Monastic Destiny Scrolls

April 25, 2007 12:09 PM

Who are the monks with scrolls describing the destinies of everyone who visits their monastery?

Several years ago (Maybe between 2000-2002?) I saw a segment, probably on The Travel Channel, about a group of Asian monks, probably Buddhist but I'm not sure. They live in a remote, hard to reach area in the mountains (Which mountains? I don't know.) They showed an enormous shelf full of scrolls written on parchment. Whenever a person visits their monastery, they give the person their scroll. There is a specific scroll for everyone who visits, with their life story written on it. The person on the show who visited was astonished at the accuracy of his scroll. Since then, I've tried to find out more about these monks, but I've been unable to find any information, probably because I have so little to work with. Has anyone else heard of them? Do you know the name of the monastery, or where it is located? Are there web sites about them, or do you know of any written material or videos about them?

posted by textilephile to religion & philosophy (12 comments total)

This sounds much more like a movie or a book, and it's ringing a bell. I can't put my finger on it, though.

I can't imagine something like that, if it is indeed accurate, not receiving much media coverage.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:37 PM on April 25, 2007

Not sure if it'd be of much help, but I vaguely recall seeing something similar to this mentionned online. I don't recall specifically what I was googling around with, but maybe this will help.

As I recall, it was some sort of astrology. You submit your date, time, place of birth and, after various calculations and applications of formulae, you receive a "detailed" scroll. I also recall (possibly erroneously) that you could send away for it... someone would pass on your details to the monastery, and send your scroll back.

(If your memory of the segment is correct, it's probably something similar. Crew passed on the host's birth details before arriving, so the astrology scroll would be ready when they arrived.)
posted by CKmtl at 1:49 PM on April 25, 2007

Oh, thanks CKmtl. I forgot to mention that they've had these scrolls for a very long time. Like, hundreds or thousands of years, and that's the thing. The scroll for everyone who is ever going to visit them is sitting on those shelves, and has been for all those years. Unless I'm misremembering.
posted by textilephile at 1:55 PM on April 25, 2007

Ah. Never mind then. Sounds interesting, though.
posted by CKmtl at 2:28 PM on April 25, 2007

it's in India...
posted by dawdle at 2:32 PM on April 25, 2007

naadi astrology ?
posted by dawdle at 2:37 PM on April 25, 2007

see also this article... sounds like what you're looking for

"Stating that it was a time consuming process to retrieve a leaf, she points out “it took me more than five hours to find mine. But once I saw my name and details written on that parched leaf, all those efforts seemed trivial. These writings although handed down intuitively by ancient sages thousands of years ago, because of the consistency of truth, they remain valid even today"
posted by dawdle at 2:40 PM on April 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's it, dawdle! I've been wondering about this for years. Thanks!
posted by textilephile at 3:15 PM on April 25, 2007

hive mind comes through again !
posted by dawdle at 3:28 PM on April 25, 2007

From dawdle's links above, I found this site where you can order your own naadi leaf reading online! $85 for General Predictions and $75 for each of the 12 specific predictions...
posted by widdershins at 5:38 PM on April 25, 2007

Yeah, it was more romantic when they were secluded monks rather than internet scamtrepreneurs.
posted by textilephile at 7:59 PM on April 25, 2007

In Michael Palin's excellent doc Himalaya, he gets his astrology chart drawn up by some Buddhist monks. You can read about it here and here.

"With a certain amount of apprehension I open my chart, which is headed with my Tibetan birthdate, the 1st day of the 3rd month of Water-Sheep year. With mixed feelings (mainly of relief) I read on. 'You were likely to be an elephant in your previous life, but you are going to be born as a daughter of a rich family in the West.'"

The entire documentary is funny, thought-provoking, and gorgeously-photographed. Highly recommended.
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:52 PM on April 25, 2007 [1 favorite]