Blue Sky Kingdom by Bruce Kirkby

Author:Bruce Kirkby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2020-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

In Lama Wangyal’s kitchen, Christine ladled curry from the pressure cooker into bowls. I could tell with a glance that she was beside herself.

“I burned the first goddamned pot,” she fumed. “And now this batch is underdone. It’s inedible. I’m gonna throw it out.”

I stopped her just in time, and after tasting the curry, assured her it was perfectly palatable. Then I carried brimming bowls to our room, before she could intervene. Lama Wangyal was nowhere to be found—he must have chosen to eat supper with the other monks in the courtyard—so the four of us ate in silence.

Later, as Christine and I scrubbed dishes together on the path outside the hobbit door, I realized she was crying. Gently, I put my hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said eventually, rubbing her eyes. “I just miss some basic comfort. Like a shower. A proper toilet. Coffee.”

Another silence, then she added, “You try having your period over a stinky hole in the floor.” We leaned against each other in darkness, bent over the pewter basin. “Don’t worry. This doesn’t mean I want to leave,” she said. “It’ll pass. I just needed to get it out.”

When our knees gave out, we sat together on the rocky path. Then she asked, “Have you noticed I’m the only woman here?”

Embarrassingly, I’d never considered the situation.

“It doesn’t bug me,” Christine said. “I’ve never felt out of place. Or unwelcome. But it just dawned on me that for an entire month, I haven’t talked to anyone but men. I’ve prayed with men. I’ve eaten with men. I think I’m ready for a change.”

To remedy the situation, we decided to visit a small nunnery, Karsha Chuchikjall Kachod Gyrubling, which neighbored the monastery. Sharing the same cliffs—but separated from Karsha Gompa by the deep gorge of the village stream—it was the largest of ten nunneries in Zanskar, founded in 1986 and home to twelve nuns.

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