GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI
This spring I visited my home province of Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada. I was both surprised and delighted to find out that there is a Buddhist Monastery on the east side of the Island. The name of the organization is the GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI.
GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI
GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI
The acronym G.E.B.I.S. stands for Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society. The monastery has been on PEI for almost ten years. It has approximately 300 monks living and studying on its campus. I was fortunate to have Geoffery, the program director, arrange a tour of the monastery and the surrounding school. You cannot visit the monastery without an appointment, so it is necessary to call ahead to arrange this. However, there is an open house on the weekend of Mother’s Day. (May 12th, 13th)
Monastery Tour
Geoffery has a vast knowledge about GEBIS and life at the monastery. He showed my mother and I the prayer hall and explained how everything works, where everything is from, and also what life is like for those living in the monastery.
The main portion of the tour was visiting the main prayer hall. The hall has many traditional items for both prayer and study. Everything in the facility comes from different parts of the world.
GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI
Open House
If you would like to receive a tour of the monastery and see all of these fascinating things, I strongly recommend attending the free open house. (May 12th, and 13th 2018)
If you want to visit the open house, please reserve ahead of time! Hundreds of people come from all over the Maritimes to the open house, so parking space is limited. Reservations are much appreciated so that Geoffery and his volunteers can plan for the right amount of people during the two-day event.
Going to the open house is the best way to see the Monastery and to experience Buddhist life. On this day there will be many monks explaining how they live, as well as demonstrations on how the traditional gongs and drums sound.
GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI
Torma
There is a lot of traditional art on display within the prayer hall. The monks make the conventional Tibetan Torma art with an industrial butter from Singapore. This butter has a high melting point so the art in the prayer hall will not melt.
Tibetan Torma Art
Library
The prayer hall has a lot of Buddhist books in both Tibetan and Chinese. The monks use the books in the prayer hall for studying.
Tibetan Buddhist scripts
The courtyard at GEBIS is vibrant and full of flowers during the summer months.
A few years ago I attended a ten-day group meditation retreat in Dharamsala, India. We couldn’t use our phones or speak for ten days at this retreat. I think sitting in silence in that monastery with only, my own thoughts, was one of the best travel memories for me to date. I hope to write about this experience in the future.
The Buddhist meditation techniques have certainly changed the way I control my mind. I am proud to know that the GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI, has chosen my birth province to now call their home. It seems that they also recognize the magic and beauty of this amazing province!
If you would like to know more about the Buddhist Monastery, you can check out the GEBIS website, or you can visit the monastery in Little Sands during the open house. Open House; GEBIS Buddhist Monastery – PEI, on May 12th, 13th.
Thank-You for visiting Travel Can Be Cheap!
Tyler England
