Kushal Nagara – Trying Buddhism for a change.....

18/06/2011

Enlightenment is said to be the key concept behind the path of Buddhism. It translates key concepts in Buddhism like nirvana, bodhi, kensho & satori. In Sanskrit, bodhi is the perfect translation for enlightenment. Kensho is a Japanese derivative which means seeing ones true nature. Even though I am not great believer in Buddhism, I have found some

methods and concepts really interesting. The most simplest concept in Buddhism is, when we reach a Dead End always figure out the solution by backtracking your routes and find the piece which solves your maze. Hope & hard work are the two important virtues taught through the above mentioned concept. What made Buddhism so successful in south east Asian countries? It is the simplicity which made it special. The region around Tibet is the area where Buddhism is predominant. I decided do some research on places in around India where Buddhism is predominant. To my surprise I came across a place called as Kushal Nagara near Madikeri (Coorg) in Karnataka has a Tibetan settlement. To my luck I found some Monasteries in and around the area. I came across a monastery named Namdrooling Monastery in Kushal Nagara. This monastery provided accommodation.

The accommodation cost around 300 rupees without TV (pay 50 rupees for TV). Drinking and non veg are not allowed inside the accommodation premises. This monastery is the largest teaching centre for Nyingmapa – a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. This monastery was established in 1963. Kushalnagara is one of the places in India where we can observe a Tibetan settlement.

We left Bangalore in the morning around 6am. We took the SH17 Mysore highway. We stopped at Kamath Lokkaruchi at 8 am for our breakfast. Left for Mysore at 9am. We took Mysore bypass to Hunsur in state highway SH 88 which connects Mysore-Mangalore. It was nearly 90 kms to Kushal nagara from Mysore. 

Hunsur highway SH 88...

The road was a four lane road to our surprise. We reached Kushal nagara around 12 30 pm. We stopped by a restaurant named “Top in Town”. They had decent lunch options and food quality seemed to okay. 

We then moved onto the direction of the monastery (Namdrooling Monastery).We unpacked and refreshed a bit. Our next destination was Dubare on our list.

Dubare is known for its elephant camp, a forest camp on the banks of the river Kaveri. The elephants for Mysore Dussehra were trained at Dubare elephant camp. At present, the logging operations have ceased, the elephants have been practically retired except for giving some rides to tourists. River rafting is one of the most interesting activities hosted by the forest department. They provide rafting boats and there will be a guide. If you ask me, I would raft when it rains or when it is rainy season which is around June-July.

That is the time when river Kaveri becomes really treacherous and that’s when rafting becomes really interesting. Rafting becomes more interesting if you are in a group say 8-15 people. Rafting boats can accommodate people from 8-15. It was Rs 500-600 per person. Since we were a group of four we refused to take rafting instead opted for boating. To our surprise boating was as cool as rafting. It was just 1000 rupees for the four of us. Since it was rainy season, the river was very treacherous and violent. That made our boating more exciting. 

River Kaveri becoming serious....

Boating in River Kaveri

Dubare Elephant training camp...

Thats me recording the whole video coverage while boating...

Boating at Dubare...

The movement of the boat was mostly inhibited by the downstream current. The boatman played with the boat by shaking the boat from left to right and reverse. He almost made the boat submerged in the water. I had never expected river Kaveri to be violent and treacherous. I had a chance to take a video of the whole boat trip which made our day an exciting one.

Rafting:

We left the place in the evening.

We then paid a visit to the Namdrooling monastery near our accommodation in the evening. Monastery was really big. I had feeling that I was inside Tibet. Namdrooling monastery is actually a school for the young Tibetan monks. The monastery had gold plated roofs and at the top there was wheel which was immobile. 

Entrance to Namdrooling Monastery

Main Temple in Namdrooling Monastery

It had 12 spokes which resembled 12 months of a year. The greatest speciality of the monastery is that at sunrise the whole monastery shines like a Golden Pagoda. We offered our prayers. Inside the monastery we could sense the nature of calmness and silence. It is said that if we meditate in such an environment we would forget what we really are. May be it is how Buddha attained his enlightenment.

Grand Bell at the entrance of the main temple....

Inside the monastery my bro took a really awesome pic of Great Buddha. He adjusted the shutter speed and aperture in such a manner that the pic looked fantastic.

Calmness...

He also took some awesome breathtaking pictures of the monastery with respect to some flowers and reverse.

It started getting dark. We had our dinner at “Top in Town” and then retired to our rooms with a hope that our next day would be even more memorable.

19/06/2011

Day 2

Expectations were higher as we moved to the second day at Kushal Nagara. Mom & dad got up early in the morning and paid their visit to the monastery. To our surprise they discovered something new in the monastery’s sidelines. They called us up to show what they have seen. We saw 3ft cylinders lined on the sides of the monastery with strange symbols drawn on top of it. Symbols resembled that of Sanskrit. But it was not Sanskrit.

There were about 1000s of these cylindrical drums which we are required to rotate which is some sort of an exercise for our hands. 

After every 300 odd cylinders we have to rotate a big cylinder which, rings a bell on every single rotation. The complete designing of the drums made the monastery look really marvellous.

Just beside these drums, we found a yard where a lot Buddhist monks playing cricket. To our surprise these monks were playing really well. One of the kids had a six dotted on back of his head which resembled that of Rimpoche.

 Just beside the cylinders we witnessed a model of the monastery situated in Tibet. 

Just beside the temple we saw a painting which had a 3-D look and painting was that old monk feeding a deer.

3D look painting...

By the time, we completed our cylinder rituals 2hours had run out. Our next destination was Sera Je – Sera Mei. It was another monastery which was 2-3 kms away from Namdrooling Monastery. This monastery was really big in size and in area compared to Namdrooling. Inside the monastery it had a seating capacity of more than a 1000 people. They had a photo of Dalai Lama at the centre of the hall inside the monastery.

Hallway inside the Monastery....

We took some pictures around the place.

Buddhist monks having a Time Pass...

Sera Mei....

Namdrooling Monastery Distant View from Sera Je

Story behind Sera Me..

 We spotted two Buddhist kids near a pond beside the monastery. We took some pictures with them (with their permission).

Our next destination on our list was Nisargadhama.

It is an island formed by Kaveri. It is 5kms from Kushal Nagara. It is 64 acres island, with lush foliage with bamboo, teak and sandalwood trees. Nisargadhama is somewhat similar to the Sunderbans delta formed by Ganga-Brahmaputra river system. There is rabbit park, deer park inside this island.

Deer park....

The island is connected using a hanging rope bridge. We took some photos on top of the bridge and on top of tree tops.

Wooden Balcony View..... 

hanging rope bridge

We left the place around 12 in the afternoon. We decided to head back to Tech City as it was 250 kms travel from Kushal Nagara. There were heavy blocks in Mysore. We reached the Tech city at 10 pm. We had our dinner at Kamath Lokarucchi.

We ended our journey with a hope that next weekend we would have a better place than Kushal Nagara.

Journey continues.....