Buddhism 101

24 May 2008 (Day 9) - Rumtek Monastery
We woke up around 7.30am today and went for breakfast. The breakfast was as good as the dinner last night. After breakfast we set to go exploring Gangtok with Palden. Actually I'm thinking of going to Tsomgo Lake (another one of the holiest & highest lake in Sikkim) but since we require special permit and we have to go through an agent to get it so we decided to skip it. By the way, it's just a lake and foreigners can't even go beyond the lake area (only Indian nationals are allowed) due to close proximity with Tibet. In Sikkim esp in the north of Sikkim foreigners require special permit to visit each place due to sensitivity with Tibetan border. So we decided to go to Rumtek Monastery, another monastery???? Actually we visited one monastery too many already but Palden said this one is different and he'll go along with us inside to tell the history. I'm not really convinced coz I thought all monasteries are the same but we just go ahead to Rumtek.Surprisingly, Rumtek Monastery was one of the most beautiful monastery that we had been through out our journey so far. It was rich with history and I had a crash Buddhism course with Palden during our almost 2 hours there. I found out Buddhism is a very interesting religion or should I say philosophy?? I learnt in depth about Buddhism as much as I can absorb during the visit. It was really an enjoyable and enriching experience to learn about other culture/religion through their own eyes/view. The more I learnt about Buddhism, the more I convinced that Islam is the right religion for me.Rumtek History : Rumtek Monastery was the exact carbon copy from one of the monastery in Tibet built by the 16th Karmapa who fled from Tibet to Sikkim to seek refuge due to pressure from China government (their political and freedom of religion issue). The thing about Tibet and China can always get complicated coz China wants the reincarnation of the 15th Karmapa to be from a Chinese race (Han) coz it's easier for them to control Tibet BUT the reincarnated Karmapa was chosen from the Tibetan race. When we talked about Buddhism reincarnation, things will get more complicated even Palden kinda doubt about it a bit. The reincarnated Lama must be certified by a few existing Learned Lamas (either Dalai Lama or others). The 16thKarmapa was certified by the previous Dalai Lama (13th kot, tak ingat la) when he was 6 years old. According to history, once he was certified by Dalai Lama, he fled from Tibet. I'm just curious, how a 6 year-old boys managed to fled from Tibet through the mountainous region of Himalaya with a lots of check point to pass??? even Palden was curious too. In Gangtok, the 16thKarmapa instructed the followers to build Rumtek as a carbon copy from his previous monastery in Tibet (coz they fled with all the valuable prayer items etc). No bad for a 6 year-old huh??? Since the 16th Karmapa died, there is issue regarding the reincarnation of the 17th Karmapa coz there are 3 boys claimed to be the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa. One is Tibetan, the other is Sikkimese and the last one is Bhutanese. All three are certified by different Learned Lamas. So, it's difficult to know who's the REAL reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa who can rule Rumtek Monastery. Since it's a sensitive issue, all three reincarnated Karmapa can't pray/visit at Rumtek Monastery in order to avoid misunderstanding among the believers. It's like even you're reincarnated but you're not even welcome to your own house. It's kinda funny coz they put the 17th Karmapa (the Tibetan one) photo in the monastery. The reason why there are 3 reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa was according to Dalai Lama, each Lama can be reincarnated by their mind, body and soul (tetiba jer keluar fatwa baru pulak kan). So the Tibetan Karmapa is the strongest coz he was reincarnated from the SOUL (katanya...). I'll tell you more about Buddhism (from their own eyes/view) later on in my next post.

In Rumtek, they kept the flying black hat for the crowning of the Karmapa. It's believed that the hat was being woven from the hair of angels. It has to be kept locked in a box. Even when during the crowning ceremony, the Karmapa have to hold on to the hat or else it'll fly back to heaven. Nobody has seen the flying black hat since 1993 when the 16th Karmapa died. Maybe it flew off to heaven already la.
Our next stop was Institute of Tibetology where we learnt more about Buddhism history. Then we took a cable car in the town. The cable car ride was not as spectacular as I thought. We have to cramp with other tourists in just ONE cable car. It's hard to appreciate the view when so many people inside the cable car. After lunch we went to a local handicraft institute where we can see how all the handicrafts were made. it's nice to see their government preserve their local culture through younger generation. We bought a few things there as our souvenirs.
Since there was a flower show going on so we decided to check out the flower coz Neo wanted to take some pictures of the rare Rhododendrons. After that we went back to our hotel and can't wait for dinner time hehehe. The dinner was again superbly delicious and I'll definitely miss this lodge coz of the excellent food. After dinner, we hit the town again for the last time before leaving to Bhutan tomorrow. I accidentally bought a Tibetan motif carpet for my mom (even we had a very limited space left in our backpack) coz it's really nice and cheap (I can't help it, hehe). We went back to our lodge and can't wait for our white water rafting adventure tomorrow and then we'll proceed to Kingdom of Bhutan. Bye Bye India......