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Faith
in Ethiopia Sun 22 Oct: Addis Ababa The first place we visited was the Church of the Holy Trinity. We had to take our shoes off before entering which is the practice in all Ethiopian churches. The stained glass was very bright and impressive. I particularly liked the picture of Noah and the rainbow. There was also one of the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba which is an important part of the tradition of the Ethiopian Church. We then went into a little side chapel where there were the tombs of the Emperor Haile Selassie and his wife. The priest drew aside a curtain so that we could see into the Holy of Holies where the tabot, a representation of the Ark of the Covenant is kept. All Ethiopian churches have a tabot, and are not considered consecrated without one. We also saw two thrones: one each for the Emperor and his wife. Each arm of the thrones ended with a carving of the Lion of Judah, the symbol of Ethiopia. In the churchyard was the tomb of Sylvia Pankhurst who had done a lot to help the women of Ethiopia and died in Addis Ababa. Her son, Richard, still works at the University although he is now very old. He wrote an article which was in the airline magazine. There was also a striking memorial to a Bishop. Mon 23 Oct: Addis Ababa - Bahar Dar and Lake Tana I finally slept at 1am and was woken at 4.45am by my alarm clock to leave at 5.10am for the 7.20am flight to Bahar Dar. Instead of flying direct, we went via Lalibela so we arrived at Bahar Dar a little later than scheduled and reached the hotel at 10.30am. My room is on the ground floor and looks out directly over the lake. As we were driving along the road, we saw many flame trees with bright orangey-red blossom. The grounds of the hotel are lovely with many trees, flowers and birds. There are hornbills and a bright blue bird, like a blue starling. The weather is hot and sunny. After a while, we met to pick up a boat to take us on Lake Tana. The boat trip was very pleasant and lasted an hour and a half. We arrived at Zaghie peninsula where we landed and ate packed lunches. At the picnic place, a woman was roasting coffee beans in a pan over a fire. There were some coffee trees round about. We saw some beautiful butterflies - huge black ones which flew very fast, large yellow ones with coloured edges and many others. We also caught sight of some vervet monkeys in the trees above us. After our picnic, we began walking up the hill to the church of Ura Kidane Meret. 'Meret' means that the church is dedicated to St. Mary. It was a pleasant walk of about fifteen minutes through trees which shaded us from the sun which was very hot. Many irregular blocks of stone had been placed on the path to stop it being slippery in wet weather so we had to watch our feet. We passed a few trinket stalls on the way and then came to the church complex. The church is circular, representing the Temple in Jerusalem, as are many churches in Ethiopia, and made of wattle and daub. There is an outer circular wall and then an inner circular wall in which there are openings to go to the rectangular block of the Holy of Holies. These three parts represent the Trinity. The walls of the Holy of Holies are covered with paintings of stories from the Old and New Testaments and the lives of saints. There are some which are venerated only in Ethiopia and are mentioned in Ethiopia's holy books - e.g. Peter the Cannibal. There is also a painting showing the infant John the Baptist trying to suckle his mother, not knowing she had died. The next picture shows him suckling an animal like a goat. These frescos were first painted in the 14th century but have been touched up since. 'Goodies' such as saints are depicted full face with two eyes; 'baddies' such as demons and non-Christians are shown in profile with only one eye visible. Nearby was another circular, thatched building. This contained some ancient relics - crowns donated by various kings who had come to the church and some medieval books written in Ge'ez, the ancient ecclesiastical language of the Ethiopian Church. Tuesday 24 October: Bahar Dar 6.30am. We went for an optional boat trip. The sun was up but it was still early so the sky was a lovely pearly colour. After a few minutes on the lake, we started going down the Blue Nile. We saw lots of papyrus plants which immediately brought Egypt to mind. The main purpose of the trip was to see the birds. We saw some lovely ones: pelicans; a cormorant; pied kingfishers; some pretty yellow weaver birds; a couple of yellow bishops - small birds with a bright yellow breast and a yellow head - and a wonderful African darter, a member of the cormorant family. This was a large black bird which had its wings outstretched as though it was posing for us among the reeds. A highlight, though, was seeing a family of hippopotami - a mother with a baby and three other hippos nearby. They were swimming in the water and seemed only a little wary of us.
8am. We left
in the minibus for Gondar. The journey was very pleasant - lovely scenery
of hills and cultivated fields which provided a patchwork of colour. In
some of the fields, platforms had been erected from wood and covered with
branches and grasses. Men or boys stood on these platforms to scare away
birds from the crops. They did this by using slings very skilfully, whirling
them round their heads and then letting go so that the offending bird
would be hit by the stone. It made me think of David and Goliath. At midday
we arrived in Gondar, quite a large town with reputedly the best university
in Ethiopia. The houses in the centre were, as usual, very poor - just
hovels - a big contrast with our hotel which has a lovely terrace overlooking
the town and surrounding hills. After the castles, we visited a very famous 17th century church, the church of the Holy Trinity. Above it is an ornate cross with seven ostrich eggs around it on spokes. These represent the seven days of the week and the seven sacraments (the Church of England recognises only two sacraments). The building was rectangular, which is fairly unusual. The men enter by the main door at the front; the women enter from the right hand side. The church is made of wattle and daub with some timber. It is completely covered inside with the original vivid frescoes. The ceiling is painted with rows of angel faces, each slightly different, looking down protectively on the congregation. At one end is the representation of the Trinity - three identical old men with beards. On the left side there are scenes from the Old Testament and on the right scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. There are also some additional scenes: St. George killing the dragon (St. George is the patron saint of Ethiopia); St. Andrew (not the apostle) hanged upside down and a depiction of Mohammed on a donkey being led by the devil, showing the critical view held of Islam in the 17th century in this part of Ethiopia. Thu 26 October: Gondar to Debark in the Simien National Park We drove
for a short while out into the country where we stopped at a former Falasha
village. The Falasha, or Ethiopian Jews, have mostly been airlifted to
Israel, with about 2000 still waiting their turn. No Jews are left in
the village we visited which has become a cooperative for single mothers
whose husbands have died. They learn weaving and pottery and, after their
training, they go back home to use their skills and sell their wares back
to the cooperative for tourists to buy. I bought a woven wool scarf. They
have recently begun to use silk to embroider their textiles and for this
purpose they have imported silkworms. We saw a large cardboard box containing
silkworms busily chewing on leaves. After leaving the cooperative, we drove for an hour and a half up into the mountains and along an upland plateau. We stopped for a picnic in a very scenic spot looking down into a valley with mountains all around. We then drove on for another two hours and arrived in Debark, the village which is the centre for treks in the Simien mountains. We went for a guided tour round the village, visiting the elementary school. They have 3000 pupils who are taught in two shifts - the 7 - 10 year olds in the morning and the 11 - 14 year olds in the afternoon. School was just ending for the day when we got there and we were immediately surrounded by children. We then went into the library - a poor affair - where the headmaster answered questions about the school. After that, we went for an hour's walk through fields and up and down hillsides. As the altitude is 2,800 metres (9,300 feet) this was quite tiring. We got back to the accommodation at about 6.15pm, just as it was getting dark. This is the only place where our rooms are not en suite. The rooms are all on the ground floor opening directly onto a rough courtyard. There is one toilet outside on the left which entails going out in the dark to get to it. It is not a flush toilet - a jug of water does duty instead. Fri 27
October: Simien National Park Sun 29 October: Axum A sunny morning.
At 9am, we set off to visit various archaeological sites. The first was
the so-called 'Queen of Sheba's baths' but it didn't look very interesting
and no one bothered to take pictures. Then we went to the underground
tomb of King Caleb. The views of the surrounding mountains were excellent
but the tomb itself was rather uninteresting, except for the colony of
bats inside. We then walked down the hill to a 4th century stele, the
stele of King Ezana. This was inscribed in three languages: Sabaean, Greek
and Ge'ez. All three inscriptions say the same thing and refer to Christianity
in Ethiopia. This is the earliest evidence of Ethiopian Christianity.
We then drove to the 'Queen of Sheba's Palace' but, as the architecture
seems to date from about 600 AD, it is clearly not her palace. The site
was pleasant with good views and there was a huge cactus tree there. On
the other side of the road, in a field, were standing stones, rather like
those at Avebury, but these all face the sun and are thought to be grave
markers. The minibus left at 2pm to take us to a small archaeological museum. As we approached it, we saw many stalls selling brightly coloured woven baskets. In the museum, I photographed an inscription in Sabaean; a rectangular base for a pillar aligned exactly N,S,E and W, and another stone rectangle with a cross carved on it. From there, we went to the Church of St. Mary of Zion. This is the most holy part of Axum. We saw the ruins of the 4th century church and the rectangular building behind it which reputedly contains the original Ark of the Covenant. No one is allowed to enter except for the one priest who is its guardian. We went down to a glass showcase which contained ancient crowns of kings and some processional crosses. The design of the new church is based on the shape of one of the crowns. We then went into the new church, built by the Emperor Haile Selassie. Queen Elizabeth II donated the chandelier inside it. We were shown an 800 year old holy book, made of goatskin, with brightly coloured pictures of saints, the Virgin Mary and the Trinity. We also saw the text, written in Ge'ez. Within the church is a chapel. There our guide told us about the lengthy training to become a priest. At least three years are spent studying Ge'ez. Then they have to learn the different kinds of chant and become word perfect. As the daily services last three hours, there is a lot to learn. The guide then sang some chants from memory which was very haunting and moving. The men in the group then went to the monastery where women are not allowed. Some people later climbed the belltower. Our penultimate visit was to the stelae area where huge granite columns have been erected. No one knows their purpose. Some were plain and others were carved. The biggest one had fallen down and was in five pieces. The next biggest one had been taken to Italy by the Italians and has only recently been returned. It is three pieces. The next tallest, however, is still standing. Mon 30 October: Axum to Lalibela We left at 8.30am to check in at the airport at 9am. Our flight left at 11am. There was interesting scenery from the plane window, mostly over mountain areas but also showing little villages and cultivated fields. Our flight took only 45 minutes but it would have taken us three days to drive because of the mountainous terrain. From Lalibela airport we had a three quarter of an hour drive up into the hills into Lalibela itself. We passed lots of schoolchildren leaving school after the first shift (12.30pm). Lalibela is very isolated because of all the hills surrounding it and there are many traditional round houses made of wattle and daub, with thatched roofs. Axum was the first capital of Ethiopia between the 1st and 10th centuries. Then the capital moved to Lalibela. After that, Gondar became the capital and then Harar. It was only in the 20th century that Addis Ababa became the capital. We met at 2pm to visit the famous rock-hewn churches. Then I had a lovely surprise: two of the group, knowing that I was a Reader in the Church of England, presented me with a blue, red and gold ceremonial umbrella. I was quite overwhelmed. The legend of the rock-hewn churches is that King Lalibela, a Christian, had a vision in which he was told to cut 11 churches from rock. This enterprise took only 23 years because, as the legend has it, the angels helped him. All the churches were cut in the 12th century. Each church is slightly different inside. The first church we visited, the Church of the Saviour of the World, was quite large and had supporting pillars but no decoration. All the churches were rough and uneven underfoot so rugs had been put down. The next church was the church of the Virgin. This had some wonderful frescos which were, however, rather worn as they were original. Another church had pillars which were cruciform, cut in the shape of a cross. A fourth church was the Church of the Covenant. In it, behind a glass door which the guide opened for us, was a wooden Ark. We saw six of the eleven churches in the same complex. There was some scrambling along rough stone passages to get from one to the other. In one church, a priest was intoning words from a holy book but it was not like the chanting we had heard the day before in Axum. The last
church we visited in the morning was some distance away from the others
and was the one we had all been waiting for - the Church of St. George.
The top of the church is level with the surrounding rock making it clear
that it has been cut from the living stone. The church is in the shape
of a cross. We went down to the entrance, where we found niches in which
monks used to be buried and we also saw the mummified remains of some
14th century pilgrims. As with the other churches, the interior, including
the pillars, has all been carved from the stone. Windows are just slits
so the interiors are all very dark. In St. George's, we were shown a huge
solid wooden chest which contains the hammer, chisel and other implements
used by the stonemasons of the 12th century. We trotted along the road for a while and then started off up a track leading to the top of the mountain. The views were lovely. After about an hour, we met the first really steep place where we had to dismount. We then walked up a rough, rocky zigzag path for about twenty minutes until we reached a plateau. There were vendors selling Pepsi Cola and Fanta orange juice so I bought a Fanta for my muleteer. The mules had climbed up after us, so we remounted and continued on up until we came to another very steep part where we left the mules behind. This was just below the monastery-church of Ashetan Maryam where the mules were not allowed to go. We clambered on up and finally reached the top at about 9.30am, two hours after we started. The monks were chanting in the nave which was a cave on the left hand side cut from the rock. The part containing the Holy of Holies was also cut from rock, on the right hand side. We entered and saw two priests. One was reading a holy book; the other - quite young - was in resplendent ceremonial robes as the day was dedicated to Saint Mary so there had been special services. He held up a ceremonial cross. Then he showed us a 600 year old book - the Gospel of Mary - with illustrations and text in Ge'ez. From here we went to a viewpoint and sat down for a few minutes before going back down. We had climbed 1,650 feet on foot or by mule. Afterthoughts I had been prepared for the cultural sights such as the palaces of Gondar and the rock-hewn churches, but I had not realised how absolutely stunning the scenery is. Most people, me included until now, see Ethiopia as a dry, dusty desert-like place which is not the case. It is also very fertile. I was amazed by the extent of the cultivation and the vigour of the crops. Of course, I went there after the rainy season which is the most productive time. I had also steeled myself to see harrowing poverty and certainly the housing is poor in most places but the people we saw were reasonably well-clothed and did not seem malnourished. It may be that we were kept away from the really poverty-stricken areas. The Ethiopians as a whole seem to be a cheerful people. We were greeted everywhere with broad smiles. Great emphasis is placed on education. Almost every young man we met was enrolled in some form of higher education institution, but these were those who had had an education sufficient to enable them to converse in English and would be in the minority. They particularly wanted to practise their English. The children wanted three things from us: pens, birr (money) and 'plastic'. We were followed by groups of children calling out: 'Give me pen! Give me one birr! Give me plastic!' By 'plastic', they meant empty mineral water bottles which they would then use to carry their own water from wells or streams. I also had not realised the extent of the worship practices. Besides the extraordinary number of fasting days in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church - twice a week every week of the year and 55 days before Easter - they also attend the lengthy church services three times a week, on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. The women going to church wear large white shawls which they drape round themselves so it is easy to see that they are on their way to a service. The antiquity of Ethiopian Christianity was also a revelation. Altogether, I found the whole experience fascinating and enjoyable, though tiring! First published in VISA issue 72A (Apr 2007) |