And then16

In the
Village

Obi-Wan Moments

Villagers seated on the ground facing people standing beneath a leafy shelter.
Everyone settles down.

Set It Out

Green leaves cover the shelter, leaving shade beneath. People sit on the ground in blue, red and green, shoulder beside shoulder. Those in the back look past the heads before them into the shade.

In February 2015 Rinpoche is in eastern Bhutan, concerned with organic life. The shelter is small and the gathering is large. This is a place where the subject can be talked about.

There are tangible things on the ground first: leaves, fruit, roots and stems, set in bowls and piled in baskets. Someone bends down, reaching into a great heap of green vegetables.

In Morong village he calls it a celebration of organic vegetables. Before becoming dishes on a table, the produce has a place before the gathering. People sit behind it; its colours spread over the ground in front.

At what he calls the third village, fruit and bags are laid out again. Large sacks stand tied at the top behind bowls heaped with round fruit. Beyond the produce are people, row after row.

People behind the produce.

The Work of Hands

Closer at hand, the work is finer. A weaver sits with their back this way, rows of threads rising in front of them. A hand reaches out, moves the crosswise wooden bar, and returns.

There are green threads and white threads, closely spaced. Before all those fine lines, the hands still have somewhere precise to go.

Threads before the hands.

Rinpoche’s comment on the work is simply 0 waste. His attention to organic life has room for these small things made by hand.

The Hall Needs Cleaning

The work inside a hall is larger. At Deothang, people are spread across the red floor, long handles reaching from their hands, pushed forward and drawn back. A sacred image stands at the far end; nearer at hand, water shines on the floor.

Gold-coloured ornaments hang above people in dark red clothes. However stately the place, cleaning it still requires these movements of bending and reaching.

Cleaning the floor.

Two monks work around an unfinished clay figure. Grey clay rises in large rounded forms, a hand resting at an edge, fingers attending to a small part. Before the whole is finished, each little place needs work.

Creative Deothang monks. Rinpoche admires their inventiveness. Clay marks their hands, bamboo poles lie beside them. The work and its makers are still occupied with one another.

From Fellow Country People

Years later, another spread of things appears. In September 2024 Rinpoche calls it a gift from fellow country people. Basins, small bowls, bottles and baskets fill the space, each thing bringing its own colour.

Green lies beside deep red; small things fill bowls, larger things are piled nearby. These gifts have weight and different shapes. The eye has to visit one place after another.

Basins, bowls, colourful produce and bottled goods arranged on the ground.
Gifts from fellow country people.

Children in green clothes have red showing at their cuffs, their palms joined before their chests. Some look towards the front, some to the side. Their faces do not all arrange themselves in the same expression.

Rinpoche calls those who brought the gifts fellow country people. The things on the ground are abundant; the words for those who brought them are homely.