Well I can say that I’m gladly wrong. All three of them have now become bald. While I as a female don’t have to shave my head. We are currently in a forest in some random direction, because I wasn’t paying attention to which way we were driving. The village is pretty cool looking. The monks seem to live away from society, apparently without much technology. My brother says it would be cool to live without the hindrance of technology, however I disagree with him on multiple levels. As we walk through the town after parking in some dodgy makeshift car park. The monk village is actually quite pretty, the houses seem to be coated in clay, with cool straw roofs, the walkways however are wooden.
After we arrive at one of the big buildings we are greeted by some of the older women of the village, they are all wearing these orange tinged gown type things. Apparently we also need to wear this clothing even though we were just taking the test.
After getting into their idea of proper attire, we went and visited an old guy. After seeing the old guy in one of the more substantial buildings, We were told to go down to the rice fields.
So after being bounced around we are currently walking behind a guide, He is an odd looking man with a ponytail. He was odd because he was one of those guys who looked slim but seemed extremely strong.
After a short walk, we made it into a vast clearing. Straight ahead must have been 5km of rice fields ahead, with hundreds and hundreds of terraced levels. With being around 2.5 km long on either side. The clearing of the trees for the rice gave grace to the beautiful green mountains around, I could never get used to this view.
“Now all you will be is using these sickles to get the rice and throw them into these containers.”(a sickle is basically a curved knife)
“How much do we need done by the end of the week?”
“All of it.” Says the pony tail haired guy. Me, Samarchi, and Sid seem to all blink simultaneously, making sure that we had grasped what this guy was talking about.
“However we will allow you to have you four do it simultaneously, over the following weeks.”
Wow, Thanks for nothing. Aren’t monk test more religious stuff? Actually I get it, he’s making a very funny joke.
“Very funny” I say putting on a fake giggle, it is not funny at all.
However instead of saying ‘i got you’ he just looks at me confused. Ah crap we gotta do it, the sad realization has just dawned on me. We all except my brother look pretty dumbfounded.
“Well they're going easy on us, how nice.” my brother says smiling.
Easy? Every normal person just winces at the sight of the crops.
Did I say I couldn’t get used to the view? I never wanna see it again. The next 6 hours were spent hacking the crops by hand. And oh what a big surprise we aren't even a 10th done. My hands are aching and my back is aching. I think I might end up being permanently stuck in a leaning down position for the rest of my life. However, to everyone's shock my brother is fine.
The old man now walks to the side of the field, the one that we greeted at the start. He kind of fits the typical old guy with long white hair and his eyes seemed like they were always shut like he just uses a 6th sense.
“Hey” you can come in now.
“Well you made some progress.” he says as we approach him, he understandably doesn't seem to be confident in us. He tells us something about how for the next 6 hours we will do something else, I don’t really pay any attention to what he is saying. All I know is he brings us to the edge of the village. After a short walk through the rainforest we find ourselves at the start of a large incline, like from flat to nearly vertical. I’m guessing he might want us to scale up it for some strange reason.
“We are looking to make a storage spot, but of course it needs to be dug out.” the old man says pointing to the hill. “Your goal will be to dig out a large enough cave to store more rice. So I would say around a 150 square meter block.”
Sid looks at me, his eyes already sunken like he is sleep deprived. Samarchi is already on his knees praying up to the sky.
“So we just dig into the mountain, with these?” he says walking over to the pickaxes.
“Correct, you will have a week to finish this.” A week that's not too bad, I think getting up. There's six of us and it's only a small cave (it’s not). However this time, my brother looks slightly concerned.
….
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Well my brother wasn’t looking concerned for no reason. After six hours of digging, I am dead. I've created a small hole in the granite, same with the others. The blisters I had already from the harvesting of the rice, have now dyed my hand red in blood from The bare skin rubbing on the handle every time. My already crippled back seems to be straining with every strike. It seems a similar story to the others. Even my brother is looking in pain now.
"I’m Dying! Everything is slowly going black." he says crying. Well it is getting dark, because of the sun.
"Look God's here to take me to heaven" he says kneeling "allow me to go to heaven."
Oh it's just the old man carrying an old fashioned lamp.
“It's time for you guys to come in” we drag ourselves behind him who is now walking back. Our backs are in so much pain that our postures have gone zombie-like.
..
“Hey are you gonna eat that soup” he says looking at my bowl.
“Yes I am”
“oh , okay.”
We are currently sitting at a table with some of the other young monks. They don’t seem that serious as they are in movies.
“Anyway, how was the first day of testing?” Says Johan with his handsome eyes. He is easily the best looking monk that I've seen
Everyone looked at each other at their blister filled hands, their feet that are now permanently wrinkly.
“It was a good workout,” Says my brother. What an idiot. It wasn't a workout, it was hell.
“That is good, I do think getting in a bit of plowing every few days does good for the joints.” says Zaha, one of the females, who looks like she is made to be an Idol or something but has chosen this horrible path.
What another complete total idiot.
“So you're a beginner Idol.”
“yes “
“Is there a reason why you're here to do this test? Instead of training.”
“Yes too crush that idiot to the bone” I say making the girl look a bit shocked.
“Well competitions are always good, but I still don’t understand how this will help an Idol.”
“easy “ this time it's the bushy Eyebrow monk replies, Apparently called Zee.
“Obviously fitness is of key importance for an Idol. But that is just one of the many benefits. Do you remember when we first started having to take care of the rice fields. Your feet constantly got stuck over and over again if you weren't careful with each step. it also the physical carefulness of step over a long time the same as delicate dancing would require.” the monk says all smugly, obviously thinks very highly of himself.
“But you haven't touched on the mental benefits” this time it was my brother who interrupted.
“Having to remain concentrated on your feet for over 12 hours trains your mind for those long dance routines to remain focused throughout the whole experience. What about the core muscle strength from the hard manual labor? " The others look all impressed at him as he finishes off.
“It's all in the book,” he says, pulling it out.
“Can I read” Sona says, reaching out while kind of bobbing up and down, my brother pulls it out of her reach. Sona looks just like a little girl who is quite hyper reactive despite the fact that she is 16 years old. Everyone seems to laugh as she reaches her hands up with all her might but my brother is too tall.
“So do you guys go to school?” Samarchi asks as he places his empty bowl on the ground. The others laugh.
“You're not allowed to avoid just going to schools” Zaha says laughing. Samarchi seems a bit embarrassed to ask such a dumb question. Luckily he asked before me.
“You can only become a full monk once you reach 18, or sometimes they only accept you when you're around 24.” says Zee, I try to listen to what he says but his eyebrows are just too much.
“Wait so then what's the point of the test that we're doing?”
“Did you think we were gonna be able to become monks if you completed the test?” They look at me in surprise.
“Kind of”
“What you're doing is just a mock test. You need to become a novice for 3 years, which you can start at age 15, and learn the way of Sohei.”
“So you guys haven't taken the test where doing.” Sid says with an eyebrow raised.
“Of course we have. At the end of the year I have the test for real. So I have naturally done mock tests like this to make sure that when the time comes we can actually complete the test.” So the handsome Johan is 17 then I assume, a year difference works.
“So is stuff like this a fairly common routine?”
“Yeh in between are studies and rituals we have to do this work in order to retain the order of the Monasteries”
“Wait, so can you guys…”
however I trail off as The old man that had greeted us at the beginning has now arrived. He sits down on one of the seats near the fire in the middle.
“Well done everyone, this was a fairly successful day. By the end of the week if both of those tasks are complete you will all pass successfully” he says smiling casually.
“I know you would all like to continue talking, but I think it is time for bed.”
Everyone nodded and got up and left, the boys were escorted one way and the girls another.
The dorms were not glamorous but they obviously cared about the sleep conditions of the guests that were staying there. It was a small shared room that we were brought to for the guests. With Futons on the nice bamboo flooring. I remember lying down for a sec and then everything went black.