Rose Mestika
23 March 2008
Addis Ababa — A new Amharic book depicting the livelihoods of Ethiopian monks through the times, which is said to be the untouchable issue by many scholars for many years, but rich for its antiquitistic nature, was launched at Hager Fikir Theater this week.
Entitled 'Minkusina beEthiopia zare ena tinant' (in Amharic) meaning "Monk hood in Ethiopia; today and yesterday" painted a picture of Ethiopian monks and shades some light to its readers on the subject on which not so much is said, according to some religious fathers commenting on the new book.
Kahisay Gebre Egziabher, the author, said he was preparing to publish a book which has 25 chapters that took around ten years to write but financial strain was the obstacle to do so.
"So that I prefer to take one of the chapters from this book and published it. It has108 pages and three chapters that show the contributions of monks for the Ethiopian Orthodox church as well as for the country, the difficult times on the history of monks which is not publicized before and also the current situation of the monk." The Author said it is hard to say there is a real monk at this time," the author said in his remarks about his book, feared to prompt criticism from the Church..
"The reason is in being a monk, there are rules and regulations. You can hardly get a monk who full fills this." "If you are a monk you can not spend time by being idle. However, you can observe monks without doing something," he added.
The author has previously published Hibre Biier Volume one and two and he is preparing to publish about four books. Kahesay worked as ateacher before turning to writing. He was the editor of Felege Tibebe magazine, a quarterly published magazine. ( temporarily ceased) and deputy editor of Zena Betekrisitiyan, a monthly newspaper of the Orthodox Church.
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