Women working at Kopan Monastery

Travel Day 1078 – Kopan Monastery, NEPAL

While a lot of things at Kopan Monastery were exactly the same as they used to be, one thing was different: There was some construction going on…

Women carrying heavy Loads at Kopan

The first time I noticed the construction site was when I walked over to the teaching Gompa and I found that what used to be a little garden was now a fenced off area and cluttered with construction materials. It was quite a shame because this little garden was what we always used for our discussion groups meeting in the afternoon and instead of the nice and quiet green area, there was now some noisy unloading of trucks and busy work going on…

The second time when I noticed the construction was when we were holding our morning meditation and workers were shouting outside, banging with hammers or using noisy machinery. Yeah, Kopan was obviously expanding this summer and our classes were held right next the main site of construction. This was obviously less than ideal for teachings and meditation, but on the other hand it also gave us the chance to practice letting go and not being disturbed so easily…

Women shoveling sand at the Monastery

But then the third time I came across the construction was when I started to become interested in the means and methods of running a Nepali construction site. Coming from an architectural background and having worked on construction sites in Europe and the US, what I was observing here was obviously a completely different ballgame. But without getting into the technicalities of the construction itself, what was really interesting to me was the fact that most of the workers were actually women…

This circumstance was quite curious I felt, especially because we were in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal. While the men here were sitting and praying in a clean environment, the women were doing all the physical and dirty work. It almost seemed a bit like a joke that the men were using this perfectly maintained environment to further develop their minds while the women were actually used to create and support this environment…

Women handling Bricks by Kopan Gompa

And while I was observing the scenes unfold every single day, I was really not quite sure what to make out of all this. There were women unloading, packing and carrying heavy loads of bricks, there were women excavating soil for the laying of foundations and there were women shoveling sand or gravel to make concrete. All of this work the women actually were doing in their long traditional dresses and sandals, with a scarf wrapped around their heads, instead of sturdy clothing, steel tip shoes and construction helmets with glasses…

While the women in the west were always striving for equal treatment in relation their fellow-men, here apparently they were treated equally in terms of work, but it still felt somewhat strange in an environment where the men were actually not working at all, because they happened to be monks…

Find all Kopan Monastery 2013 Photos here.