“I was intoxicated with drowsiness.”

One day, our cook, with whom we communicate regularly through texts, was very late in bringing our breakfast. A little later he texted his apology, citing intoxication with drowsiness as the reason. (:

view from our roof; Loseling prayer hall

Today, we caught a peeping tom: a spider monkey! The little monks shot pebbles at it, which we expected the big monk to condemn; instead he seemed to condone it!

Written around November 14:

Okay, so: Stephen and I are now at Drepung Monastery, where we have been for about one week (wow!). We are staying in the Drepung Loseling guest house, which is pretty nice, though the shower doesn’t work (but neither of us minds bucket baths, so it’s not a big deal) and the power goes off on a very regular basis (though not regular enough to have a schedule…)

our pet lizard! he comes in the holes around our window and sings to us.

We are both working on our ISPs, which are going pretty well at this point. When we first got here, Geshe Tsundue (a former student of Geshe Dorjee’s who is basically taking care of us under our Geshe’s distant supervision) didn’t really understand my project, so he took Stephen to the Loseling school and didn’t understand why I didn’t go with him every day. Finally, however, we worked out finding a translator for me, who was able to clear up everything with Tsundue la.

with Geshe Tsundue la outside of the Ganden monastery temple.

So now, I have been meeting with political prisoners every day at 4:00, and today will be my fourth. Tomorrow I am interviewing the school’s principal, which was entirely luck!

Stephen, while having tea with him, discovered that he was arrested trying to get back into Tibet from Nepal (despite the fact that the principal speaks only a little English), even going so far as to draw him a map of the prison! Needless to say, Stephen excitedly told me when he got back and I made an appointment to talk to him about it as soon as possible.

cooking french fries!

I have been teaching English classes! I've taught classes 2 (eek), 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 at Loseling. It’s pretty fun, though definitely tricky. Luckily, being bad at remembering names and instead pretty good at remembering faces works pretty well here! Most of their names are too tricky to pick up quickly anyway, but I can remember them easily by their faces.

Class 1B- those who have to start with the Tibetan alphabet.

students trying to ignore the American taking their pictures.

It’s really difficult to know what to do- I think there is a mix of wanting to listen to us talk and wanting to talk with us, partially because they aren’t all very comfortable talking. It’s very easy to spot the good ones from the unpracticed ones, which is helpful. The hard part is getting through to the ones who are in the upper level class and barely speak. So far, it’s mostly Tibetans who have been the quietest.

morning assembly.

I try to get them to ask questions, which some do at first, thenthey stop out of fear, I think, then after a while, they start asking a lot more. I’ve been asked strange things; lots about Obama, I was asked where I was and how I felt when the twin towers hit, why I like Buddhism, why people in the west like the Dalai Lama, what the American flag means, and what I think needs to be done to save Tibetans. I think they warm to me initially because they always ask why I’m here and my answer is that I am doing my project about political prisoners (which was really hard to explain the first time).

Stephen is now a computer teacher for the computer teachers, which is pretty cute.

little monks practicing writing.

So, here’s how the monastery thing works: In Tibet, the biggest monasteries were Sera, Drepung, and Gaden. Because they were so big, each had two monasteries within them. In South India, the biggest are Drepung (4,000ish monks), Sera (2,000ish), and Gaden (1,500ish), and each has two monasteries/colleges within them. In Drepung, there are Drepung Loseling and Drepung Gomang, Loseling being the larger of the two and the one Geshe Dorjee comes from and where Stephen and I are staying.

shoes outside of the Ganden temple.

Oh, we also had a three day train ride to get here, which was no fun. Stephen got what we think was his first migraine and I got a cold (his was much much worse, but needless to say, neither of us was very productive, though I did read a whole book that was incredibly good for my project).

a little Indian girl begging - an unfortunately common site.

Okay, now it’s Sunday. Today we visited Gaden monastery, which was very nice. We arrived as some high lama was awarding those who had done the best in the recent tests, so all of the monks were assembled in the big temple. We were instructed to go in the very front and take pictures, which was scary! My heart was absolutely racing in excitement/fear that we were doing something wrong. Oh, and right outside the door were bees!

Today we also visited Geshe Dorjee la's Amala!

I taught English to class 2 of Loseling school the other day. Usually, I teach 7-10, so it was really difficult. I had them read “Curlylocks and the three bears,” which was entertaining. Oh, and this morning I taught classes 6,7, and 8 at Gomang school, which was interesting. Gomang school only goes up to 8, and they were all pretty good at English. In class 8, it was science hour, so we read their English science book; the chapter they were on was about satellites of various kinds (i.e. planets, artificial). Interesting…

a little monk from class 1 on Children's Day.

We also were lucky enough to witness Children’s Day at Loseling school, during which the students had no real classes, got to play games, and the teachers performed skits and songs for them. It was really cute. The best part was the monk who does morning announcements who told jokes in his announcer voice; we didn’t understand the Tibetan, but it was clearly really funny and his tone was entertaining enough for us. Also, the teachers performed as Tibetan boy bands! They videotaped the whole thing and at one point the guy with the camera started videotaping us from at least 4 different places! Weird weird.

Oh! We made French fries!

mmmmm.

We are still just as unusual a site here as we were, but I think we are both getting more accustomed to it. Power is still just as sketchy (i.e. sometimes we have power, sometimes we don’t, sometimes it comes on for 3 seconds, sometimes for 2 hours in the middle of the night…)

Oh, and it’s the coolest time of year here but it still feels like summer at home. I can’t believe it’s so cold in Arkansas! It’s going to be super weird to get home and be the middle of December after being here.

all of this was just for Stephen and I....

Also, we are being fattened up. I think they realized how skinny Stephen was and decided to make us feast regularly.

feasting with Ngawang Kelsang la. Chive and cabbage momos!

Today, Tuesday, we were photographers. We started out by photographing the Loseling School principal as he visited an important old Geshe and gave an offering. Then we went and took pictures all around the school. Then we went and took pictures of him making offerings in a small temple. Then we went to the main Loseling temple and took pictures of him making offerings to the abbot, deities, and all of the important monks in it, of him and his assistants giving money to all 2,000ish monks, and of the temple itself, inside which the monks were doing a puja. The puja was for him; he recently became a Geshe and this was his ceremony to give offerings and be given offerings by others.

during the puja, little monks ran around with food.

We also got to walk around on top of the Loseling prayer hall, which is huge and was completed in January of this year.

inside the Loseling temple before puja began.

Today, Saturday, we are back to being under house arrest. Apparently the policeman that was around and patrolling for passes was friendly, and has unfortunately left and was replaced by a very unfriendly one. For this reason, we can only go out at night again, which we only do to go use internet when we can or have dinner with one of our monks.

students erecting a tent on the day of the science exhibition at Loseling school.

We have also been very privilidged to receive teachings from Geshe Wangchen, a very important and well-known monk here. We meet with him every three days or so, at which time we are allowed to ask any questions we have and he answers to the best of his ability. He spent 7 or 8 years in England, so his English is very good. He is in his 70s. I don't think either of us realized just how important he is until we were asked to take pictures when he took part in a puja at Minyak Kangtsen:

Geshe Wangchen is the one on the throne at the end. Minyak Kangtsen is the dormitory that Geshe Dorjee la was in charge of and Geshe Tsundue la is in charge of in his stead. Kangtsen is the word for dormitory and Minyak is a place in Kham (a region in Tibet) where most of the monks who live there came from.

cuties.

I said in my short entry that I would comment on the awesome Tibetan fellow (also viewable here, as linked from Stephen's blog.) I interviewed him for my project, though he was not actually ever imprisoned. He has been part of every major hunger strike (as far as I can tell) for the past few decades, including a 36-day hunger strike in Delhi. More pictures later.

As for my project- I have, at this point, interviewed 7 political prisoners, 2 non-prisoners, my advisor, and 2 other monks. I have yet to really start writing, however, but I will start soon. Only about one week left...
We will be here, in Drepung, until December 7, at which time we will take a train to Delhi and arrive the morning of the 9th. Then we fly to Kathmandu on December 10th and stay there until December 15th, when we fly home. We will gain back the day we lost in coming and will have to stay overnight in LA, finally arriving in Tulsa at 10:30pm on the 16th.
Whoo.

skinny! also, mountain man.

We are getting ridiculous, friends and family. On more than one occasion, we have sat and discussed (and argued about stopping) and obsessed about the foods we will eat when we get home. We have lists. They are very very long. Whenever we get hungry, or really just when we allow ourselves to, we start up again. One of us always threatens the other with something if they don't stop and we both always end up listing off foods and drooling.
We are serious when we say we will do nothing but sleep and eat for a while after returning home.