Tibetan monks visit Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation

It’s the result of a long process started 15 years ago by one of the elders at Ahtahkakoop, Alex Ahenikew, who works in prevention in the community. He attended the World Indigenous Conference in Lilwit, B.C, and that’s where he first met monk Geshe Yongdong.

“He said, ‘native people are very similar to us. You do a lot of prayer ceremony, you offer prayer cloth, you do a lot of fasting’, and when we talked more about it, it was very similar,” said Ahenikew. “When you look at the different Aboriginal or poor cultures of the world, they all have a rattle, they all have a drum, and they have a process of prayer. Those are all common throughout the world.”

After that first meeting, Ahenikew and Yongdong adopted each other as spiritual brothers, and they’ve kept their connection ever since.

A child from Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation sits on the lap of one of the monks during Ahtahkakoop’s Family Day celebrations. (Image Credit: Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

Originally a shepherd in Tibet tending a flock of over 600 sheep with his uncle, Yongdong became a monk at the age of 13, but has lived in Canada for the past 25 years and calls Vancouver Island home. He’s spent many years travelling the world sharing his spiritual teachings of Yungdrung Bön, a form of religion that outdates Buddhism but shares many of the same practices, and is recognized by the Dalai Lama as a crucial form of Tibetan culture.

As a result of the Dalai Lama’s support of his faith and political tensions with China, Yongdong can never return home to Tibet, which China claims as one of their territories. That is another big reasons Yongdong wanted to bring monks to Canada, to show fellow Tibetans who can’t return home the same culture that welcomed him.

But there was still one more hurdle to get those monks here: the support of the Dalai Lama. Yongdong urged the people of Ahtahkakoop to write letters to the Buddhist spiritual leader, and he was pleasantly surprised by his response.

“Even Dalai Lama, he’s 91 years old now. He used to be traveling all the time all over the world, but now he doesn’t travel. He lives in northern India, so he doesn’t really write support letters anymore, and that’s really, really important. So we asked him to write, and then to that he wrote support letter for us coming here, all the monks.”

Over the course of a week, the monks and the Cree nation members took part in all kinds of different ceremonies from Indigenous pipe ceremonies and dances to traditional healing sessions and Tibetan prayers.

Eric Ahenikew was also a part of showing the monks around his reserve, and he bore witness to some of the one-on-one healing sessions the monks performed with members of the reserve.

“A lot of our people need healing, and it’s a lot of that past traumas that a lot of people start crying and everything, even with Geshe, because a lot of people haven’t even opened up yet their wounds and all that. So it’s a good thing that they’re healing them, they’re helping us along the way with our community with what we need.”

Both the Cree and the Tibetans have a similar belief that everything in the world has a spirit connected to it. One night the monks were sleeping in a teepee, and according to Eric, they had a loud visit from the lightning spirits.

“That storm came, the wind blew the teepee over, and the next teepee, lightning came right into the fire pit. That’s the experience they had.”

Five monks pose outside of a teepee set up for Ahtahkakoop’s Family Day celebrations. (Image Credit: Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

Yongdong added with a laugh, “Welcoming us, welcoming us.”

While the language barrier did present a bit of a problem at times, it also contributed to one of the most beautiful moments during a breakfast gathering. After everyone dished out, the monks sat together in a circle with members of the Cree nation, and Alex Ahenikew would tell a story as everyone was eating.

First the Cree people would laugh. Then Yongdong would translate the story for the monks, and another wave of laughter would roll out, and finally came the joyful looks around the room as everyone from different cultures finally understood the story together.

Alex Ahenikew sits with the monks and enjoys a breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and freshly made bannock, along with other members from Ahtahkakoop around the outside. (Image Credit: Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

Since Yongdong is the only monk that speaks English, it falls on him to be the translator between the two cultures.

“One culture says this, then they’re laughing already, and then the next one I expand it, translate into their [language], and then they’re laughing and they resonate [with each other]. It’s beautiful, and very similar. We are laughing, it’s just the way how we communicate each other, tease each other, laughing. Sometimes when we’re serious, [we’re] very serious, but at the same time, we are joyful, not too serious. It’s the balance we go through.”

Once the monks have finished their week in Ahtahkakoop, they will fly back to Vancouver. There they’ll spend three days where Yongdong plans to take them hiking in the mountains and to B.C. Place so they can see where Canada hosted games during the recently ended World Cup.

Geshe Yongdong makes and explains the purpose of a Tibetan blessing string.

The sweat lodge at Ahtahkakoop where the monks brought their own tapestries and built their own shrine for their prayers and ceremonies. Everything the monks brought was hand made. (Image Credit: Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

—

nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Tibetan monks visit Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation

What's Trending