New Age Meets Tradition

Led by traditional Tibetan buddhist teachings, the school holds true to ancient beliefs and philosophy that have been passed on and preserved through generations since 600bc. In the few days spent thus far on campus, these teachings were quickly made evident through the students respectful behavior and culturally based activities. For the last day of Hemis, the school held a fundraiser for its next building phase. The students put on a series of performances and games that both highlighted their teachings and their daily life there at the school. Games ranged from big-boot racing, bread eating, bead threading, an obstacle course, and a morning prep relay to name a few. The performances, more so based on culture, ranged from singing, dancing, and even a short skit on saving our environment.

Every morning during the hour of arrival as students and faculty shuffle in, the palace of Naropa echos with chanting prayer. 35 different prayers are cycled through weekly, expressing a few each morning. In tightly organized rows setting cross legged with hats at right knee, the students in unison deliver a beautiful and memorable ritual.

Educational pedagogy reigns high not only through lessons but through physical site composition and construction as well. Sustainable design technologies combined with traditional construction methods provide a highly effective and low cost operation. Here the women hold an important role in building construction and fabrication. Pictured above, two women prepare willow branches by cutting them down to uniform size. They will then shave off any knots, thus producing a smooth roofing material.

Lunch time is set up in a similar fashion where the students situate themselves neatly in rows. This, however, is a much less timely event. In a rush to have plenty of play time, mounds of food are gobbled up and consumed at an astonishingly rapid pace. Cricket, the activity of choice, was set aside one afternoon in exchange for an exciting joint game of basketball.

Working at the Druk White Lotus:

Our first few days were spent familiarizing ourselves with the campus. A quick charrette gathered quite the interest from the students whether we were sketching, taking measurements, or documenting the space through photograph the students were eager to lend a hand.

Week two kicked off at high speed with us dispersing into four separate work groups each with its own area of focus. The greenhouse group, the landscaping group, the re-bo group, and the shade structures group. With saturday and our first deadline briskly peering around the corner, each group has much to accomplish before the big day. Along with a PBS television crew, we are looking forward to having Sarah Bonnemaison and Christina Maon from Dalhousie University join us saturday, July 11^th to lend their expertise in shade structure design.

The shade structures group works on a large scale model of the nursery and infant courtyard in preparation for saturdays presentations.