![]() ![]() The website of the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery extols Namo Buddha as a place that “inspires one’s faith renunciation and weariness with samsara naturally arise.” The monastery and its surroundings were like a buffer zone against the distractions of the world-at least the visual ones. It became clear quickly why the lama had gone on a retreat. My companion and I decided to look around. When I inquired about the lama, however, I learned that he had been in retreat for two years already and would be for another two. I had heard from friends that a lama I had known was now living in the monastery. (Opener) Prayer flags strewn at the monastery premise. The monastery and its surroundings serve as a buffer zone against the distractions of the world-at least the visual ones. So to allay their fears, pilgrims began chanting “Namo Buddhaya,” a mantra meaning “I take refuge in the Buddha,” while traveling through the forest. ![]() Though this tale of compassion inspired people to travel here for pilgrimage, they could not shake off their fears of wild animals inhabiting the dense forest. ![]() It was in Namo Buddha, according of legend, that a young prince had been so moved by the sight of a hungry tigress, about to devour her own famished cubs, that he fed them his own flesh and eventually gave himself to the tigress. That was our first glimpse of the monastery at Namo Buddha. And that was why I felt like being in a classic painting about a pilgrimage. There was a certain amount of romanticism, I felt, in meeting monks on your way to a monastery mentioned in holy texts. In the background to this coming together of tonsured monks in burgundy robes and hikers in quick-dry T-shirts was a large monastery of golden roofs and curly eaves perched on a hill. My companion and I ran into two Buddhist monks, stopped for a brief chat, and parted ways we towards a monastery and the monks on their way to the febrile city. The meeting would have made for a wonderful painting. ![]()
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