The Journey

I loved the way my hands smelled when we returned from the temple. I just kept smelling them on the ride back to the school -my fingers had been enlaced with incense and my palm had touched tens of prayer wheels- or as Tuul put it, "read tens of prayer books" (inside each prayer wheel is a book of Buddhist scripture). Tuul's relative is the chief monk, and so I felt honored to have her as my tour guide.

After we had entered the temple, Tuul pointed to the center. I followed the line of her finger with my eyes -at the end of the line my eyes hit what appeared to be a large man's gold-colored chest. I stepped closer and looked higher. Sitting in the middle of the temple was an enormous golden Buddha! It was huge! It towered above us as we circled it -spinning all the prayer wheels and inhaling the incense.

After making this loop, we exited the temple and walked to the room next door. Inside the room were chanting monks. They sat and rocked back and forth- reading scriptures. The room where they sat was decorated with many objects and patterns of red and gold.

Lastly, Tuul gave me a bit of holy water. She showed us how to drink it from your palm and then splash it on one's forehead. I followed the procedure, though seemed to spill far more water on the pavement than everyone else.

I left the temple area walking backwards...not because this was a custom ...but just because I wanted to gaze as long as I could at the pagoda-like roof and colorful sides of the temple.

* * *

No wonder over half the population of Mongolia lives in the country and only a few cities have had enough guts to spring up covering over the green with pavement. The country was breathtaking -literally- I gasped on occasions at its beauty. We all drove to the physics teacher's father's ger about an hour and a half outside of the city. Moments after we left the main city highway, we were on a dirt road. The dirt road soon turned to no road at all and in front of us was space. Just open, extending, expanding -space. I'm not sure I have ever seen so much open space in my life. The earth was gradually pushed up into hills...and mountains farther in the distance. The sky was blue. Occasionally we'd see horses galloping. And, all of the sudden I felt like a pioneer. Was this what the first settlers felt like when they gazed at an untouched western America? Had most of the Earth once had this much space? Would Mongolia be able to maintain this much amazing open space for much longer? So many questions ran through my head. Yet, as I looked at this landscape something was telling me to lay my thoughts flat -to quiet any inner activity and just 'be'... just look and absorb what was around me.

The car stormed ahead until we reached the ger. As we pulled up the whole family ran out to greet us. It was amazing -just this small, round ger in the middle of so much open land. How small it made you feel as you looked around. "Life is simple here. The family is always working," Tuul said. And, sure enough the family worked for the whole day we were there. They worked on food, cleaning, milking, herding, motorcycle repairing, and animal maintenance.

Our music for the day was the herd of bleating goats. It was such an appealing sound! I loved how the little ones would scamper around on unsteady hooves, bleating and searching for their mothers. We were also privileged to hear the thunder of horses running across the hilled landscape.

It was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

Sitting in that ger, beside the cooking pot, with everyone facing inward on couches or chairs -I felt this overwhelming sense of oneness. And, I wondered if perhaps some people get to feel this everyday.

I remember vividly the grandfather telling us a story at lunch. He used his large wrinkly hands to illustrate specific parts. Of course he spoke in Mongolian so I never understood a word he said. But, his mannerisms and pauses made the story captivating. Both Allie and I listened in silence.

After lunch they let us ride a horse. The physics teacher's brother in-law led our horses up the side of the hill one at a time. It felt a bit like I was flying as my body raced forward with the horse. When we reached the top of the hill and turned around it was incredible -a small circular ger to the left of a horizon enveloping steppes of pale green.