The Beginning of a New Project Part 2
Hello all! As I mentioned in my last blog, our village has been hard at work developing many new vital additions to our community. Although, I have been utterly exhausted in my duties as a Bhiksuni, and my contribution towards the development of the library in the nunnery, and therefore have not had the opportunity to notice the progress towards other projects such as the printing press, from what I am hearing from my fellow nuns, everything seems to be running quite smoothly. I am very excited that we are making such an important institution that represents not only the religious aspect of our community, but also our beliefs, ethics, and virtues.
In order to begin establishment of these various projects, we came together as a large group, and discussed how we would like to proceed. Collectively, we all agreed with the help of our senior nuns, that it would be vital to split into two groups, into those who wanted to start construction and make their contributions towards the library, and those who wished to research, gather, and organize what books would encompass the library. As a scholar, I immediately took towards the group that wished to conduct research, as this is of course one of my most recognized passions, as I am sure you’re all well aware. Also, in our group we are extremely privileged to have one of our village doctors called Chodrak, generously state that he will be providing medical historical textbooks to the nunnery library. Bless him; he truly is an extraordinary and kind-hearted man.
In terms of the texts that will fill the walls of our lovely library, we have come to a decision of what texts are of the utmost importance. The most obvious is the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, as it is one of the three most important Canons of Buddhist Literature. The Canon consists of around 5250 texts, and nearly 230,000 pages, which are described as folio slides. Kangyur and Tengyur, are two broad categories in which this Canon is divided, and once put together they highlight the most authoritative and highly respected canons of Tibetan Buddhism. I am proud to say my fellow friends, that before coming to the village I was nearly a 100 pages away from completing this magnificent text, and once our library has of course received this great text, I can jump right in to its beautiful illustrated pages. We are lucky enough to be receiving this text from Herbert the book trader in our village, as it is so important to have a text that is key in the understanding of Tibetan culture, including our institutional and narrative histories, philosophies, rituals, and social practices.
We also have another novice nun by the name of Pema, who is devoted in her research towards working on the biographies of highly influential Bhiksuni’s. We are all very grateful, that she is preparing such dense and integral biographies, as these nuns inspire individuals such as myself who have just entered this religious setting and are attempting to find their way, and they also help to give us a deeper understanding of the overall culture/religion of Tibetan Buddhism. Bless you as well my Dear Pema.
The overall significance of building this library in the nunnery, and for the village community as a whole, is rather difficult to put into mere words. But for you my dear friends, I will explain this great significance. Essentially, it is customary in our monastic tradition, that we spend a large portion of our time researching, translating, and then subsequently rewriting texts.
Furthermore, to have a plethora of texts available to us is such a blessing, as books are extremely sacred to our culture. If compared to you my Western friends, you will notice that are books are very different. For example the books include folio slides with writing on them, which maybe done by hand, or if you’re fortunate enough such as my village you have a printing press that is helpful in producing these books. Once the texts have been written then, they are wrapped in a yellow cloth to keep the pages together and to protect them. In terms of my contributions specifically I have done my part in both researching, and then translating and rewriting texts. This has been an extremely enriching experience, as I have had the opportunity to work with the most senior of nuns, and gain their years of insight. I am also excited and privileged to be working with a community whose aim is to build such rewarding institutions! Moreover, having the library and printing press will be a wonderful contribution to our education system. One of our main goals was to have the resources to better educate our village people and encourage learning, and I am proud to say that we are well on our way! Learning about our heritage and culture is a huge part of Tibetan Buddhism, and as many of us have a great understanding of the importance of being well educated while being well versed in our vulture, we scholars and members of the community have decided to put together a program a few times a week, where members of the community can come in and learn. Here I leave you my friends to go immerse myself in this wonderful world of literary creativeness, and I wish many more lives find hope and inspiration in these teachings! Bless you all!
