Zangdopelri
It took Scott about nine months to finally visit the local Zangdopelri. We have two in town, one at the college and one in lower market, which is commonly referred to as the public Zangdopelri. This Zangdopelri also has a shedri attached to it, a monastic school. This is what adds to Kanglung’s colorful population – monks, younger and older, are always seen roaming the streets right beside small groups of college students, secondary students and primary students.
Because my school and its staff have a very close relationship with the temple and the shedri, ever since we started living in Bhutan back in February, I’ve had several reasons to visit the public Zangdopelri. I can still remember my first time there, sitting with a group of other teachers on carpets on the floor while rows and rows of monks chanted and played instruments, performing an important puja. It doesn’t seem right that all that ceremony, hearing horns blare and monks warbling, has become normal to me, but it has; that happens when you’re surrounded by it all the time, which one is in Bhutan. An everyday occurrence here is walking past a house and seeing the smoke billow from burning pine and hearing the rising sound of cymbals and drum beats – evidence of a puja in session.
But when visiting Zangdopelri with Scott and our guests from Rangjung, Vicky and Ian, a couple weekends ago, I still felt a sense of awe, of wonder. Walking through the main gate and into the courtyard, past a statue of a goddess, the temple is surrounded by a circle of small prayer wheels, which are surrounded by smaller buildings containing big, bulky prayer wheels. When we were there, aging Bhutanese were sitting in these smaller buildings with prayer beads and smiles. The temple itself, with its dark towering figures of Rimpoche and other Buddhist dieties inside, is beautiful and mystical. Scott, who mostly thinks one lakhang is just like any other (we've both visited many, many temples, old and new, in Bhutan), was actually impressed.
Butter statues. Scott says the one in the middle looks like a bunch of asparagus.
Because my school and its staff have a very close relationship with the temple and the shedri, ever since we started living in Bhutan back in February, I’ve had several reasons to visit the public Zangdopelri. I can still remember my first time there, sitting with a group of other teachers on carpets on the floor while rows and rows of monks chanted and played instruments, performing an important puja. It doesn’t seem right that all that ceremony, hearing horns blare and monks warbling, has become normal to me, but it has; that happens when you’re surrounded by it all the time, which one is in Bhutan. An everyday occurrence here is walking past a house and seeing the smoke billow from burning pine and hearing the rising sound of cymbals and drum beats – evidence of a puja in session.
But when visiting Zangdopelri with Scott and our guests from Rangjung, Vicky and Ian, a couple weekends ago, I still felt a sense of awe, of wonder. Walking through the main gate and into the courtyard, past a statue of a goddess, the temple is surrounded by a circle of small prayer wheels, which are surrounded by smaller buildings containing big, bulky prayer wheels. When we were there, aging Bhutanese were sitting in these smaller buildings with prayer beads and smiles. The temple itself, with its dark towering figures of Rimpoche and other Buddhist dieties inside, is beautiful and mystical. Scott, who mostly thinks one lakhang is just like any other (we've both visited many, many temples, old and new, in Bhutan), was actually impressed.
Butter statues. Scott says the one in the middle looks like a bunch of asparagus. 
posted by Siapiau | 5:05 PM
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