The idea of a school was born 25 years ago. After a 10 day Vipassana Retreat led by Christopher Titmuss, people perceived a real need to leave something more lasting behind than tourist dollars. From very humble beginnings the school now educates over 500 children from poor families in Mastipur village and surrounding areas. One of the areas of real joy and pride is the children’s involvement in classical and modern dance. In the beginning, the teachers and sisters had to explain to the parents why dance would be very beneficial for their child’s development. There was a certain mistrust of the display and performance in public. Now dance is very much embedded in the school curriculum and every year a small and select number of students travel on scholarships to Varansi where the Sisters of the Queen of the Apostle have a training centre and school.

 

For our 25 year jubilee celebrations the song “We shall overcome” will be sung in Hindi, Bengali, English and German. I have been rehearsing the English and German version with Class 7.

the children help clean the yard and level the sand which has been shifted due to the building construction that has been ongoing for bigger class rooms.

Every year the Maha Bodhi Society organises three days of events celebrating the display of Buddhist relics in their quarters in Bodhgaya.

Various activities, exhibitions and yatras take place. A highlight for many students is the parade with some really ‘out there’ floats. Only 10 schools get invited and the number of students each school is allowed to bring is restricted to 50. We started our march at Prajna Vihar School (www.pvschool.in) and walked through the backstreets of Mastipur village.

 

Students (from Years 8-10) and teachers then proceeded down the main road towards the building of the Maha Bodhi Society. All students and guests were then provided with a really yummy lunch. Volunteers cooked for nearly 1000 people. All sorts of additional creatures such as cows and dogs used the opportunity to also get a feed…

After all those involved in the procession such as band members, the loud-speaker-blast-your-ears-off-people and animals had their lunch, we crossed the road and assembled at the Kalachakra ground (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra).

      

It was really quite hot. There was a the tiny bit of shade, yet as is Indian custom, wherever one stands, walks or squats is a good enough place to do pee or poo. No one was therefore thinking of sitting down. Still the excitement of being in the procession was catching on and everyone was in quite a festive mood. Once we started marching, the parade went back along the main road (all nicely blocked off so we could all walk in peace without the fear of being run over…). Every group of students was followed by an e-rickshaw (a very recent addition to the landscape of Bodhgaya) and a big marching band. Talk about having your ears blasted off. The musicians played sometimes (in tune) with one another – and mostly not. The sisters and I pretty much sat for the entire duration of the trip in the e-rickshaws. The procession went from the Maha Bodhi Society to 80 ft Buddha and return. Sitting comfortable in the e-rickshaw, I felt a little like the Queen – could have really just waved that hand….At the end we all assembled again back where we started, the kids received some presents and I got all upset with all the plastic plates and cups and other rubbish just being thrown away. Not much environmental awareness here…

 

 

 

 

The Barabar Caves are only 50 km from Bodhgaya yet the journey takes you through territory that appears unchanged for many hundreds of years. When I look at these villages and landscapes I can’t help but have rather romantic notions of living simply, one with nature, and being self sufficient. Yet, when we stop and see the people who clearly just have the bare minimum to survive, I’m quickly and rudely transported to reality. Surely, essential things and services need to be provided to live a better life than just one of survival. And then there is the issue of ‘development’ – such a loaded term/word. Is the development of India heading in the right direction if prosperity means that more and more disposable items (such as plastic food containers, water bottles, plastic bags etc) used for wonderfully, spiritually revitalizing events such as the one I partook in,  means that we treat mother earth in such a disrespectful way as leaving the rubbish of over 150 people scattered in front of sacred caves? I do not claim to have the answers but it gave me great impetus to find out who might be interested to set up a group of environmental friends or “Taru Mitra (friends of trees)” at the Prajna Vihar School (www.pvschool.in)

Wikipedia writes the following about the caves:

The Barabar Caves are the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India,^[1] mostly dating from the Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE), some with Ashokan inscriptions, located in the Bela Ganj Block of Gaya district, Bihar, India, 24 km north of Gaya.

These caves are situated in the twin hills of Barabar (four caves) and Nagarjuni (three caves) – caves of the 1.6 km distant Nagarjuni Hill sometimes are singled out as Nagarjuni Caves. These rock-cut chambers date back to the 3rd century BC, Maurya period,^[2] of Ashoka (r. 273-232 BCE) and his son Dasaratha Maurya. Though Buddhiststhemselves, they allowed various Jain sects to flourish under a policy of religious tolerance.^[1]

This pilgrimage or yatra was organised by the Maha Bodhi Society of Bodhgaya. It was an event prompted by presentation of some of Buddhist relics in their centre and included a visit to these caves and speeches from various of honorary guests. 150 monks came along and a whole bunch of pilgrims/lay people/others as well. The landscape just before reaching the caves is spectacular; both in its starkness and its ‘otherness’. It looks like someone has chucked a bucket full of boulders in several places creating hills.

 

 

Some children were in attendance who had been brought to the sites from a neighbouring village which is home to a very small monastery. It turned out to be a long (and in the middle of the day) a very hot one. As this area is said to be infiltrated by Naxalites (members of communist guerrilla groups) we had quite a contingent of police with heavy weapons  escorting us all along the way. To transport all of the people on these dirt roads a convoy of 16 land-rovers had been organised. In good Bihari fashion these vehicles were filled with people to the brim (I counted 10 in one of them). Our travel companion Kailashji said: in Bihar you hire a mini bus for 20 people or fill an auto rickshaw with the same amount of people.