Part III: Played By A Lama? What Will I Serve The Lama for Dinner?
When I got to the top of Tiger’s Nest, almost all the other
teachers had already been there for some time and were starting to descend down. Apparently, Sheal and I took too many
pictures on the way up and I was sure our new guide-friend’s finger hurt from
snapping all the photos of us. I
hugged the other teachers as we passed.
Everyone on this mountain is excited and you can actually feel it. The anticipation of entering inside the
monastery is almost too much to handle.
Unfortunately, you can’t take your hats, bags, or cameras in
the monastery. No pictures or
filming and you will be patted down before you enter, especially if you look
like a photo fanatic foreigner like me.
If you want to know what it looks like inside, you will have to go. I will not spoil it for others because I
want everyone to go and experience its beauty first hand. I’m confident you won’t be
disappointed.
Feet away from Tiger's Nest |
However, I will give you a little history lesson that my new
friend (aka the guide I stole away with my charm) gave me about the monastery. Tiger’s Nest also known as Takeshang
Gompa or Taktsang Palphug Monastery is one of Bhutan’s most famous and holiest
sites. It was built in 1692 in Guru
Rinponche’s honor. Guru Rinponche
is a real historical figure in Bhutan and is credited for bringing Buddhism to
Bhutan during three of his visits in the eight century. Inside Tiger’s Nest there is a great
cave where Guru Rinponche flew into on a tigress back and meditated in for
three months. Guru Rinponche is
very powerful and is known for subduing anti-Buddhist forces. It’s even believed that the
construction of the monastery was aided from celestial beings. There is so much to know about Tiger’s
Nest that I can go on for days, so look it up people!
I’m sure most won’t believe all of this mystical stuff about
Tiger’s Nest, but I do. So to be
able to meditate in a place where the great Guru Rinphonche meditated was an
honor and a blessing. While
meditating I was flooded with the usual luminescent purple light that likes to pay me visits during my
meditations. It was a majestic
moment to say the least. I thought
about how happy my angels and spirit guides must have been to accompany me on
this once in a lifetime adventure.
People from all over the world make a journey to visit
Tiger’s Nest. I met people from
China, Nepal, Italy, Japan, France, and Tibet who were embarking to check off
this monastery for this lifetime.
When everyone reached the top that day, they were surprised by a great Bhutanese
master lama who had traveled there for the day to give blessings, whom I got my
first blessing ever. I was so
excited that I rushed to the front of the crowd without observing the “proper”
way to get a blessing and found myself doing a hesitant bow with my head. The young lama laughed at me, told me
it was ok and blessed the top of my head with a wooden looking gavel. He looked at me with curiosity wanting
to know where I was from and why I was here. He told me that he was originally from the village I would
be living at and asked for my phone number so he could visit me when he passed
through.
What? A famous
lama with an entourage wanting to visit little old me, how lucky am I! So I was devastated that I couldn’t
remember my new phone number. No
problem though, he ordered his assistants and umbrella holders to fetch him a
pen and paper so he could give me his number instead. That’s when my ego came out to say hello and I was literally
blushing as he wrote down his number for me while tons of people watched. How strange, the only bold male who
asked for my number was a lama, did he think I was cute or was this friendly
customs? I later learned that
Lama’s are allowed to marry, hmmm.
I couldn’t wait to tell all the other BCF teachers how special I was. Ha-ha.
Break time! Shhh |
Down the mountain my guide-friend I went catching up to Sheal. I waved my precious lama’s number
around in the air to her. I yelled
in excitement, “Whee, what will I serve the Lama for dinner?” Finally, we reached the bus and
everyone had been waiting for us for quite some time. The BCF teachers kindly hooted and
hollered that we were able to physically make it, little did they know that
Sheal and I went on a photo shoot/meet and greet event. Shhhh! Their cheering was a little embarrassing, but I didn’t care because my ego had news to share. I proudly took out my phone number and announced to everyone
that the lama was coming over for dinner.
The whole bus busted out in a roar of laughter. I instantly knew something was funnier
about this story than I was aware of and I was about to be the butt of a good joke. In front of me, I noticed that Reidi was
the only one not laughing. Tim was
the first to burst my bubble, he gladly shouted that the lama said he was also
originally from Reidi’s assigned village, asked for her number, but she too couldn’t
remember her new number. So the
cute lama gave her his number instead, asked her to call him, so that he could
visit her whenever he was in her village.
Down the Mountain |
I guess I wasn’t the only one with an ego the size of
Texas. Reidi had also “ran down”
the mountain entering the bus feeling lucky about the thought of this great man
coming over for dinner. It was
basically the same exact replay as my experience. So Reidi and I sat there looking at each other quite annoyed. The bus was filled with jokes about how
we got played by a lama and being a monk is only a day job. On and on the jokes continued and I couldn’t
help but eventually laugh too.
Later on Reidi and I were still in denial that we were no
longer something special and we thought for sure there must have been two
different lamas giving blessings. We
started to compare notes on what the lama looked liked and what he said. Still cemented in denial we got a great
idea to get our lama’s phone numbers out to compare. Our egos slowly crumbled away as each digit matched. Then we laughed and secretly admitted
we were still going to call this lama. Ha! What will I
serve the lama for dinner?
Reidi and I |
Sabrina, this place looks Magical.It seems like a lot of places have tile laid out.
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