Adventures in India

The first time I stayed overnight in Ki was also in the year 2000. I was traveling by the local bus, and had stopped for a visit while it went ahead to Kibber, before coming back to Ki and returning to Kaza. As usual, I was lost exploring the dingy passageways and chatting with the monks in the kitchen over endless cups of butter tea, and I lost track of time and the bus.

Walking back to Kaza was a possibility, but I thought I'd stay on in the monastery, as I wasn't in the mood to leave. At that time, the monastery was undergoing a major revamping in readiness for the Kalachakra, and all the dormitory rooms that they had newly made were not ready. Finally, I was given the room of a worker working on the renovations while he shared a room with a friend of his.

That evening was one of my most memorable times in Spiti. We sat on the roof of the monastery talking about life in the city and life in Spiti until sundown. Then, we cooked a simple local meal together – “we” is me and the workers. Someone came up with a string of dried meat in my honour. It was my first taste of dried meat, and er…. Its an acquired taste, but the effort to make me comfortable was appreciated after the long day of back breaking labour these guys had put in.

I discovered something else I found interesting as well. The whole region wanted to make the monastery sparkle for the advent of the Dalai Lama, and to make funds stretch as far as they would go, villagers had volunteered to work without pay for the unskilled labour, so that there was more money for the artisans and other skilled people.

We took a sneak peek at the quarters specially created for the Dalai Lama, as the guy who had vacated his room for me explained with pride that they were totally paneled with some good quality wood (I promptly forgot the name, but the rooms looked nice)

So much generosity – not only to their monastery, but to strangers at the end of a difficult day of labour. I became one of them.

I spent the entire Kalachakra ceremony feeling that I was personally the host of the thousands of devotees assembled there.