The group of people who came to Kopan traveled from all over the world to learn about Tibetan Buddhism and deepen their meditation skills. There were people from the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, China, India, Ukraine, Sweden, Czech Republic, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, Hungary, Spain, Ireland, Nepal, and others. The group was about evenly split between men and women. The age range of the participants was from early 20's to around 60, however, the majority of people were in their 20's and 30's.
The weather was much better than I expected at least for the first week. I was expecting hot, humid, rainy weather most days. The first seven days were mostly pleasant, ranging from sunny with a light cool breeze, to a little hazy and humid. On the last three days we finally got a fair amount of rain, ranging from a heavy downpour that lasted a couple of hours to a light mist. We also had some afternoon thunderstorms. The biggest weather challenge during my time was not being able to check the forecast so you just had to guesstimate by looking at the sky each day and adjust accordingly.
The food was delicious and plentiful (self serve, so you can take as much as you want or go back for more). All the meals were vegetarian (Buddhist don't believe in killing any sentient being, which includes animals). I honestly did not miss having meat at all. We will see how I feel about that after nine weeks in Chanaute. Each morning for breakfast we mixed up a bowl with dry cereal grains, nuts, and raisins with a rice and/or oatmeal congee. A congee is a soupy rice or oat dish that has enough moisture to soften up the dry cereal. I always added a big spoonful of peanut butter to mine. One day we also got a hard boiled egg. See picture below of my typical breakfast.
For lunch and dinner we had rice or noodle dishes or stews with lots of in season vegetables. Sometimes there was monos, which are small stuffed pastries. The dishes always had flavorful Indian or Asian spices. Most dishes included flatbread or regular breads (although the one day I took a photo of my lunch we had pizza). Everything was made fresh here at Kopan. The milk and butter came from the cows raised here. It would have been challenging to eat completely gluten free here, so I just tried to minimize how much.
We also had a selection of tea with all meals, including jasmine, black, mint, and a delicious milk tea.
The Kopan grounds include the monastery, a nunnery, a school, bookstore, library, general store, a garden, stupas, gompas, and some cows. One day I walked within 10 feet of a bull eating some grass along the pathway to my room. However, the cows normally are further from the lodges that house the retreat visitors.
The sounds of Kopan: monks chanting, bells ringing, birds singing, crickets chirping, children playing, people working, music playing, people talking, roosters crowing, dogs barking (the last two unfortunately are during the night and early morning). Earplugs are necessary at night.
The cost of Kopan: so how much does a ten day all inclusive retreat cost you ask. If you stay in a private room with private bath, it will set you back about $210 for the entire stay or about $21 per day. If that's too pricey, you can save some if you are willing to take a private room with shared bath, and if you want to commune with others, you can stay for $140 ($14/day) in a dorm room. Yes, that includes all your meals also.
There is one downside to staying in Kopan and Nepal in general. Air quality was not that great at times. Nepali's apparently don't have trash collection so they must burn their trash. This means that one will sometimes smell the not so pleasant or healthy smell of burning plastic and other garbage, which is definitely a concern if anyone has asthma or other breathing issues.
In addition to the 10 day course, Kopan also offers a 7 day intro course that doesn't include the 2 days of silent retreat, and anyone can also come and look into setting up their own private retreat. For more information about Kopan, go to www.kopanmonastery.com
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Jyatha,Kathmandu,Nepal
Interesting about the burning garbage. You would never guess that from the pictures!
ReplyDelete