I've spent the last week at Buddhafield. To sum up, it was amazing. I did get ill (with a cold) and the weather was non-july-ish (freezing cold, constant rain and extreme winds) but everyone was always happy and dancing and giving eachother hugs. I basically spent the week drinking chai, dancing and listening to a constant background noise of bongos. I will now write a few too many things about Buddhafield.

The journey there involved train from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, and then underground to Paddington, and then train to Taunton and then shuttle bus to Buddhafield.

On the second train, there was a horrible old lady who yelled at us. For the background: We were having a conversation of a reasonable volume for a train though very slightly louder than usual because we were a group (we all had to hear eachother) and we were excited about Buddhafield. Our conversation topics were varied (partly talking about buddhafield, sometmes playing travel games (eye-spy style stuff), discussing hot topics (like israel/palestine), etc). We were not in the quiet carriage. There were many spare seats up and down the carriage that were away from us and also many spare seats all along the train and in the quiet carriage that people could move to if they were actually annoyed by us (no one seemed to be except this one woman).

We briefly sang a  bit of a disney song, at which point she (rudely) demanded we be quiet - which we did. Singing on a train can be annoying. About 5 minutes later, she told us to keep our voices down. Which we then did. She then continued to tell us off for everything we did. When the train arrived, Spider stood up and stumbled slightly as the train slowed. She stumbled towards the lady (but didn't actually touch her). This is when she blew her top - she yelled at us, calling us "frightful people" and "juvenile delinquents" and saying we had "stupid conversation topics" ["I've never heard such stupid conversation in all my life!" - to which kim replied, "haven't you been to school?"]

Though she was countered by a very nice old lady on the train home who gave up her seat so rob and jonny could sit together and she also signed Kim's book. Also! I had a wonderful cake on the train (thanks guys!) which was decorated with a rather wobbly icing gecko (drawn while the train was in motion).



Buddhafield consisted of 3 fields - 2 were mostly camping and one was mostly various workshop spaces etc. We spent a lot of time drinking chai (like tea with many spices), especially at the chai chapel, and doing things like eating chickpea curry and trying to cook in the middle of the night. There were many teepees (proper [big] ones with lovely fires in the middle). There were also compost toilets (barrels of hay to pee on and pits to poo in) To sum it all up, we made a list of things... 'we' being everyone in our group. We all contributed to the list, and I'm adding some now. It's called "you know you're at Buddhafield" but some a bit more "you know you're camping" and not all are exclusive to Buddhafield but also part of it so made it onto the list:

You know you're at Buddhafield when:
* You have insense on you at all times but you have no idea where your phone is
* You begin referring to non-compost loos as "flush toilets"
* There is still graffiti by the loos, but it says "peace" and "love" and "are you mindful or is your mind full?"
* You know the toilet pits by name (Ethel, Edith and Egbert)
* There are teepees everywhere
* You are drinking chai at least 5 times a day and you can taste all the different spices and compare the taste of chai from different places
* You can constantly hear bongos
* You can yell "group hug!" and people you don't know will randomly join in
* A line of spontaneous dancing people may go by at any time
* You're keeping warm by wearing everything you own including a skirt over trousers, 2 jumpers, a blanket and a rug... and you're perfectly in fashion
* The activity in the main dome is called Ecstatic Dance
* You may accidentally walk into a shamanic ritual dance or trance dance at any time... where people are dancing naked.
* Nudity is perfectly normal
* You talk to strangers as you pee, squatting over hay barrels... and it's perfectly normal.
* You are on your way somewhere but get distracted on the way by some pretty display
* You're on your way back from the loos and before you know it, you're making a sand mandala in the rain (it was fun!)
* You sink knee deep into mud if you stand still for too long (no joke!)
* You start singing and everyone joins in
* You're cooking dinner at 11pm in pitch black... in the middle of the road, holding a torch and you've got a wash basin over the stove so the wind won't keep blowing out the fire
* The word 'road' means 'that gap between those tents'
* You're woken up in the morning by the chai lady doing her morning rounds of roaming Buddhafield ("buy my chai!")
* There's a man walking around with a wash basin filled with onion bhajis. Yum.
* You take part in a heart circle and meditate.
* Everyone is cheerful and full of love and really open and happy.
* There are shops that run themselves - there is a bowl to put the money in and everything is clearly priced - and no one is taking advantage.
* Everyone is having a great time dancing and having fun and not worrying about their image - and everyone is entirely sober.


And now for the mystery of the Chai Lady. There is a myth that the Chai Lady roams Buddhafield. She has been sighted in the morning between 8 and 9am with large thermos flasks filled with chai made with rice milk. She sings with a haunting tune that no one can quite remember, with the words "chai, buy my chai, lots of chai, buy my chai, vegan chai". No one can remember her face or quite what she looks like. Those who have seen her are not sure if it was real. There is no hard core evidence for her existence.

We believe we had a sighting of the Chai Lady on the morning of July the 20th. Also, on the morning of July 16th, I heard her voice in my dreams though it turns out others heard the voice too, so perhaps it was real. We bought her chai and I snapped a picture but I only managed to get her from behind so we have no proof that it is the real Chai Lady.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN? She called herself Chai Lady. Believed to roam Buddhafield, selling chai. Here is a picture:

 

I will now select a few pictures to sum up Buddhafield:

1. Mud (Kim stood still for too long):

 

2. A line of randomly dancing people going by:


3. Some of us:



4. More mud (I took a picture of my feet and then as I looked at the camera, they sank so I took another):
 

5. Me and my love of teepees:
 

6. The loos (it had to be done):


Also making a video which I will put up in my next entry. Actually, I made a video but it's loading onto my photobucket currently...