Day 3, Tibet

Another day of visiting monasteries.  As usual, they aren't on the flatlands, they're up a hill. More and more stairs.  And more stairs.

 

Today we visited the Drepung Monastery which was once one of the world's largest monasteries with around 7000 resident monks. It is the largest in Tibet, and it had 10,000 monks resident at one time. The kitchen looks like it could barely feed 1000, but then monks aren't supposed to eat much. Tibetan monks on average look healthier and fatter than monks in Laos or Cambodia. This is a result of Tibet monasteries being major Buddhist pilgrimage locations. Some pilgrims actually crawl 1000's of kilometers, and I mean crawl, to get here. Nirvana is a serious business.

 

It was the home of the Dalai Lamas and the power center of Tibet until the 5th Dalai Lama built the Potala Palace. This was another long climb up the hill with beautiful views of the valley. It was like a maze inside and I kept following signs that said "This way" and ended up getting lost. I finally found Gil and we walked down the road that ran along side the monastery until we reached the bottom of the hill.

 

As we pass through the monasteries, we are constantly overrun by thousands of Buddhist worshipers whose main occupation is genuflecting to the statues, pouring oil on perpetual candles, and dropping paper money in front of every Buddha and other religious statue. Common offering is the equivalent of about 1.5 cents. There's a bustling exchange marked where you exchange a 15 cent note for 10 1.5 cent notes.  These notes are actually cheaper than toilet paper, and they are literally all over the place. On statues, on shelves, on the floor, on lamps -- just about anywhere you can jam a small piece of paper.  In addition there are offerings of fruit, used juice boxes, rice, and just about anything you can carry conveniently in your hand.

 

The kids run around with wads of the notes and especially love to push them into the offering box slots.

 

We were supposed to walk down the hill to the next monastery, but we opted to drive instead. This was the Nechung Monastery, which held the State Oracle until 1959. This is where the Dalai Lama went to gain insight before making any decision.

 

On the way out we watched an open air debate on Buddhism between monk novices and Mo bought a couple of flying saucers.

 

This evening, Augie and I rode a rick shaw down to see the Potala Palace at night. The square was full of Chinese tourists taking pictures, and as usual, they wanted pictures of them with Augie, who looks like Gengas Khan.  We decided to walk back to the hotel, as it was not as cold as I first thought, and it was only about a 15 minute walk.