One hot afternoon I stood in the shade of a tree (no, it wasn’t a Bodhi tree) watching monks playing cricket. There were about ten of them out back of the monastery — down near the fence and away from the prying eyes of the head monk. Not that he would have minded I bet.

They begin life at a monastery aged six or seven. I’ve watched them arrive — apprehensive, scared — clinging to the older monk who is charged with looking after them. A few days later they are like most young kids — happy, carefree and resilient.

Ahead, school and lessons, prayers and chanting and lots of chores. The life of a Vajrayana monk seems both tough and sweet.

Some go through the system and on to a monk style university. Some leave as soon as they can — usually in their late teens — the desire to partake of a western lifestyle too enticing. Many do remain monks (and nuns) all their lives but like all religions the young want iPods, to wear cool clothes and to be free.

Pity they don’t understand that freedom is not a fast car and a cool pair of jeans.

His Holiness, Penor Rinpoche, is the supreme head of the Nyingmapa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He fled Tibet in 1959 and subsequently established Namdroling Monastery which is located in Mysore district, Karnataka State, Bylakuppe in Southern India. It has grown to become the largest Nyingma monastery in the world, educating many important tulkus, khenpos and thousands of monks and nuns.

I met His Holiness at Namdroling Monastery in 2003, which is when I took this shot.

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circle in stone
makes me think hard about life –
it doesn’t last.

maybe not a Haiku by John Holman

This snapshot was taken in the rural town of Ganzi which is in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Sichuan province of China. The doors are part of Ganzi gemba — a monastery which spreads down one side of a hill overlooking the town. So much colour in a sea of brown.

Happy Tibetan New Year — it’s the year of the Fire Dog. This snap was taken during Losar celebrations last year at the monastery of Ayang Rinpoche in Bylakuppe, India.