‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
— Pangur Bán, 9th century

Behind the Old Hall, a devotee tenderly pets the ‘tuxedoed’ Ashram cat sitting atop the garden wall featuring intricate cut-out decorative designs. His black sling bag rests on the ground nearby. The silent exchange between them mirrors the stillness in the Hall.

Pangur Bán is a famous 9th-century Old Irish eight-stanza poem written by an anonymous monk at Reichenau Abbey in Germany, comparing his quiet intellectual pursuit of enlightenment to his cat’s skilled hunting of
mice, and highlighting a shared love for their respective crafts. —

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