Montessori School fifth-grader Kathryn Kovarik said she was amazed to hear how dedicated Tibetan Buddhist monks must be to maintain their lifestyle.

“It takes a lot of devotion for them to be so into what they do and to study and learn all the time,” said Kovarik, 10, a pupil at the Montessori School of Syracuse in DeWitt.

The six monks visited the school Tuesday, where they talked about their lives, answered questions and performed on instruments for the children. The monks are on a national tour, and visited as part of the school’s yearlong study of Asia.

The monks are part of The Gaden Shartse Monastery, founded in Lhasa, Tibet in the 15th century. That monastery was destroyed during the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s, when many Tibetans fled to India. The Shartse monks built a monastery in exile in 1969, where these six monks live with more than 1,000 others in southern India.

One of the monks, Jangchup Chophel, talked to the children about life as a monk. Monks can be age 4 and up, he said, but monks don’t own stuff like televisions or games and toys. Monks get one week a year to “play,” he said.

Monks study their teachings around the clock and when their lessons are done, they debate or test each other. Monks get two sets of robes to wear, and study six days a week. They lead a simple life and for breakfast usually eat bread and butter tea, which is a blend of milk and butter. For lunch, they add vegetables and maybe some fruit and at night they often eat Indian food.

The children asked questions like when do they sleep (four hours a night), were monks around at the time of the Vikings (yes) and how do they stay warm (wool robes.)

Third-grader Olivia Murphy, 9, of Cazenovia, said the monks are fascinating.

“They told us how a monk will sit in a cave on a mountain for 13 years and spend a lot of that time in a meditation box,” she said. “They start so young and do it for so long so they can really find out a lot about their religion.”

Matthew Frazee, a fifth-grader from Camillus, said the monks are “cool because they’re so different than your average Joe,” he said. “Their lifestyle is so complicated with them studying all year round and not getting access to the things we have.”

Having someone visit and personally share their culture with the children is particularly meaningful, said Susan French-Lawyer, director of admissions. “It goes way beyond the geography of where they’re learning about, and gives them a real-world sense of what life is actually like in other cultures by seeing the people and asking questions,” she said.

Frazee said he thinks it would be difficult to be a monk.

“You don’t get to go out to play and you have to study and study and stay up late to get quizzed on what you study,” he said. “But I think they do it because of tradition. They want to pass their way of life onto other generations.”

The Montessori School of Syracuse is a private school for students age 3-12, serving 160 students from 20 area school districts.

Elizabeth Doran can be reached at edoran@syracuse.com or 470-3012.

Central New York News