Have feet, will travel…

We had our orientation presentation at the Ecosphere office in Kaza where they told us more about what we will be doing and also about their other work that they do. Plan was to have lunch and look around Kaza before heading to see a previously built greenhouse nearby and finally to Key Monastery, our home for the next 10 days.
As we drove up I saw the monastery perched on a hill, a series of different buildings in red and white that looked so isolated amongst the big brown mountains behind. I was wrong, the monastery might look isolated but the energy within was truly buzzing with life of over 200 monks from 8 – 80 yrs old. So many daily activities from morning prayers, to little monks going for breakfast and later school, monks washing clothes and carrying food for meal time, the oldest monk helping to peel sweet peas… the list goes on… It was truly an experience to have this opportunity to be part of something so different from my life. Each family from that area has to send a son to the monastery, normally the youngest son as the elder son inherits the land and is busy taking care of that. I always thought how sad for them to be forced into this but after living amongst them for more than a week I have a different view of what it means to be a monk. They are actually very happy and some are even comedians and always laughing. Smiles are plenty and they are always smiling when talking to each other. I didn’t understand much of what they were saying as I don’t know the language but they were always having fun chatting.

We were shown to our room, a nice peaceful room at the main building and then shown around the monastery by our rep that would be there with us every day showing us what to do and making sure we had everything we needed. Sonam Lotey was his name and he was with us every step of the way making these last 2 weeks one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. Key Gompais a Tibetan Buddhist monastery located on top of a hill at an altitude of 4,166 metres (13,668 ft) above sea level. The monastery has a lot of history being very old and the different prayer rooms were full of old Buddhism prayer books, statues, paintings and so much more. The main prayer hall is gorgeous and we are allowed to go for morning prayers at 7am daily. I managed to go for one day but my knees were killing me sitting cross-legged for 45mins, been having knee problems with all the uphills I’ve been doing in the mountains.

My stay was absolutely amazing. The monks were so nice to us. They would serve us chai tea starting at 7am to our room, after every meal and at 1130 and 430 while we worked. They would hike down with their flask, cups and biscuits every day. We had a few monks who were in-charge of guests so every day they pain-stakingly would cook us every meal and made sure we had boiled water to drink without fail. They were so attentive and never missed one meal or one tea break.We were also privileged enough to have the use of hot water to shower in the VIP bathroom reserved for guests.

The junior monks were the cutest. Seeing them going for breakfast with their bowls in their hands or even hidden under their robes sometimes. I would see them going to school or playing soccer or eating their treats of chocolates and sweets. It’s all very systematic how everything works, they have so much discipline and everyone has a task to do so you see monks all day busy doing something.

photos to follow soon… way to many to choose from : )

Our goal was to build a greenhouse for the monastery so that they can get vegetables year-round including in winter. Spiti has an extremely cold winter and the horrendous roads during summer are inevitably closed in winter and I can now see why. So for half a year very little produce gets to this part of India and so they rely on stored dried food stuff. The greenhouse concept is simple to offer a temperature controlled structure so vegetables can be grown all year round.

The structure is built of mud as mud actually retains heat. I learnt that the monastery is built of mud and so are many of the village houses. So even though the temperature outside would be -30 degrees, it was possible to maintain temperatures of 20 degrees inside the greenhouse and in summer there are vent doors in place to regular the temperatures within the greenhouse. When we visited the greenhouse at the Key Old Aged home I saw the different vegetables being grown and I felt really excited for this building project.

Our duties were simple compared to what everyone else had to do; we would make 250 mud bricks, we would learn to lay the brick walls, then use mud to plaster the bricks together, we would stuff grass between the mud wall and the mud brick wall for insulation and finally we would be painting the greenhouse white except for one wall black as this is in line with how the temperature is regulated with the black wall used to retain the heat from the sun. We did have loads of help, preparation was already on the way before we arrived with a rock foundation being built, and while we worked mud walls 7ft high were being built by the workers, monks were also in full force helping to lay the brick wall and doing the roof. It was quite a big project with us only doing a small portion of the work but mainly being the financial sponsors for the project.

First off we had to make 250 mud bricks, Sonam thought us how to make them and that was what kept us busy for two days. The method was simple; we had a metal mould that needed to be soaked in water first. Then mud would be put in and we had to use our hands to compact the mud inside the mould then another shovel full of mud and same process till it was full then we had to sprinkle some water and level the top with a flat spade. Finally, we then had to lift the mould out leaving a wet rectangular mud brick. It was actually quite fun after getting the hang of the process. I started enjoying levelling the mud brick as it was almost like putting icing on a cake. The bricks had to lie in the sun for the next 2 -3 days to dry solid.

Next came the laying of the brick wall, this was very difficult as the mud bricks are not evenly shaped as they are handmade so we had to pile on a layer of really wet mud and then place the brick securely using stones to stabilize it. And aligning the bricks to make a straight line was an even bigger task. I was very slow at this and wondered how we would build the wall. Luckily, we had the experts around helping us and I realized I was a better assistant to the mason. So I ended up carrying bricks for him to lay and while we were off trekking for 3 days the wall and roof was finished.Its best that the wall was left to the experts as the wall needs to be sturdy to withstand the severe weather conditions of snow and rainstorms.So when we came back from our trekking break we had to do the plastering of the walls. At first it was tough learning how to fling the mud onto the wall before levelling it but once I got the momentum it was actually quite fun. In the beginning mud was flying everywhere even into my eyes.

Stuffing grass s insulation was easy and lastly the painting part was also easy as it’s something we are all familiar with. Painting the white walls was a bit strange as it was a pouring and drip concept which at first was weird but after some practise it was actually quite easy. And finally we painted the black wall with brushes, that was really our last task and then the greenhouse was done. It was a great feeling seeing the structure being built and I felt very happy we managed to get it done but sad at the same time as it was time to say goodbye soon.

There was a huge ribbon cutting ceremony which I wasn’t expecting. The prince of Spiti and a gov official was going to be there to official open the greenhouse. I was totally stunned to arrive at the site and see like 30 junior monks all in line to welcome the VIP guest. They were absolutely adorable and screamed ‘Julee’ which is hello in the Spitian language when the guest arrived. The Gov.Official was over an hour late and not a peep out of the monks, they waited patiently but did goof around with each other while waiting. It was so fun observing them and watching an older monk scream and all of them quickly listened and went back to order.

We planted some seeds together with the Gov.Official and that was a great feeling. I envisioned the green plants growing like what we’ve seen in other greenhouses and that warmed my heart. I can’t wait for the day I visit Spiti again and can go visit the Monastery and see the greenhouse in action.

Thank you for the wonderful experience, I’ll forever keep the memories shared and friendships made.

My two weeks in Spiti has been amazing and there's so much to write about and so many photos so i will have a few installments. Here's Part One: I signed up with ECOSPHERE to do this Volunteer/Trekking program for 15 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Some photos of Manali to compliment the last post as i wasn't able to upload them due to the slow connection. [gallery link="file"]

My journey started in KL bound for New Delhi. Nothing exceptional happened except that I couldn’t have asked for a smoother journey. The plane was empty so got to lay down on three seats so slept well, on take-off and ... [Continue reading this entry]