Imagine. A monastery in a cave. Where silence prevails. And the slightest sound travels till miles away. Now imagine that place to be filled with sounds of laughter, which not only echoed the valley that day, but still echoes in my life.
Phuktal Gompa (also called Phugtal) is situated in the remote region of Zanskar Valley. At the time we visited this place, it needed a day-long hike to reach there (which thankfully got shortened a little when we reached there because a broken road was reconstructed).
My plan was to not just distribute stationary, but to hold an arts and crafts day for the talented little monks at Phuktal, who love such activities, but never get a chance to indulge in it.
The steep sections of the hike were never a problem. But carrying stationary (books, notebooks, pens, pencils etc), painting sheets and colours (sketch pens, colour pencils, oil paints, water colours) not only for the arts and crafts day, but enough for them to continue doing that for the next few months, was a bigger challenge.
Upon reaching there, the first few glances from the kids were full of questions. But when we informed a monk (and their teacher) about what we intend to do, soon those question filled eyes sparkled. And giggle and smiles took over.
The entire afternoon and evening was spent talking to the teachers, seeing the talented kids create some meaningful stuff, and painting, sketching things one after the other. Even the monks were excited, and joined in.
And once it got over, we distributed some prizes for the kids who sketched / painted / drew some meaningful things as well. Prizes were unplanned, so I had to give some of my accessories the kids found amusing.
When I last spoke to the monk, I was told, that all those pieces created by children are still there in the classes as a remembrance of this. And that they smile every time they look at it.