Life As a Farang Upasika At A Thai Forest Monastery

Wat Nong Pah Pong is the monastery founded by Ajahn Chah, whom I’ve heard of many times. A lot of the well known Western lay teachers came to Asia in the 1970s and learned from him, then brought the teachings and this linage back to the west. The founders of Spirit Rock name him as their teacher and  Amaravati, the monastery where the  Aloka Vihara Sisters lived as Siladara (10 precept nuns) for close to 20 years is art of the Ajahn Chah lineage. 

I spent the last 5 days living with the Mae Chee (8 precept nuns) and other Upasika here in Northeast Thailand and had a glimpse of what life is like for them. Note: an Upasika is an unordained woman who undertakes the 8 precepts and lives in a monastery for a limited period of time. I am at this moment, and have been during certain periods of time this past year, been an Upasika.

Ayya and I were the only farang (foreigners) I saw on the bus here, in the 2 towns we spent a little time in while in transit from Bangkok and here at the Wat. Needless to say a farang Bhikkhuni and her butch “Sancho Panza” get noticed, everywhere…

Wat Nong Pah Pong is a large, well supported monastery on beautiful forested grounds. Much of Isan (this area of Thailand) was forested like this but almost all of the forested areas, except for the monasteries, has been clear cut to create rice paddies and farmland.

Ayya and I arrived outside the large wall which encloses the monastery to a few busloads of teenage school children on field trips and a row of vendors, all selling EXACTLY the same food items  (colored sugared coconut, pork skins, banana chips and cookies similar to coconut pirouettes).

Once inside the gate there is a map of the compound and a multi story, modern building which serves as the Ajahn Chah museum. An odd assemblage of items are contained there; Ajahn Chah’s teeth (2 sets!), his wheel chair, Buddha rupas (statues), skeletons and I can’t even remember what else.

The Mae Chee’s quarter is at the back of the property and hosts about 20 -30 structures including a few houses, numerous kutis, the women’s sala (temple) and the outdoor kitchen.

Because Ayya spent a Vassa (rains retreat) here 15 year ago she knows some of the Mae Chee; the head Mae Chee remembered her, greeted her warmly and invited us to stay.

The first thing was to get me attired appropriately. All Upasika wear a long black skirt fastened with a belt, white short sleeved shirt and white sash which covers the breasts. Ayya of course had to teach me how to get dressed. She laughed at me a bit, knowing I had not worn a skirt since my corporate working days 25 years ago. She said I looked nice this way, that this form of dress suited me. When I came out of the house where I was changing the head Mae Chee laughed and said (in Thai) “now you look like a girl!!”. I just laughed, butch is butch in every culture…

We were provided very nice accommodations, a double kuti (one structure with 2 rooms separated by a wall) each with it’s own indoor bathroom. Each room had typical Thai features; tiled floor to keep things cooler and cleaner from the forest dirt, wooden platform with straw mat for a bed, lots of windows with screens on them, electricity. The bathrooms had a western toilet as opposed to a Thai style squat toilet, but it doesn’t flush, after use you pour a pail of water into it.

The days start very, very early here. We wake at 2:30 am and attend morning puja from 3 – 4:30 am. The first 45 minutes or so consist of chanting in TWO languages I don’t understand. Alternating lines of Pali (the Buddhist scriptural language) and it’s Thai translation. 

Because the morning and evening chants are always the same I am familiar with the Pali words, have chanted them quite a lot this past year at the Vihara. I recognize the distinct Pali words and know that the chants are paying homage to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Although I don’t understand what is being said per se, I understand what is being said. Since I can’t chant (no English language chant sheets) I use this experience as sound meditation. I take in the energy, hear the words as sound, try to keep mind focused so I can bow at the appropriate times.

After morning puja (5:00 am) Ayya and I help the others clean the Chedi (a stupa which is a shrine to Ajahn Chah containing his relics and an alter). It’s a big, beautiful circular structure; painted gold on the outside, black marble on the inside. We arrive well before dawn, little Thai brooms in hand. Ayya and I always arrive first, in the dark, quiet. This morning the still almost full moon was peeking through the clouds (it’s more orange in color here then at home), the creatures of the forest the only sound in the predawn light. Very soothing one of the many pleasant karma yoga duties I’ve performed this year.

After about an hour of sweeping and mopping we are finished and have free time, I usually do some asana practice. At about 8:00 am we take our bowls (Ayya’s her personal alms bowl always brought with her, mine a big metal salad type bowl used by the Upasika here) and walk barefoot for about 10 minutes down a beautiful wooded lane to the main kitchen to receive the only meal offered each day.

There is a difference at this particular monastery between having one meal offered per day and eating once per day. The meal is offered at 8:30 am (more about the form in another blog entry) however, monastics are allowed to eat until solar noon, so I watch all the Mae Chee and Upasika pull out plastic bags in preparation for receiving their meal.

This is a very well supported monastery so there is an abundance of variety and quantity of food offered. There is a strict hierarchy of who takes food when. First the monks take their food, then the male Upasika, then Ayya since she is a Bikhunni, then the Mae Chee, then the Upasika (me). Finally, the lay people who have come to offer food and share the meal take absolutely everything that is left.

Most of the food is unrecognizable to me, a conglomeration of items I have never seen before. The food is laid out in a particular order. First big pots of rice, regular and sticky (everyone uses their hands to take the sticky, I use the scoop and take the regular). Then the main dishes, 99% of which contain meat. 

A curry or two and a vast array of things I just have no clue about but I suspect taste quite good. Then come the vegetables (again many I’ve never seen before), hard boiled eggs (my only protein here so I eat them every day) and lots of little plastic bags filled with mystery food, much of it gelatinous albeit often colorful. Next are desserts (many not packaged, like much of the food taken with the hands – be still my germ phobia, be still!) beverages and finally fresh fruit.

I use my favorite Thai phrase (“mong sa we lot” – vegetarian) and point at things. Those around me come to my assistance. It’s very sweet really. I’m the only one who seems to not eat meat. One day about halfway through the line the Mae Chee next to me turned around and handed me a PILE of things; plastic mystery bags, unwrapped desserts and some fruit. Other days the Mae Chee or Upasika point out what would be good for me to take (little purple flowers today and some pickled green vegetable).

The first day Ayya brought some food back for me so she could show me some good things to take in the future. My response most of the time to what I eat is “tastes kind of weird but it’s ok”.

After the meal there a few more hours of free time, spent taking a nap or sweeping all around the kuti or blogging and having what I’ve come to call “a mystery picnic” with Ayya. She always eats a bit more before noon, I always eat a bit more during the day too but sometimes later in the afternoon instead.

At 2:00 I go to work in the kitchen, a story for another blog. Suffice to say kitchen prep is kitchen prep no matter where you are; although the peelers are different and hard to use, I don’t recognize many of the vegetables, I can’t speak to the other women and the cooking is done over open pits of flaming charcoal.

6:00 pm it’s time for evening puja, again I sit appropriately for 1 ½ hours doing my “sound meditation” and formal meditation and then it’s time for sleep.

Every day is the same. Days of the week have no meaning here. Events of the world have no meaning here. Only the phases of the moon have significance because Uposatha (a Buddhist day of observance when monastics confess, recite the monastic code together and everyone sits all night – or as much as they can) is always on the full moon.

On the one hand life is very peaceful here and I think there is potential for very powerful practice. All is just here, just now, just this. No tomorrow, no yesterday, nothing outside these walls. 

On the other hand I sense that some of the Mae Chee are here because there is simply no place else for them to go. And I see the systemic oppression they face from the patriarchy (see my next blog entry).

I wish I had had the language capability to have spoken to some of them at length about their lives here, about their attitudes; but I am only able to see the surface and perhaps an occasional glimpse at what’s just below.  

I don’t know what the general feeling is about their lives here. I know I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to bear witness to this life and more grateful still for the freedom and vibrancy that is my life.