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Ivolga, Russian Federation
51° 45' N 107° 13' E
Sep 04, 2006 23:53
Distance 0km

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Ivolginsk Datsun and Hill, Banya

Text written in: English

I had planned to visit the Ivolga datsun with Galya the night before. She woke up early and went to work for a couple of hours and then took some time out of her day to visit the datsun with me.  The datsun at Ivolga is the center of buryatia buddhism and it was busy with some construction and it was clear the religion was slowly healing from many decades of soviet repression. The datsun was a 10 minute cab ride and sadly I was unable to get Galya to let me pay for it. Galya explained to me how visiting a datsun is like a spiritual journey and she told me that our visit was a short one and that normally she spends hours there.  We entered the compound and slowly walked around in a clockwise fashion. There were prayer wheels which you are to spin around in a clockwise direction. They were filled with scrolls containing prayers and mantras and spinning the wheel is like enacting them. There was also a donation box at each wheel dozens of them and I was glad that I had brought lots of change to put in them.  I am certainly not a buddhist but I do believe in donating money to cultural sites that you visit.

The experience was very relaxing and peaceful.  I was impressed with the calm of the place despite much ongoing constuction.  The paint jobs on the temples and insides the temples was quite brilliant and bright in color.  Buddhist worship is a complicated business and there are all sorts of deities and beliefs thats hard for an outsider to understand.  One interesting thing is that your monetary support keeps monks their trying to achieve heightened spiritual states eventually leading close to something like enlightenment.  Your relationship with the monk is largely up to you. They don't tell you what to believe.. they just suggest doctrine that will lead you towards nirvana and the rest is up to you.  Thats really just my take on it, the whole thing is a little complex for me to really understand.

In the course of our visit we went into 2 out of the main 4 temples. listening to the monks chanting prayers and every 20 minutes or so they tend to start playing the horn and drums.  There was also a more subdued setting with only a couple of monks.  I really enjoyed the over all experience, the interesting decorations of the temple that were filled with meaning for the devout.  I completely appreciated Galya taking time out of  her day and serving as my ambassador to buddhism without her I certainly wouldnt have realized the correct way and meaning of visiting the datsun and I would have wondered how welcome I was. I have since treating visiting all religious structures as something of a spirtual journey, and my goodness there have been many of them.  But not so many that I dont find all of them interesting.

I took a cab ride back with galya and then she deposited me inthe family flat where I was locked in for about 4 hours.  The whole thing was a little surreal when someone started nocking on the door and I was unable to open it from the inside.  Around 4:00 Galya came back and decided that we should climb the hill behind Ivolga.  It was considered a spiritual place with 4 caves that were pretty hard to find.  It was about 150 meters of climbing and it was cold and windy.  The kind of wind that could knock you over. The wind intensified when we reached the top.  Along the way there were prayer flags and some litter.  Galya left some candy as an offering in a few places.  The view was great and you could see all the way to Ulan Ude, which was a 45 minute car ride. There was also a great view of Ivolga.  Even visiting the hill took on a quiet spiritual dimension.  For some reason I have always felt that sort of way at the top of tall hills. Especially ones that you have to walk up.  I really was happy with Galya and in a way it made me feel like I had left the tourist trail for some truly interest cultural experiences.

Galya had to return back to work and I felt a little bad for making her day so long by taking up so much of it. I took some more time lounging around the flat.  Eventually Vika's father came home and invited me to join him in the family banya.  Its something I had been dreading in some small way, becuase of my extreme modesty. We went to the family garage where he started and pulled out an old soviet era car.  He joked about it being a mercedes.  The streets in ivolga were mostly a bumpy dirt affair, complete with cows and lots of stray dogs. We spent 10 minutes driving to the family banya towards the outside of town.  There was something I liked very much about Vika's father, he treated me like a respected guest and a man in an old world sort of way. Of course our communication was limited to the very simple. They kept the banya furnace running and its something like a steam bath. One side is the bathside and the other has the furnace and a place for dressing and undressing. I got undressed and then Vika's father showed me not to stand near the steam port and how to throw water on the steam rocks. It was a nice affair and I cleaned up days of dirt and grime and felt wonderful afterwords.  I got dressed and then he came back and wondered why I wasn't still in the banya enjoying myself. I later learned that he thought I didn't enjoy the experience. The truth was that I was just unitiated to the whole thing and didn't realize I was supposed to take my time.  I felt refreshed and I think he brought the car along so that I wouldn't get cold walking back to the flat. Really I appreciated the chance at a real Russian banya.  This trip has also given me a new sense of personal space and helped destroyed some of the silly aspects of how modest I am. I do still have some ways to go.

It was my last night in the family flat.  They fed me and took good care of me, despite not even knowing me. It was certainly a wonderful experience and I don't think I will forget it any time soon.