Pious – in Padum and Karsha

21. + 22. September 2024

 

 

I have developed the ambition to give all blog posts in German a title that begins with the letter F. Just because. And since this blog is all about religion, this word fits quite well. In english it is not possible.

 

Religion is a recurring theme here. So whether it’s about conflicts with district affiliation or living together in Padum or even just Buddhism itself. Zanskar is predominantly Buddhist, but has a notable and visible Muslim community in Padum. They have two older mosques (I didn’t take a photo of one of them) and are currently building a new one:

 

 

 

These Sunni Muslims make up 7% of the total population of Zanskar. I haven’t met any of them directly yet, but I came very close. On my first walk, I passed a celebration. Nicely dressed children were wandering around and music was playing from a marquee. My problem: I had a headache and no tablets. It was too awkward for me to be curious and persevere. And so I left.

 

 

Seeing headscarves on quite little girls looks like strictness to me, but music doesn’t. Well, maybe I’ll get to know someone and find out more.

 

Then I made my way to the Stagrimo gompa, which lies high above Padum. The view is beautiful – see picture above. A monk was doing a puja and I hurried back down to meet someone who wasn’t there so quickly after all.

 

 

There are two things that seem very Zanskar to me:

• You definitely always have to have time if you want to meet people.
• You don’t start an order in a restaurant by naming the dish, but by asking ‘Do you have….’ – because there’s a 50:50 chance that the item on the menu is not available, but that’s just a side note.

In the late afternoon, I made my way to the small monastery in Pibiting. A monk is always on duty there for 3 years at a time. All alone. Once a day he has to do a puja, the rest of the time he and other monks from other monasteries are responsible for the ceremonies of the people at home. This monk actually lives in Bylakuppe, where the education for monks is much better than in Zanskar. It’s a pity that they don’t get more education here now. He is from Pibiting and is happy to be so close to his family.

 

 

What is the situation with the next generation of monks in Zanskar? Very good, there are no problems with new recruits. And the changes? Yes, wow, it’s really enormous! He showed me two monastery rooms. In one of them there was this sticker saying that you can make a donation by mobile phone.

 

 

I quite like the atmosphere in monasteries, but I don’t really know what to do when I visit them. So by now, I keep an eye out for special paintings and figures. I found what I was looking for here:

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, I wanted to go to the nunnery in Karsha. I thought loads of cars would be heading in that direction and give me a lift, but unfortunately they weren’t, they were coming towards me. One of them stopped, turned round and the young driver offered me a lift. How much would it cost? As much as I wanted to give. And so I thought that he would just drive me to Karsha and I would give him some money and that would be that – but then things turned out differently.

 

Even from a distance, I could see a large new building just outside the village. As we got closer, it turned out to be a large monastery building or something.

 

 

My driver hadn’t been that direct either, so we drove there and discovered it. Unbelievable! A huge amount of donations had been collected (I heard a lot from Zanskar, but also Taiwan and so on) and in 2019 they started to build this new Pothang. When the Dalai Lama comes to visit, he needs a dwelling where he can give his speeches and bless the people. This is called a Pothang here. The old one, built in 2009, no longer seemed good enough. And so they took the money into their own hands, brought in dozens of skilled workers from Nepal and migrant labourers from Bihar and began to build the house, which should have been ready for the Dalai Lama’s visit this year.

 

Unfortunately, the Dalai Lama was unwell and had to go to the USA for treatment. Perhaps he will never be able to come here again because he is already so old and travelling is difficult. And so the building enthusiasm was somewhat dampened, but of course they still want to finish it. We were very impressed by all the splendour. A lift! Western bathrooms bigger than in a 5-star hotel! The best wood carvings! Monks are not supposed to live and study here permanently, but let’s see. There is a greenhouse, loads of trees have been planted, solar panels were installed – we were amazed. There was also a supervising monk who told us a bit about the place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My companion, who was happy to talk, was Stanzin Delek, a 25-year-old from the village of Rukruk, who is unemployed after finishing his education. His father died 7 years ago and his mother works as a nurse’s assistant in hospital. He has 2 siblings who are still in education. His mother is very hard-working and so has managed to buy a small second-hand car – which Delek is currently driving around in. His mother would like him to get a government job, but he doesn’t find that so attractive. He dreams of a kind of travel influencer life or something like that, which is also supposed to have something to do with charity – I didn’t quite understand it. Anyway, he uses the time and finds tourists to whom he offers his help. There was another German, people from Hungary, Israel and Russia. He is really friendly, speaks good English and is pleasant to deal with. In any case, discovering the Pothang together was great fun. And – by the way – he is also a fan of the Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk.

 

And so I asked him if I could actually use it a bit more. I wanted to visit the nuns in Karsha and a translator would be great. Fits! We drove there. The Kamerakidz project no longer exists, but I still have postcards and books – and if someone wants something, I send it and the person gives as much money as they want. I would then give it to the nuns in Zanskar or better sais especially to these nuns in Karsha. Reelika had already been able to bring a sum in the spring and I now had some more to deliver: 370 Euros in total. Not a bad sum for Zanskar.

 

However, we arrived at a slightly inconvenient time, as there were gentlemen there going through some bookkeeping or something.

 

 

I was amazed. When I was there with the Kamerakidz in 2014, it was a poor community with few nuns. That was actually the case everywhere in Zanskar. There is an excellent book by Kim Gutschow about the nuns in Zanskar, which you can download as a PDF. But the situation of the nuns has also changed a lot in recent years. The community has become much larger in well-equipped rooms and there are obviously good sponsors in all the nunneries in Zanskar, so the situation has improved immensely. Here, too, young nuns were romping around, the older ladies were sitting together and the lunch (also offered to us) was delicious and rich in vegetables. I was amazed.

 

Of course, they were still very happy about the money. Here are a few pictures of the visit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove back a bit and parted company, as I wanted to continue on foot to a visit. I experienced a few things that would make this blog post too long – so I’ll leave the story for the next one. An announcement in advance: it was very zanskar….