This is the science center where we teach the monks. Alistair and I are helping Dr. Pierce and another teacher, Chris, teach a second-year class on evolution. Like any other class, there are students who are very attentive and taking notes in the front of the class and other who are on their phones or giggling in the back with other monks. They are all very kind and seem to enjoy learning and asking questions. It is interesting to see what concepts tend to stump them like the differentiating between scientific and Buddhist ideas of a living organism and sentience.

Me in front of the Sera Jey Monastic University! There are two monastic universities here, Sera Jey and Sera Mey. The monks are divided between the two, based on their origin of where they came from. Yesterday, Alistair and I spoke to one of the translators for a science class and he was sharing his story of escaping the Chinese government who overthrew Tibet. On his journey from Tibet to Nepal he almost died three times. It is crazy to imagine what the monks who have escaped went through. Monks who were born in Tibet belong to Sera Mey while those who were not belong to Sera Jey. The two monastic universities seldomly intertwine except for in the ETSI program, or their science classes. The other night we were able to watch a debate between the two monastic universities. We tend to imagine that Buddhist monks are very quiet and have reserved personalities but I was very surprised once I started spending more time with them because most can be very outgoing and have a great sense of humor. The debate was even more surprising because they raise their voices, push each other, and clap fervently to get their point across. Below is a picture of the debate.

At the monastery, you are able to spot a dog or pup around every corner. Most are very friendly and adorable (one tried stealing my tea!), It’s very tempting to bring a few or at least one home. We asked the monks why there are so many roaming free and they told us the villagers in the camps outside of the monastery will have dogs that eventually have many puppies, but their owners cannot take care of so many pups. Their solution then is to drive up to the monastery and drop off a box of puppies and drive off because they know the monks will not kill them and will feed them.

June 6. On our way to Bylakuppe from Bangalore, we were able to experience an authentic car ride in India. The lines of the road, as well as the rules of the road do not hold as much meaning as they do in America. Instead buses, cars, tractors, and motorcycles are driven in an “efficient” manner, in which the driver chooses their routes. In this picture, we are actually driving in the wrong direction on a one-way road. The horns of the vehicles are also much higher in pitch, more of a “bEpp” compared to the American “bEEP”, and are used in a much friendlier manner by the drivers here. For instance, our car would beep as a sign of “excuse me” and the other car will move over so we could pass. After we arrived at the monastery in Bangalore, I considered this way of driving seemed way more efficient than the driving in America, as long as the drivers were as attentive as they are in India and not on their phones as much as we are in America. However, it was scary when we would try to pass other cars and appear as though we were about to get in a head on collision, so maybe not!