So recently, the grade 8 class of PLP has been going on some field trips to some different religious temples, churches, etc to go along with our most recent unit, religion and worldview.
So we obviously we’re prepped for this trip by doing class work, and even though the class work on different religions wasn’t completely for a field trip, it definitely made us seem a little less oblivious to any other religion outside of our own (if you’re religious anyways.)
We started off the trip by going to the Vedic Cultural Center all the way in Richmond.
It was a great start to the cultural trip as we learned about some of the MANY gods there are in Hinduism and what they do. We also started to dive into meditation. This, and the “NO SHOES” rule were going to be seen many more times on this field trip…
We then went to the Thrangu Monastery where we got to meet a real life monk and ask him some questions on, you guessed it, Buddhism.
This was definitely my favourite stop as my dad is a Buddhist. So it was interesting that I got to dive a little deeper into this religion and listen to the monk and what he had to say. A religion that wants to end suffering seems pretty good to me too.
Next on the list is the Ling Yen Mountain temple. This was a Chinese Buddhist temple instead of a Tibetan Buddhsit temple which is the one I mentioned earlier. (I didn’t actually get a picture of this temple, but instead, here’s a really awesome picture of a tree!)
So even though we went to two different temples that practiced the same religion, this visit was actually much different from our visit to the first Buddhist temple. This time we got to do some religious practices. We did some meditation, along with some chanting, and even an offering!
After that, we got to eat some awesome vegetarian food at the Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple. I also unfortunately didn’t snap any photos of the Sikh temple, mainly because I was really, really, really excited for the food. We got to learn a little about the religion itself and how they meditate. By the end of the trip, I was pretty chilled out from all the meditation.
But wait… There’s more! A few days later, we crammed ourselves into the little school van and drove off our first destination of that day… The Synagougue!
The guys wore Kippahs on their heads to show respect. What are Kippahs? Well they’re little caps that you wear on your head, and when you have poofy hair like me, they become a challenge to keep on. Either way, with two clips holding it to my head, we continued the tour, learning about the religion and how we should thank god for our health and well being. There’s even a prayer for when you go to the bathroom!
But wait! There’s even more! After that short day in the synagogue, we went back into the comfortable Seycove bus to continue our religious field trip.
We went to the St. Andrews Christian Church where I completely forgot about the dress code for not wearing shorts… Oops.
We learned a little bit about the church and its history along with some history on the religion itself. I can’t really remember what we talked about, but I did spend some time admiring the stained glass and the art in the church.
Our final visit was to a mosque!
We learned quite a bit about Islamic beliefs and the tight prayer schedule that all Muslims have to follow. It was cool imagining that while you are praying facing Mecca at some time like 5:00 AM, there will be other people doing the same thing you are doing at the same time, even if you’re on the opposite side of the world.
Well that was our exciting trip around Vancouver to experience religions that are practiced all over the world by people of all different colours and places. The trip definitely opened up my eyes, especially when I realized that I wouldn’t have to catch my bus home on our way back to school on the last day.
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