The lama’s whip comes with a blessing

Spare the rod and spoil and child. Heard this? Likewise, the lamas (Buddhist monks) seem to believe in the power of the whip to maintain discipline at the monasteries. But it does not come with just the fear factor: it is a way to get a blessing too.

At the annual festival of the Hemis Monastery located near Leh in Ladakh, going back hundreds of years, I was intrigued to see a lama walking around with a whip. And using it on people who were not staying put in their designated spots and disturbing the proceedings. The whip seemed to be just what the doctor would have ordered at the event: it was overflowing with people, more than could be accommodated, and there seemed to be chaos all over. The rain was not helping anyone’s cause either.

A professor of Buddhist studies sitting next to me told me the lama with the whip is the official disciplinarian of the monastery. Of course, he was using the whip more symbolically, ‘hitting’ people only gently. But I am sure some – the locals, not tourists – got it a wee bit harsher if they would not stop making a nuisance of themselves.

The professor jokingly added that getting the whip would also mean you get a blessing from the lama – he is in a way touching you. Interesting perspective.

My eyes also fell on a junior disciplinarian: a boy lama who was trying to clear the crowds with his whip on the steps being used by the performers. The rod seems to be in the hands of the child himself.

I saw another disciplinarian while attending the morning prayers at the Thiksey Monastery, also near Leh. This monastery seemed to have a lot of boy lamas living there, but most were finding it difficult to concentrate on the prayers. Not surprising. After all, these boys would be all between the ages five and 10, and they can scarcely be expected to understand the proceedings going on in the Tibetan language. They would thus be either looking around, or amusing themselves by making gestures at each other or just paying attention to outsiders like me taking photographs.

A senior lama was sitting with a cane rod, and would give these boys a stern look whenever they would seem to waver from the appointed task. And hold the cane vertically in his fist and make gestures of banging its base on his desk to show he means business. Of course, this seemed to be the daily routine and the rod was not used on anyone in my presence at least.