kitchen 廚房

[位於拉薩週邊的哲蚌寺裏其中一大殿之廚房]

[kitchen which serve one of the assembly hall at Drepund monastery, outside Lhasa]

本人向來獨愛傳統民間居廚房,因此從開始做藏族建築研究以來,也會對廚房特別的留意. 每當到寺廟考察的時候,當其他人員都在佛堂細看壁畫的時候, 我往往會趕快跑出去找找經堂旁邊的獨立廚房,然後盡我所能讓在廚房裏的僧人批准讓我進去,甚至拍些照片.

說起來很有趣,在民間,廚房一般是女人的空間.我們大多數都是從少看著媽媽燒飯切菜長大的.可是來到這些以男的僧人為住的寺廟世界,廚房往往是女人的禁地.尤其在我主要研究的拉卜愣寺,那裏比較傳統,因此我不止一次被趕罵出來.

這次西藏之行,来到一些小寺廟却往往沒有這麼困難,在他們的廚房簡直就像作客一樣,遺憾的是我往往要趕著跑回去歸隊,不能接受他們的邀請坐下喝酥油茶和閒聊.

I have always love traditional kitchen, therefore when I started my research on Tibetan architecture, I have always pay special attention to kitchen. Whenever I visit a monastery, while others are enjoying the wall paintings in the inner shrine, I would always run outisde trying to find the kitchen building which stands nearby. Then I would try my best, hoping the monks would let me in or even take a few pictures.

Actually, it's very interesting phenonmenon that eventhough kitchen is ususally a woman space in the traditional house, women are usually forbidden in the kitchen space of the Tibetan Buddhist monastery. At my main research site "Labrang", it is such a traditional monastic system that I was already kicked out from the kitchen everytime I tried.

Lucky enough, in this Tibet study trip, when we visited some small monasteries, in contrary, it was much easier to gain access into their kitchens, even as a very warm welcome guest. The only drawback is that everytime I always needed to rush back to join the study group and could not stay longer for a chat over a cup of butter tea the monks were offering me.