Religion and receipts

This morning, we had the opportunity to experience weekday traffic in the city.  It was considerable.  There were times when I am convinced we truly would have gotten to our destination faster by walking.  

We began at a Buddhist monastery.  The monastery was built in 1809 with the second temple built in 1838.  All that remains of the first temple is a much revered single wooden pillar.  Present-day visitors refer to it as "the wishing pole" and cluster around it praying, reminding me of the Western Wall in Israel.  

Under Communism, people had to hide their religion.  This repression
ceased in 1990 with the fall of the regime.  During the "purges" of the 1930's, the Communist government destroyed approximately 900 temples and monasteries and killed some 30,000 religious people.  The monastery we visited this morning escaped destruction but was closed from 1938 to 1944.  Today, it is the center of Buddhism in this country.  Buddhism is the prevailing religion for people here (53% of the population, according to a 2010 census), with shamanism and Islam ranked second.  However, our guide tells us that atheism is on the rise (39% classified themselves as non-religious in the same census), particularly among the young people. 

In the first courtyard outside of the monastery is a row of prayer wheels housed under decorated roofs. 

 The grounds outside the temple are crowded with pigeons, encouraged by older women selling bags of seed.  

We visited the library which houses over a million sutras.  While they would usually be wrapped in silks and stored in wooden cabinets, today they were stored in what looked like piles of large potato sacks to protect them during restoration.  We were able to observe a service in which the monks were chanting while attendees walked clockwise around the interior edge of the temple, backing out the door as is customary and respectful.  The ornate gold Buddhas crowded in the front altar with offerings and incense made me think of the richly elaborate altars at the front of Catholic churches I have seen in South America.

Prayer wheels are turned in a clockwise direction, and our guide told us that each time they are turned it is as if the prayers we heard the monks chanting are being said.  I even saw more than one person turning the prayer wheels while talking on their cell phones.  

Our guide also purchased a blessing for safe travels.  This was fascinating.  One enters a building in which a series of monks sit at cash registers behind a counter.  There is the constant digital buzzing and ch-ching of the cash registers as people place paid requests for blessings.  Payers are issued juniper incense and a long receipt itemizing the blessings and their costs.  Our prayer will be chanted tomorrow by the monks.  

Several temples are housed on site and we also visited the Temple of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, which houses a towering (87 feet high!) gilded gold statue of Migjid Janraisig, the bodhisattva embodying compassion.  Our guide told us the original copper statue was dismantled by Soviets and taken to Russia to be made into bullets.  It was reconstructed in 1996.  

We continued to the Museum of Fine Arts, a building which has served a number of different purposes (including a bank, a military office, and a department store) prior to becoming a museum in 1966.  It houses more than 14,000 pieces, only 5% of which are on display.  I was most taken with some stunning applique representing a 2000-year-old tradition.  Our visit was followed by a lunch of what looked like wanton chips with pico, an outstanding chicken soup, well-seasoned ground lamb wraps with a spicy sauce, and chocolate cake.  

Finally, we visited the National Museum which depicts the history of this culture from prehistory to the twentieth century when their first man traveled into space.  For me, the most interesting parts were an interesting collection of stone tools in the prehistory hall and a series of traditional costumes and games.  There are over 100 different kinds of traditional hats (for different cultural groups and different seasons).  

I was disappointed that it was not the Natural History Museum which is well known for its paleontology exhibits.  I hope there will be time to visit on my own later in the trip!

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