.
However, once we entered the forest, my students started to
make loud, wild noises and I instantly knew what they were doing, which made me
regret my decision.
They were
making crazy noises to scare off any nearby bears.
Fortunately, we never came across any bears, but we did come
across the scariest bull I had ever seen and I will never forget our encounter
with him.
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| He is larger than me |
When I saw the white, splotchy bull, I was astounded by his
huge built as though he was on steroids.
He was also missing one of his gigantic horns, which I interpreted as a
warning that he was a troublemaker.
Surprisingly, my students crept by the bull with ease, but when it was
my turn to creep by, I hesitated out of fear. My students could sense that something was wrong with me and
they all stopped to watch their frighten teacher frozen in her tracks.
Then my class captain yelled across the trail, “Miss, what’s
wrong? Why are you just standing there?”
Without even thinking, I blurted out, “I’m scared!” The whole class thought this was
hysterical and they instantly caused the forest to echo with laughter. My class captain promised me that the
bull wouldn’t do anything, but if the bull did, he would protect me. So I mustered up some courage. As I
started to sneak pass the bull, my class captain marched up to the bull and
pointed his finger in the bull’s face while saying, “Don’t you hurt my Miss or
else…” My heart started to pound faster and I whispered to him, “Get away from
the bull, you are going to make him angry,” but before my student could listen
to me, the massive beast lowered his head to the ground, stomped his legs and
started to charge towards us. Our
quiet little tiptoeing turned into lightning speed sprinting accompanied by dying screams. Once we realized that he was no longer
chasing us, we stopped to catch our breath and we were all shaking like a leaf.
Nevertheless, we laughed at how
fast my class captain ran away while forgetting to save me.
AN EXTINCT RIVER WITH HYPNOTIZING POWERS
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| Hypnotizing |
Finally, the trail ended into an open grassy bank of what was
once a rushing river.
It was
phenomenal!
My students were so
excited to share this beautiful piece of nature with me and they ran around me
shouting, “Miss, look, look, it used to be a ocean… this is my best spot… I
want to build a house here… do you like it?”
We sat for some time imagining what the river must had
looked like by the empty groves.
There was something special about this place and I enjoyed watching how
it nearly hypnotized them into buzzing insects.
In fact, I had to practically pry them away to continue our
journey to the temples.
PRAYING FOR A FATHER TO FIND HIS WAY TO HEAVEN
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| Small Temple |
Once we reached the first temple, we made a caretaker/grandma’s
day to see a bunch of kids coming to light butter lamps.
She eagerly opened the small, old temple
for us where the students, in unison, immediately started their prostrations (bowing
down to the floor) all while keeping one eye on me to make sure that I knew how
to prostrate.
Then the strangest
thing happened, all at once without words we sat down on the temple floor
without a plan.
We just quietly sat
next to each other looking at the beautiful altar of statues and colors while
every few seconds they would glance at me to exchange a smile.
Finally, one student broke the silence
to suggest that we meditate like we do in class.
So we meditated for several minutes.
Then another student led a beautiful Buddhist
prayer for their friend’s father.
Instantly, everyone cupped their hands and closed their eyes to pray.
However, I couldn’t close my eyes
because I was in awe observing these precious children praying so diligently for
a father to find his way to heaven.
The purity of their hearts and their peaceful energy made my eyes become
misty.
After the prayer, the grandma eagerly helped everyone light
incense sticks. As I was thinking
that there was something so warm about the grandma, my students also picked up
on her loving energy. They came up
to me whispering that they wanted to give some of the left over money to the grandma. When the students gave the grandma some
money, again I felt my eyes becoming watery at how loving as well as giving
they were.
AN APPLE TREE THAT WAS BETTER THAN A PINATA
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| The pinata tree |
Next, as we ventured further up the mountain to another temple,
my students spotted an apple tree and I didn’t have the heart to stop them from
raiding somebody’s tree because I had never seen children so joyful to see apples.
They looked like children hitting
a piñata at a birthday party by the way they whacked the branches with huge
sticks, causing the apples to rain down like candy bursting from a piñata. Then the students would cheer in
excitement as they rushed to collect the fallen apples in the fabric of their
kiras and ghos.
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| Apples! |
Just as my
conscience started to really eat at me for letting them take so many apples, my
students spotted a lady in the distance walking towards us.
As a result of being guilty children, they
all started to run away leaving me behind to face the possible owner alone.
However, I became just as bad as the
children and I started to run away too out of embarrassment of being an apple
thief and I couldn’t help but chuckle when I realized that I was screaming, “Ahhh
wait for me kids.”
For us, apples
are luxurious and it was another moment I will never forget as they each offered
me an apple once we were out of sight from the possible owner.
PRAYING OUR HEARTS OUT INTO MONEY
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| Walking around all the stupas |
Finally, when we reached the second temple, the students
whispered to me that they didn’t bring extra money for the second temple to
make an offering, hinting that they needed me to sponsor them. So I gladly took out a single ngultrum
bill to share with them and they all passed it around pressing it to their foreheads
while saying a prayer for all sentient beings before we placed it at the
altar. It was the sweetest moment
watching them pray their hearts out into the money and I got little goosebumps
due to their pure sweetness.
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| Picnic |
Once we left the temple, we walked around several large stupas
five times before we headed to a grassy area to have a picnic. We have had many picnics together, so they know the routine: sit in a circle, keep your rice container in your lap, but
pass your curries to the left, take a large scoop out of the passing curries onto
your rice and enjoy. Picnics
always turn into bonding family time and we grub like there is no tomorrow.
DON’T LET THE MONKS LOOK AT YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACE
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| Some monks in the distance |
After lunch, as we started to leave the temple, we were
walking towards many monks gathered under a tree for lunch. At the sight of the large number of
monks, my students shocked me by saying, “Miss, you should cover your face with
your umbrella because all the monks are going to stare at you when you walk by them
because you are soooo beautiful so they
will want to look at your face.” They
continued to beg and beg me to shield my face from the monks peeping eyes
before we passed them. One student
even threatened that he was going to tell the monks their eyes would fall out
if they looked at my face while another student swore that he would demand them
not to stare at my face and to follow their monk beliefs or else.
To my surprise, all the worrisome talk of men looking at me
caused all of them to become very protective over me and they started to cling
to me as we walked closer to the monks.
Again, they said with such pain, “Ohhh Miss they are going to look at
your beautiful face. Nooo please
noooo…” However, this made me
laugh and I told them that it was ok if the monks looked at my face because my
face wasn’t that great (wink
wink). Then when we walked by the
monks, sure enough they were all staring at me, but surely not because my face
was beautiful. Instead, I thought
that they were staring at me because it was unusual to see a foreigner with a
flock of Bhutanese children closely surrounding her. So I decided to shock my students and I graciously shouted
out to the monks with a big smile, “Kuzuzangpo La” (a kind greeting) and all the
monks laughed. This calmed my
students down and they grinned. Next, in a low voice I told my students, “See, it’s ok if the monks
look at my face, really, it’s no big deal” and we all giggled some more. (Later, they further explained that
some monks are naughty boys and they couldn’t bear hearing males talk about
their Miss in naughty ways since they perceive me as beautiful – beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder.)
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| Stupas |
Finally, when we reached our village, I was surprised to
find my student whose father had passed away was waiting for us along the road
in front of his house to give us juices (he didn’t come with us because he had
many guests). Unexpectedly, he insisted
that I come up to his house for tea.
At that very moment, a couple of my friends who were also related to him
were passing by and seeing that I was a little nervous, they accompanied me to
the house filled with grieving people.
My friends translated my words of condolence to my student’s mother as I
gave her my class contribution. It
felt right to end the day by saying my condolence in person and my heart
swelled knowing that this was a day that I would never forget: a day of
adventure, love, giving, prayers, learning, laughter, and misty eyes…
If you were able to read this to the end, please don’t
forget to say a prayer for my student’s father to find his way to heaven.
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| A very hypnotizing place: My little buzzing insects |
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| Their favorite spot |
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| My student being silly |
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| Walking home |
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| I love them |
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| One graceful sunflower |
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| My class captain |
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| Picnic |
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| Pass your curries around the circle |
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| Beautiful scenery |
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| Nimalung |
