A Monastery on a Hill

In all the excitement of the last blog, I forgot to mention our New Year's meal. Every new year, a local restaurant, Tashi, invites all the foreigners in for a free Tibetan meal. When we first arrived, we were greeted and given "Sweet Tea" which is not the sweet tea that the South boasts. Instead, it is some sort of milk, sugar, and tea concoction that is a lot better than yak butter tea. They were also pouring us generous amounts of chang, a potent Tibetan libation. Imagine the hardest apple cider you've ever had, and you'll get some idea of what chang is like. As we were waiting for the meal to start we had some conversation with some Australians. During our time overseas we've realized that if there's ever an Australian around at a party, stay close, because usually good, funny conversation will follow. Some (Kramer) would say the same about a proctologist. The real star of the night was the food. Our favorite was a local dish called bobi. It is basically a Tibetan soft-shelled taco - fried meat and veggies. The twist comes with the seasoned cream cheese that takes the place of salsa and sour cream. It was a really fun experience, and we were surprised and thankful for the generosity of the owners.

The next day we decided to visit one of the most famous monasteries in the world, the Drepung Monastery. The best, and cheapest, way to get out there is the mini-bus, so we flagged one down. We immediately noticed how packed the bus was, like most buses in China, but the Tibetans kindly made room for us. In the picture below, Kendall (who is taking the picture) is sharing the back seat of the bus with 6 or 7 people.

When the bus stopped, everyone got off and made their way up the long hill that houses the monastery on the top. There is a nice road winding up the hill, and we wondered why the bus didn't just take us there, but the walk gave us some nice surprises. At first, the monastery was just a dot on a hill, but as we got closer, we could see just how large it was. In fact, 7,000 monks used to inhabit Drepung. Here's a shot of the monastery couched between some even larger hills. We also encountered some wild life on our journey up the hill, most notably a yak! I don't know if you've ever seen a yak up close, but it doesn't look like an animal you'd like to tangle with. I got as close as I felt it would like, and then backed away as it stared me down. I can understand his nervousness; after all, since we had been in Tibet we'd tried dried Yak meat, drank Yak butter tea, bought trinkets made of Yak bone, and seen people clothed in Yak fur. There were also lots of sheep running around, and I mean a lot. Darbie's favorite one came to meet us half-way up the mountain.

The monastery is a multi-levelled beast to see in the thin air. We were even higher than Lhasa, and good breaths were hard to come by. The monastery wasn't beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, the sheep see to that. However, the history and significance of the landmark are what make it worth seeing. There are hundreds of shrines and rooms to visit, each containing images of various buddhas. The monastery charges photographers per room! Even the monks are enjoying the benefits of tourism. Thus, we don't have many pics of the shrines or temples, but really just go back to Tai'an or some other temple pics in our archive, and you can get a feel for it. Below are two pics of the monastery. The first is of a typical building in the monastery. In the second you can see just how far up we had to walk, and also how big the monastery is.

Throughout the monastery campus are prayer wheels, written mantras, and "buddhist graffitti". They often contain mantas with pictures of various Lamas or buddhas.

Here are some more sheep pictures. We're telling you these things are all over the place, doing whatever they like. There are a lot of thin alleyways in the monastery, and Darbie wasn't too pleased with what she met done one in particular.

Below is one of our favorite pictures of the entire trip.

I was a little disappointed because Tibetan monks are known for their unique debates. They challenge each other in debate, and it helps both monks to gain a better understanding of Buddhist precepts. We went to the "debating place" only to find it locked. I asked a couple of younger monks what was up only to find out that they do not debate during the New Year. Heartbroken, we made our way back down the mountain. There was another temple lower down the hill, dedicated to "the oracle." This sounded cool, but there was yet another 3 hour line to enter due to the New Year. So, we took some shots with prayer flags and hopped on a bus that was even more crowded. We would have taken a picture, but we weren't able to move. We even got some sun on our journey to the monastery.

Lhasa was a great trip, and we look forward to returning some day soon. If you're interested, be aware that not only must you have a Chinese visa, but also a Tibetan tourist permit. There are many agencies in Chengdu that can hook you up, but it takes time and planning, of course. For those of you that didn't know, you can take a train up to Lhasa. At one point it reaches the highest altitude at which a train can travel. They also provide passengers with oxygen along the way; pretty exciting, huh?

Miles Traveled: Chengdu to Lhasa - 2,042 miles
Total: 3,727 miles

DB & KM