Teaching at Manjushri Monastery
Blog: By Way of the World - 9 September 2009
By: Erin
Despite the troubles at Family Guest House, we had a wonderful time in Nepal overall. Most of our days were spent at the Manjushri monastery, a ten-minute walk up a steep hill from the guest house.
The students (and most of the teachers) are from Tibetan families living in Nepal. We managed to find out that when the Chinese claimed Tibet in 1950, both Nepal and India expanded their borders to include parts that were formerly Tibet. Our students come from remote villages in this border region in the Himalayas, sometimes walking for six days to get to a road to take them to the school! Traditionally, each Tibetan family sends one son to a monastery, and monasteries are the main institutions in Tibetan life. Many villages do not even have a school, so this is their only option for a free education. They live at the school for ten months out of the year, and visit their families for two months.
Dan taught computers - basic skills to the younger ones (and I mean basic! he spent three lessons on how to use a mouse!), Photoshop to the older ones, and HTML coding to a group of advanced students.
They were very eager to learn and completely filled his break times with extra help. Sometimes, they would get diverted and end up discussing Buddhist philosophy or politics in Tibet.
I taught English. The students ranged from age 6 to 17, and there was quite a range of English levels. After a completely botched attempt to teach "I'm A Little Teapot, Short and Stout" with me desperately acting out a teapot pouring tea with a class full of blank 5-year-old stares, I decided I needed backup. The other volunteer, Lara, and I decided to split the classes. She took the younger ones (her mother is an elementary school teacher and she came prepared with materials) and I took the older ones. Lara is from Germany and did an admirable job teaching her own second language to the students. She also came through VSSN and shared in our Family Guest House woes.
With the lower classes, I read picture books, taught letter-writing skills and haiku, and with the oldest ones, read excerpts from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, taught essay skills, and even managed to teach a Shakespearean sonnet.
They actually do have a full-time English teacher, which is where they get their basic grammar instruction, but the volunteers supplement these lessons with fun activities. The students get to converse with native speakers from all over the world. Hopefully I was able to teach them something they wouldn't have gotten elsewhere!
The older classes were only four students each, while the youngest classes were about ten. I relished teaching such small groups who were so well behaved! They stood up when I entered, and said, "thank you, miss!" in chorus as I left. They tried to do every task I set for them, and participated eagerly. What a different experience than I had teaching in the Bronx!
We ate lunch every day with the other teachers, some of whom spoke English well (one even lived in Queens for a while!) and Lara (later, she left and two British guys came). The monastery grows most of its own vegetables (even a pear tree!) in their massive garden, and even has a cow from which they get fresh milk each day. Although I couldn't partake in the milk tea, Dan tells me it was absolutely the best tea he's ever had! We really enjoyed the fresh food and never got sick of the dal bat. We also observed the monks at Puja, or prayer, where they made music and chanted.
We also spent some time visiting the surrounding monasteries (there are 18 in the one town!), including one built around the Padmasumbawa cave where the lama who brought Buddhism to Tibet was said to have achieved enlightenment.
People flock to the tiny cave to meditate. It was also at this monastery where we sat in on several Buddhism classes taught by Lama Oser, former attendant to the Dalai Lama. His presence was inspiring - so at peace, so kind. He gave us his blessing and invited us to tea.
We had such a great time, we even decided to forego a trip to Pokhara in the Annapurna region (a 10-hour bus ride into the Himalayas) in favor of spending more time teaching at the Monastery. We were a bit disappointed not to spend some quality time in the great mountain region, but we did do a trek through Himalayas on the China side (Tiger Leaping Gorge) after all. Besides, we would have spent a total of 36 hours on a bus only to have time for a short day hike.
And so, we settled into a nice daily routine, and were astonished when our month was up. Since we weren't able to visit Tibet when we were in China (the border was closed for months), this was the next best thing. In fact, probably better, since the Chinese demand that you visit on an organized tour, and only for 3 days. We really felt that we got a slice of Tibetan life at the monastery, and were very sad to leave our new friends. We promised to stay in touch!
The students (and most of the teachers) are from Tibetan families living in Nepal. We managed to find out that when the Chinese claimed Tibet in 1950, both Nepal and India expanded their borders to include parts that were formerly Tibet. Our students come from remote villages in this border region in the Himalayas, sometimes walking for six days to get to a road to take them to the school! Traditionally, each Tibetan family sends one son to a monastery, and monasteries are the main institutions in Tibetan life. Many villages do not even have a school, so this is their only option for a free education. They live at the school for ten months out of the year, and visit their families for two months.
Dan taught computers - basic skills to the younger ones (and I mean basic! he spent three lessons on how to use a mouse!), Photoshop to the older ones, and HTML coding to a group of advanced students.
They were very eager to learn and completely filled his break times with extra help. Sometimes, they would get diverted and end up discussing Buddhist philosophy or politics in Tibet.
I taught English. The students ranged from age 6 to 17, and there was quite a range of English levels. After a completely botched attempt to teach "I'm A Little Teapot, Short and Stout" with me desperately acting out a teapot pouring tea with a class full of blank 5-year-old stares, I decided I needed backup. The other volunteer, Lara, and I decided to split the classes. She took the younger ones (her mother is an elementary school teacher and she came prepared with materials) and I took the older ones. Lara is from Germany and did an admirable job teaching her own second language to the students. She also came through VSSN and shared in our Family Guest House woes.
With the lower classes, I read picture books, taught letter-writing skills and haiku, and with the oldest ones, read excerpts from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, taught essay skills, and even managed to teach a Shakespearean sonnet.
They actually do have a full-time English teacher, which is where they get their basic grammar instruction, but the volunteers supplement these lessons with fun activities. The students get to converse with native speakers from all over the world. Hopefully I was able to teach them something they wouldn't have gotten elsewhere!
The older classes were only four students each, while the youngest classes were about ten. I relished teaching such small groups who were so well behaved! They stood up when I entered, and said, "thank you, miss!" in chorus as I left. They tried to do every task I set for them, and participated eagerly. What a different experience than I had teaching in the Bronx!
We ate lunch every day with the other teachers, some of whom spoke English well (one even lived in Queens for a while!) and Lara (later, she left and two British guys came). The monastery grows most of its own vegetables (even a pear tree!) in their massive garden, and even has a cow from which they get fresh milk each day. Although I couldn't partake in the milk tea, Dan tells me it was absolutely the best tea he's ever had! We really enjoyed the fresh food and never got sick of the dal bat. We also observed the monks at Puja, or prayer, where they made music and chanted.
We also spent some time visiting the surrounding monasteries (there are 18 in the one town!), including one built around the Padmasumbawa cave where the lama who brought Buddhism to Tibet was said to have achieved enlightenment.
People flock to the tiny cave to meditate. It was also at this monastery where we sat in on several Buddhism classes taught by Lama Oser, former attendant to the Dalai Lama. His presence was inspiring - so at peace, so kind. He gave us his blessing and invited us to tea.
We had such a great time, we even decided to forego a trip to Pokhara in the Annapurna region (a 10-hour bus ride into the Himalayas) in favor of spending more time teaching at the Monastery. We were a bit disappointed not to spend some quality time in the great mountain region, but we did do a trek through Himalayas on the China side (Tiger Leaping Gorge) after all. Besides, we would have spent a total of 36 hours on a bus only to have time for a short day hike.
And so, we settled into a nice daily routine, and were astonished when our month was up. Since we weren't able to visit Tibet when we were in China (the border was closed for months), this was the next best thing. In fact, probably better, since the Chinese demand that you visit on an organized tour, and only for 3 days. We really felt that we got a slice of Tibetan life at the monastery, and were very sad to leave our new friends. We promised to stay in touch!
Comment on the original post at By Way of the World
The article above originally appeared on By Way of the World; we selected it for our BlogSherpa program. We sign up the best travel bloggers we can find and publish their articles on lonelyplanet.com. Good for us, good for them – our bloggers gain new readers and make a bit of cash. Want to know more or be a part of BlogSherpa? Visit the BlogSherpa page on lplabs.com
