Travel Day 1057 – Kathmandu to Kopan Monastery, NEPAL
After spending my last day in Kathmandu yesterday, I was off to Kopan Monastery, my final destination in Nepal…
Main Gompa of Kopan Monastery, Nepal
About two years ago I had already stayed at this nice Buddhist Monastery and while everything had been a mixed bag of experiences, I still felt that I had learned quite a lot and I was eager to go back. Actually most things learned seemed to have been in retrospect, after I left the monastery, but since a stay at Kopan was part my Nepal experience last time, it seemed as if it had to be part of this visit as well. Also after spending many weeks in the mountains and in Buddhist villages, it felt like the best idea to further expand my knowledge on Buddhism before I would leave Nepal…
Since the classes I had signed up for were scheduled to start today, I had initially planned to arrive already yesterday, but considering all the many things I still had to get done yesterday and the amount of packing I needed to do, I saw no other choice but arrive today in the morning. Unfortunately nobody from the monastery had bothered responding to my email inquiries and I was left completely unaware about the actual starting time of the classes, which lead me to the decision to play it safe and go as early as possible…
New Stupa at Kopan Monastery in Nepal
Considering that I had my big backpack with me again, including my tabla, and knowing how far up on the hill the monastery was situated, I opted for the more convenient, even if expensive, taxi version to reach the heavy steel gates of the monastery compound. Wow, it really had been two years since I walked on the walled premises of the monastery, but everything felt pretty much the same. Best of all, after check-in I was even escorted over to one of the dorm rooms and it turned out to be not only the same room, but also the exact same bed I used to sleep in two years prior to my arrival today… : )
After so much familiarity, I obviously couldn’t help but feel right at home as I started to partially unpack my backpack and make myself as comfortable as possible in the sparsely furnished 4 bed dorm. The classes itself really only started at 5.45pm, after the 5pm tea time and so there was still plenty of time for me to meet the new roommates and go for a stroll around the main Gompa. Really not much had changed around here save one addition of a smaller stupa in the garden and some new construction that was happening right in front of the teaching Gompa…
Kathmandu seen from Kopan Monastery
In the end we really only had an introduction session at 5.45pm by David Marks, who would function as our meditation teacher over the next couple of days, some nice vegetarian dinner and another introduction session by our regular teacher, the Buddhist nun Ven Chonyi Taylor. They both appeared to be quite cheerful teachers and the overall setup of the program was almost identical with the one I had had two years ago. Only the participants and the topic of the teachings promised some change to otherwise familiar routine…
And so our first day ended as expected in complete silence, which was required to be kept until after finishing the lunch on the following day. I personally quite liked it that way and when I walked up in complete darkness to the little hill overlooking Kathmandu, I couldn’t help but feel right at home again. It really had been the right decision to come back here and I couldn’t wait for the actual teachings to begin early tomorrow morning….
Find all Kopan Monastery 2013 Photos here.
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