Long before most of the monastery has begun its day, the kitchen is already at work. By the time the monks arrive, everything appears almost effortless.
Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Sarnath — the young monks travel to the places they have been reading about, and find them to be real fields, real hills, real brick.
Height and weight recorded, small concerns asked about, and some comparing of who had grown the tallest. Nothing dramatic happened — and that is the point.
A new set of schoolbooks arrives for the younger monks — greeted, as in schools everywhere, with varying degrees of enthusiasm depending on the subject.
