Spiritual Journeys in Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s historical circuit includes the famous churches and monasteries of Lake Tana and Lalibela. Lake Tana is Ethiopia’s largest; the local ferry takes two days to cross it with an overnight stop. The lake is dotted with monasteries built from the 14th to 18th centuries. We hired a simple boat with a 15 horsepower engine and a guide for the day-long journey halfway across the lake to visit a half-dozen of these ancient monasteries. With that little 15 hp engine it took us more than three and a half hours to reach the first church on Dek Island. Arguably the most interesting site of the day, the monastery of Narga Selassie was built in the mid-18th century and sees few visitors today. Set up on a hillside looking west over the water, the monastery is built in the traditional round shape out of rock and plant fibers. Priests live at the site and upon your arrival, make their way slowly to the grand doors and begin to unlock and throw open the church to natural light. Each church is built in the same style, despite the construction span of four centuries. Inside the circular outer wall is a four-cornered inner sanctuary, the maqda. The maqda in each church is covered on all four walls, floor to ceiling, in vibrantly colored murals depicting tales from the Bible and Book of Mary (a revered, apocryphal text in Ethiopia, since she supposedly traveled there from Jerusalem). One must walk counter-clockwise around the maqda, taking in the paintings panel by panel. At first it was overwhelming to decipher all the stories, but after seeing three or four of these same scenes depicted by different artists in different churches we were pros. The first panel is of Ethiopia’s patron saint, St. George, astride his white horse and gallantly slaying the dragon to save Brutawit, the girl from Beirut, from certain death. The murals were originally painted with natural pigments on cloth. Many have been restored with less natural and more electric colors, and include a painting of the painter and his wife at the end of the series. Unfortunately, restored does not mean meticulously repainted over the original lines. It more often means entirely new styles and colors on new cloth, with no adherence to the original artistry. Alas.

Outside the twin churches of Beta Giorgis and Beta Maryam sits a valuable and important collection of crowns and illustrated manuscripts. This “museum” is merely a 5’x10’ room in a mud hut with an open wall facing outwards. An ancient, or rather aging, priest sits guard over the collection of manuscripts and crowns offered to the church by visiting emperors over the centuries. The crowns are made of silver, some of which were melted and recast from 18th century coins of Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress and Archduchess of Austria! I was shocked to see my own heritage manifest in this rural outpost in Ethiopia, but there they were, the glinting riches of Europe deep in Africa, linking the cultures through trade and travel.

The illustrated manuscripts were open to a page, and as our young guide reached to turn the pages, we gasped in fear of the books disintegrating between his fingers. I asked why such treasures are not in the National Museum in Addis, and apparently every few years the Ethiopian government fights the villagers for them but thus far they have stayed in this very inconspicuous place. However, they are exposed every day to the raw elements, only increasing the rate of their deterioration. I felt lucky to see treasures of such historical significance in this remote village.

After Lake Tana we traveled due east to Lalibela, a 12th century dynastic capital that sits high in the rugged Lasta Mountains. At this time of year, before the long rains, the land is tilled and the soil parched as the farmers and hungry livestock wait for rain. The landscape was barren and dry, providing a desolate and thin existence that contrasted sharply with the area’s rich cultural history. A World Heritage Site, the city is famous for its eleven medieval rock-hewn churches and remains one of the premier religio-historical sites in the Christian world. The five festivals held each year bring legions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian pilgrims to the city; unfortunately, we couldn’t time our trip to coincide with one of the festivals.

Apart from walking the steep cobblestone roads that wind through the town, reminiscent of the Spanish city of Toledo, we drank tej (honey wine) in a tej house, ate an amazing feast of injera, shiro, cabbage and tibs at a “restaurant,” (actually, it was a private home in which a few tables had been set up), and had some Ethiopian beer at what looked like a bar but seemed to be a brothel as well. Most importantly, we were awed by the churches. We journeyed by car to Yemrehanna Kristos, 45 km into the countryside, an Aksumite structure nearly 1,000 years old that was built inside a cave. It’s facade alternates between stone and wood layers, and the whole structure magically sits on olive wood panels, in effect floating it above the marshy ground below. Behind the church, deeper into the cave, lie the decomposed bodies of pilgrims. Nothing is marked off, so if you are not careful where you step in the near-darkness, you will find your foot on top of skulls, spinal columns, pelvic bones and the like. It is an eerie place, added to by the mystery of the bodies and why they lie uncovered in that place.

Back in town we visited the eleven churches that are grouped together and linked by unlit stone passages, one of which is 30 meters long. The churches are carved out of solid volcanic tuff rock, but amazingly, except for the ground floor, they sit independent of the rock from which they were carved. Upon removing your shoes at each entrance, your feet feel the cool stone worn smooth by millions of feet before yours. Entering the dark naves, dim lightbulbs (one of the few reminders of the present time) and candles reveal painted carvings on the walls and ceilings. Massive stone pillars divide up the rooms, and each window silhouettes a different cross. Pilgrims dressed in white cotton shrouds wander in and out, praying among the few tourists. The deep and musty smells, mixed with the faint light and the cool stone air, bring you back a thousand years to a sacred place carved within the earth’s texture. It is a remarkable place untouched by time, and we were privileged to experience it.