Crash course in morning prayer

24th of September

It's night and you are sleeping, not particularly good but you are sleeping. You've even moved down to the floor because it was a little bit softer then the bed, and longer then 1,50. You slowly start to realize that it's your alarm that is waking you up, which should mean that the time is close to 4 in the morning. It could also be something else if you are a clever person and wake up after 7.

You can't find the alarm so you try to open your eyes to ease the search. It doesn't work. So you try again to find out that you'd already opened your eyes and was now only lifting your eyebrows in a surprised manner. You take a deep breath and prepare to get up. It's pitch black, not the slightest of contrast and you try to remember where you put your cloths. Sometimes does the light in your room work, but you don't count on that anymore.

You tumble down the stair in your flip-flops and after avoiding falling down in the passing stream or crashing in to a tree, a pile of wood, a house or even the latrine, you reach the meeting point at the sutra in the middle of the monastery. Usually you're not able to avoid all of this obstacles.

After a couple of minutes enough of the monks have gathered, so the line up and start a slow walk around the sutra, which looks somewhat like a very fancy and pointy birthday cake, while drowsy chanting in nepali. They do this 3 laps clockwise and then the line goes on the the next place, a house that supposedly have some very holy power. You really don't know, you just follow and try not to show how awkward this feels.

About now all the 80 monks have shown up an the line get's some trouble fitting around this small house in their clockwise circle motion, but you really don't see it, because it's still pitch black. You just feel it and continue to go by sonar as you had since you woke up. After 3 laps the line continues to the next house which is a quite bigger and have a statue in front. These you also round 3 times clockwise, while singing what you by now had translated to what ever was on your mind. In my case most often chocolate mousse.

As a final touch everyone start bowing to holy rocks along the way on the final lap, but since your back already started to hurt due to the bad sleep and now about 40 minutes of holding your hands together in front of you, it doesn't feel quite optimal. The line now goes in the one of the bigger houses where you take a seat in front of a big altar with a Buddha statue. Of course you don't get an actual seat, you just sit down on the hard cold floor.

The chanting continues, now led by one of the elder monks. Besides the excruciating pain in your back this feels kind of cozy, almost like you could fall asleep here. That's why some of the monks goes around slapping anyone who logs off for a second, and I'm not talking about a soft clap on the cheek. I'm talking full golf-swing across the face, so the burning pain will keep you awake for the next hour of praying.

The chanting continues, sometimes standing up, sometimes sitting down, often shifting in complex bow- and hand-movements. You struggle to keep up, while trying to stay in the shadow of the blinding one light-bulb in the ceiling. This is proven to be kind of hard since you are about a head higher then anyone in there.

One of the lucky kids gets to skip some of this to go to the altar and prepare for the final praying. I don't really know what he's doing, maybe clean some of the cups and take away the ashes, maybe repaint the Buddha, maybe take a leak in the corner while drawing an elephant.

The word you're listening for is Laso, because one of the times it's said the final prayer begins. Now everyone gather close to altar and sits down on all four legs and arms. Now two of the monks in front seems to have a dialog, maybe an oral examination of jingles, where everyone is supposed to clap their hands on the ground for each syllable of the answer. This is proven to be a very effective way to pray, because after this it's all over.

The time is now about 6 in the morning and it's an other hour until the sun rises. We do this everyday.