Kopan Monastery

We spent two days at Kopan Monastery, located near Boudhanath on the outskirts of Kathmandu. The monastery has become especially famous for teaching Buddhism to visiting Western foreigners.

It is the home of 360 monks, lamas, teachers and workers. The monks, aged 7 to 60, come from all areas of Nepal and Tibet. They have all devoted their lives to studying and practising Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings. Their teachings emphasise those of Lama Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Gelug Lineage.

Courses for foreigners generally combine traditional Lam Rim teachings with informal discussion, guided meditation, and a vegetarian diet.

The quote from my diary from my days at the monastery:

“The Kopan Monastery is one of the most beautiful and relaxing places I have ever been to. The views of the hills were breathtaking, and the gompa and stupa were so beautiful, especially during the evening”.

Our time at Kopan monastery was spent in the library, which had an extensive collection of Buddhist-related books and videos of teaching courses for higher-level Buddhist monks. I was also lucky enough to experience a puja (religious offering) in the gompa (main monastery), where the lower-level monks performed Buddhist tantric chanting (using “gongs, symbols and strange wind instruments that sounded like badly played clarinets”) and offered rice and tea to the gods.

I’m not Buddhist and unlikely to become so, but the tantric chanting and peaceful scenery had a calming influence, and I would happily return.

The featured image in this post is by Irina Gelbukh (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons