THREE ISLAND MONASTERIES

WEATHER: Hot and 28C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: The boat road on Lake Tana

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing

WORD OF THE DAY:  Batam Konjo- More beautiful (that’s me)

It was nice to wake up and know that we had a whole day at leisure in Bahir Dar.  We decided to visit some of the monasteries that they have on some of the small islands in Lake Tana and it was easily enough organized with reception.  Everyone seems to know someone, and within half an hour we were talking with someone over breakfast about costs and options and 30 minutes later we were driving to the lake and getting on a boat with a driver.  It was only 78AUD for the hire of the boat and driver for the 3 hours we were out for the both of us.  It was a pretty cool little speed boat that motored us to 3 islands. 

Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and is the largest lake in Ethiopia. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian highlands the lake is approximately 84 kilometers long and 66 kilometers wide, with a maximum depth of 15 meters, and an elevation of 1,840 meters. Lake Tana is fed by the Lesser Abay, Reb and Gumara Rivers and its surface area ranges from 3,000 to 3,500 km² depending on season and rainfall. The lake level has been regulated since the construction of the control weir where the lake discharges into the Blue Nile, which regulates the flow to the Tis Abbai Falls and hydro-power station.

The lake has a number of islands, whose numbers vary depending on the level of the lake; it has fallen about 1.8m in the last 400 years. According to Manoel de Almeida (who was a Portuguese missionary in the early 17th century), there were 21 islands, seven to eight of which had monasteries on them "formerly large, but now much diminished." When James Bruce visited the area in the later 18th century, he noted that the locals counted 45 inhabited islands, but stated he believed that "the number may be about eleven." A more modern geographer named 37 islands, of which he believed 19 have or had monasteries or churches on them.

Remains of ancient Ethiopian emperors and treasures of the Ethiopian Church are kept on the isolated island monasteries.  On the island of Tana Qirqos is a rock shown to Paul B. Henze, on which he was told the Virgin Mary had rested on her journey back from Egypt; he was also told that Frumentius, who introduced Christianity to Ethiopia, is "allegedly buried on Tana Cherqos." The body of Yekuno Amlak is interred in the monastery of St. Stephen on Daga Island; other Emperors whose tombs are on Daga include Dawit I, Zara Yaqob, Za Dengel and Fasilides. Other important islands in Lake Tana include Dek, Mitraha, Gelila Zakarias, Halimun, and Briguida.

The ride to the first monastery took around 30-40 minutes; the first one we visited was Entos Eyesu. We disembarked onto a lava break wall and wandered into the forest.  The island was covered with lush tropical vegetation; there were banana and papaya trees, coffee, etc. We paid our entrance fee of 100BR (5.20AUD), and then we walked around 7 minutes to where they had a small, very small museum, where we took a seat and a lady explained in Amharic all the items were.  It looked like she had done it a million times before and she didn’t seem to enthusiastic.  Z translated the important stuff before we were allowed to leave and proceed to the monastery.  We all had to take off our shoes and I had to enter through one door and Z through another based on gender.  The walls inside were covered with brightly painted religious themes and Bible stories. This monastery must have been newer or refurbished as the paintings looked brand new. The priest stood by reading from his book the whole time we were there. Wandering back down the hill, we made our way back to the boat for the next island. 

The next monastery we visited was Khebran Gabriel.  No women were allowed in this monastery, one of the oldest in the lake and dating back to the 1300's.  There was a small museum that we could visit here though and even though it was a very simple room full of artifacts it was pretty mind blowing what they had in there.  The ‘room’ was basically a tin shed where they just had a mish mash of shelves full of religious artifacts.  The mid blowing thing about it all was some of the items are literally hundreds of years old and they are just lying around in the ‘shed’ for anyone to touch.  They weren’t in boxes, behind glass; they were just sitting on the shelf getting dusty and dirty.  We were able to hold a book that was 600 years old.  600 YEARS OLD.  No gloves no cleaning of hands, just pick up that sucker.  It was incredible and a little sad that they aren’t looking after that stuff a little better.  But who am I to judge, it’s lasted 600 years already I suppose.   

After Khebran Ghabriel, the boat headed towards the start of the Blue Nile and the Debra Maryam monastery. The ride took about 40 minutes and we stopped for around 20 minutes as we saw a family of hippos playing in the river.  There were 5 of them in total and weren’t more than 50m from the boat.  As we pulled away to leave them in peace it was cool to see the hippo swimming under water and a bird getting a free ride on its back.  We also passed several papyrus reed boats along the shore before disembarking on the last island.

The Debra Maryam Monastery was a small walk from the jetty over a volcanic road of such that was still under construction.  This was another impressive monastery and the priest here seemed quite proud to show off the books which were located in a bookcase behind glass.  I noticed as we moved between the islands the difference in the way that the artifacts were getting looked after.  I wonder why this is?  Maybe it is a monetary thing?  This was our last stop and we headed back towards Bahir Dar finishing off a great morning on the water and discovering more about the Ethiopian Religion. 

Zeme and I decided to chill for the afternoon and he ran out and got some Chat for us to munch on while we interneted and watched movies all afternoon.  While he was out he also found the tape converter for the tape deck in the car where we could plug in the IPod and hear it through the car speakers.  Finally we can give the tape we have been listening to for the last 2 days on repeat a break and get some different tunes playing for our drive tomorrow to Gondar. 

We had so much fun at the traditional restaurant last night that we went back there again tonight.  Not very adventurous, but I think I just wanted to see some of that shoulder shaking dancing again.  Zeme and I rekon we will take some lessons when I move back here, I’d like to see that, but I will give anything a go, well within reason.  We tried while watching them with a few shoulder moves of our own, but I think it looked more like shrugs than any type of dance moves…….  The same male dancers were there and they recognized me from last night and I still had to pass on making a complete fool of myself.  Sorry guys, they did try hard but it was a definitive no from me.

We leave Bahir Dar tomorrow for Gondar, which I have heard lots of good things about.  So I am excited to get back on the road and see what this city has to offer especially now that we have a bevvy of music to choose from and not 15 songs from Ras Younnes for 16 hours.