Another long night of unbroken and dream rich sleep over, a bowl of runny porridge (part) consumed, Mafa and I started on another, of course, steep climb up stone encrusted paths and concrete steps to Tashiding monastery, the most sacred of all Sikkimese monasteries, reputedly built on the site where a rainbow connecting it with Mount Kanchenjunga had come to rest.
We had arrived at a time when the monks were performing some days of puja, so sat on one side of the shrine room for around 15 minutes, beckoned there by a spectacled, thin and balding tutor(?) monk, listening to chanting, bell ringing, drumming and trumpet blowing before leaving to explore the monastery grounds, particularly an enclosure of stupas.
We left the monastery, ushered out by at least one very discontented dog, and visited a cave on our way back to the homestead, this one with a thanka of Amitayus, the red Bodhisattva of long life (?). Cave visited and steep path reversed, we had a lunch of vegetable momos before separating.
The exertions of yesterday had taken their toll and I retired for a rest before later climbing the route up to the monastery to sit in on another 30-40 minutes of puja, to the immense amusement/ delight of a young monk who would periodically pick up his drum and curved drum stick to beat them all the while beaming at me. For my part I felt incredibly priviledged and lucky to be there and stayed as long as I could, keeping an eye on the declining light outside.
Eventually leaving to a none too warm farewell from the monastery dogs, I made the descent once again to the homestead, this time in increasing darkness which had me pretty nervous, particularly with stories of local bears around. One of whom, having consumed and then got his head stuck in a vat of Chang (local home made alcoholic beverage), was now the unfortunate resident in a Gangtok zoo, the empty vat of Chang, the cause of his undoing, by the side of his cage. This much to the amusement of locals. Another bear, apparently, had broken into the monastery store room by biting through its lock, leaving chaos and two broken teeth behind.
These stories were related with some amusement by Chumla, the young woman who had been looking after us at Sanu's homestay in Sanu's absence. Chumla had also promised to arrange a shared taxi the following morning to take us out of Tashiding, Mafa for Siliguri and me for Namchi. Accodingly, Mafa and I got up early for breakfast of (a quite salty) omelette and thence to the bazaar to catch our taxi. A couple of hours later I was dropped at Jorethang for my connecting taxi to Namchi and said my final goodbyes to Mafa thus ending the 'Travels with Mafa' sequence and embarking on another 'without' one.
I think that the parting was with some mutual relief by this time. This was possibly caused by a natural difference in interests, ages (I still have some growing up to do) and temperaments and an unequal and maybe unnecessarily made explicit difference in relative affections (I hold my hands up). I am, however, extremely grateful to have spent so much time with Mafa, particularly given the chance remeeting in Gangtok, and admire and appreciate her spirit, enterprise, independence, positivity, charm and much else besides. These all make her easy to love, a delight to be around and a magnet for men, women and children alike. So farewell Mafa, my companion on many a Gompa trail, and good continued travels to you. Maybe we will meet again on the Roman Road.
