The Land of Buddha

Tawang is very well known for its Gompas and having had the fortune of living and travelling with a Buddhist couple over the few days I spent there gave me a first person insight into many of their believes, practices and faith. The study of the religion from the eye of a local practioner gave interesting glimpses- an understanding vastly different from reading books and a quest to know more.

The huge golden Buddha statue of Tawang Monastery has represented Tawang for a long time. This monastery also houses a museum which has artifacts of dress, jewelry, musical instruments and utensils used in the past. It also features the escape route of Dalai Lama from Tibet into India and also other dignitaries like Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia who had visited the monastery while in office.

Golden Buddha @ Tawang Monastery

Tawang Monastery or Gompa also houses the homes of the lamas and their school where they study culture, religion and Languages. Lama are buddist brahmacharis i.e men who have owed celibacy for life. I learnt from a local Buddhist that when a Buddhist family has three male children, they are to enroll their second male child as a lama. In that part of the world where having 3-4 children is still the norm, I suppose most Buddhist homes may have a lama.

These rules do not apply to the girl child and the women lama’s or ani have been enrolled purely voluntarily or due to family circumstances. These children join the residential lama schools at a very early age of 5 and stay there for rest of their lives. I was told that the children who study in these schools come from as far as down south Kerala and numerous other states all over India. Gompas or monasteries are separate for the men and women and the Gompas for women are called the Ani Gompas.

Wall Paintings in a Monastery

Tawang has two beautiful Ani Gompas just a little away from the Tawang Monastery which is a gompa for the men. We also visited another Gompa in the Khimney Village which is mens Gompa as well but a different and a slightly more moderate thoughts. While the lamas in tawang monastery can never walk out of their chosen path of celibacy, the lamas here are allowed to pay some penalty to compensate for the expenses undertaken by the gompa in their upbringing to give up their lama hood and get married.

But it is widely believed to be an act of sin that will be punishable in the court of God. Every Gompa has a painting of satan or devil like person around whom the various sins and punishments for the same are represented in the paintings. It also talks about how the good reach heaven and then how we are made to suffer for our misdeeds. The punishments like putting inside a boiling oil pan, hanging a person upside down etc, reminded me of same/similar punishments that are captured in the garuda puram of the hindus. 

I was told if I can touch the two big toes of the devil at the same time with both my hands would mean that I do not have any sins in my name. The Tawang monastery also had a huge pillar in the open, much like a structure in the hindu temples. I was told if I can touch/hold both my hands around the structure then I have done not any sins. Another test was if I can place a coin on top of the Golden Buddha head in one of his curls, I can prove my innocence. I ofcourse failed all the three tests and concluded that to be of no sin in buddhism, I must get bigger arms and a better aim.

There were many striking similarities between Hinduism and Buddhism, with deities having the third eye like siva and even a god with elephant face like Ganesha. I later understood that Mahayana Buddhism, the one that is followed in Tawang recognized the three big gods of Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva with the duties of creation, protections and destruction but they did not have a deity like status however Ganesha, god with the elephant head has a deity status and is considered as a deity who removed obstacles which is the same as what Hindus consider him as well. The other form of Buddhism called Hinayana does not recognise any Gods including the Buddha.

We also visited another gompa (monastery) on our way back from Madhiri Lake which was constructed by someone in the memory of his mother. I was told that the rocks there are holy and each one has a story which is given in the scriptures and as they did not have that book in hand, they are unable to narrate it to me. But we did take some delicious cucumbers that were left as offering for the rocks. The offerings in Gompa was another thing that left me stunned. Because it had not just fruits, flowers but also candies, vanspati, oil, vegetables, flour etc. I remembered that some big Gompas in Singapore had even fresh meat as offering. I was told that recently it had been declared by the local monastery issued a doctrine banning eating of meat and declared it as anti- religious and so our hosts who had been eating ducks, chicken, mutton and beef had turned vegetarians. It was really surprising to me that people could change their food habits over night because their place of worship said so or so was their belief. Even for a staunch vegetarian by birth and choice like me, it sounded a little overwhelming because I have been battling for a long time to give up on coffee and I keep losing the will to lose the habit.

My host with our Loot - the two cucmbers

My hosts also taught me their chant ‘Oh mane padme hum” which is supposed to bring good luck. Buddhists do a lot of things to bring good luck for them including hanging of the colorful flags with a prayer, in their homes, vehicles, in mountain pass, valleys, roads, gompas, odd places on top of the mountains and I even saw them in gurudwara and the cave used by Guru nanak when he was in Mechuka. It would be impossible to miss these colorful strip of flags in any Himalayan mountain at least in this part of the world. All these flags despite the difference in the color, size, and texture had the same prayer, pictures and inscription in it. There are also strips of white flags in these places which had a different prayer and we were told that these white flags are tied in the memory of the departed ones.

Another queer thing I felt was that, my hosts who were only in their late forties and early fifties spoke about their own death without much ado about it. It appeared to me strange, for it is always considered a taboo topic from where I come from and the only people who talk about their own deaths are atleast past their seventies. Maybe it is an understanding from the Buddhism or was typical for this couple or may be that life expectancy in that region is way too low. I can’t say for sure but they did seem very comfortable about the idea of their own deaths.

Travelling as a traveller does teach you a lot and I have been a very keen student. These are my observations and understanding from what I saw, heard and read from my hosts and a wee bit from the internet. If you had things to agree, disagree or found it interesting and enlightening, please leave a comment. I am eager to know and learn from you.