Eskdalemuir, sounds like a place in an old Celtic saga. Here in the seclusion, in the near of the village Eskdalemuir, the Tibetian- Buddhist monastery with the name Kagyu-Samye Ling (see links) is situated. The monastery was founded in 1967 by Dr. Akong Tulko Rinpoche under the guidance of Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpochean. Today it is not just a monastery, but a place in which people can come, to join the monastery life for a while similar to a roman-catholic monastery where you can go to attend meditation days.

Kagyu Samye Ling Kloster in Eskdalemuir

Two monks with there red habits walk over the courtyard towards the temple. The rain drums on the roof and the wind sings it’s different melodies. The same scene could happen in the Tibetan highland. We meet women and men in all different ages. Some of them are bare headed (later we get to know that this are the nuns and monks of the monastery)and some you can easily recognize come from Tibet itself. Most of the visitors stay here for one or two weeks meditation.

Eskdalemuir Budistischer Tempel

We introduce ourselves to George, a young man in his mid 30th. He is the administrator and organize everything in this small „religious community“. We make a deal with George. We work and therefore we get food and accommodation for free; but we prefer to stay in our „home, sweet home”. For the following day, George asks us to be at his office at 9 am. He shows us our next days works which is: Cleaning of the restaurant after breakfast, inclusive wiping the floor and window cleaning. In the afternoon there is mostly another room to be done. All in all we are usually ready about 2 pm, which gives us still enough time for ourselves. But if we feel, that we would like to attend one of the meditations in the temple, offered during the whole day, we are more then welcome to attend them and stop our work in the meantime.

...Raimunds erster Arbeitseinsatz

In case the screams of the two peacocks, owned by the monastery, have not already woken us up in the morning, the gong done of one of the monks to announce the morning meditation (prayer), will do. A “mass” in the Buddhism is done like following: First you have to put off your shoes before entering the temple. The temple itself is heated and it is really warm, different then the churches in Germany. On the floor you find pillows to sit on everybody in his own variety, but mostly in the simple yoga-seat. In front of the pillows are situated small tables, where one could place his „prayer book“. As the Lama enters the temple the faithful are turning towards him with leaned forward heads and a Wa (the Buddhist greeting, you fold your hands and lead them to your face, so more respect you have so higher it will be) following his way to a kind of „altar“. The altar in Buddhism is not an actual altar like we know it from the roman-catholic way. It is a increased seat, where the Lama sits faced to the believers. The Lama now starts a kind of singing with the believers. For our ears it sounds like different notes are repeated for about 5 minutes, to get everybody into meditation. After the five minutes the Lama hit’s the gong and everybody starts their one hour long meditation. The Buddhist have the opinion, that just through meditation it is possible to get the real inspiration and peace. After the principal, a German proverb: “To speak is like silver, to be silent like gold”. Somehow it is true! After this hour you hear again the sound of the gong and the Lama and the believers are ending with a „prayer“. The Lama leaves the temple and the believers follow him again with their head down and the Wa direction exit.

Breakfast is already at 6 am. Before you enter the dining room, everybody have to take off their shoes. We do find that great, since we are in charge to clean afterwards the floor. The kitchen is cooking vegetarian/vegan and we recognised that nobody is drinking while eating. Even in the morning there is no tea or coffee. On the other side, everybody is going round the whole day with a cup of tea in their hands, which you can get for free in the main building.
In Eskdalemuir nearly all works are done by themselves. The monastery has a nursery, a carpenter-workshop and a stonemason-workshop. Even a small farm is to be found on the ground. Our VW-Bus in which we “live” is next to Gyamtso´s workshop. Gyamtso is as well a monk and did become a stonemason during his youth in Tibet. In his workshop he shows us the techniques he uses and on which objects he is working on.

GYAMTSO, tibetischer Moench mit Michaela

We are fascinated about the casualness and the way how people get along with each other in peace.
Well, whoever of the goddess is responsible for the weather, they did not listen to us. After endless rainy days, fall in temperature and in the end our stationary heating which was not working anymore, we decided, to leave and go towards the coast where we hoped to get better weather.
Till next time Raimund and Michaela