Arrived in Lharong Monastery, the largest in the world. WOW, OMG!!!! A centre for Buddhist study and contemplation, 3000 monks and 8,000 nuns study here.
The monastery operates on the Buddhist Rime principle – all sects accepted and considered equal and important. Open mindedness and debate are the order of the day.
The Chinese bulldozed monk and nun homes outside a prescribed boundary, limiting monastery size but it is still the largest in the world. The height and land area of construction work has been limited by the Chinese (more control measures!)
Unfortunately, community sanitation is desperate. Communal drop pits and the side of foot paths are used. The local Doctor paid to set herself up – she has a surgery but no running water!!! Again an interesting thought – the Chinese control and proscribe but don’t seem to be managing the most essential of human needs – good sanitation. Wonder why?
One of my favourite topics is road quality. Anything I had seen up to this point paled into insignificance! OMG!! At home 95% of the road would be 4WD only and 75% of it closed as unsafe. Yet here in Tibet the local cars, buses, motorbikes etc pass up and down constantly! It was such an interesting contrast to the impressive tunnel region engineering that one had to wonder what it was all about!
The highlight of the day’s driving was finding a traditional nomadic family living in a yak hair tent. Each panel takes many years to weave – incredible workmanship! We stopped for tea – with yak milk – and despite trepidation, it wasn’t bad! Certainly didn’t fit in the ‘rancid and hairy’ bracket I was warned about. 🙂
The Annual conference of Buddhist monks was held in Chutung Monastery, not far from Dzamthang. It was seen as a photo opportunity too good to miss.
On arrival we were greeted by the sight of a thousand burgundy robed monks spread out across the fields, debating, listening, chatting, learning, eating and networking. Delegates badges, bags etc made the conference genre clear.
As we arrived they were breaking up for lunch of noodles, bread, fun and laughter. We were the oddity again. The source of great hilarity and interest.
We were taken into the conference dignitaries’ eating area and offered bread and given gifts – clock, blessing scarf, scroll of a Tibetan deity, note book and pen.
As we went out to photograph the monastery, we found ourselves on a fast exit!! Unfortunately we walked out at the exact time an important Chinese official (unbeknown to our hosts) was due. We found ourselves face to face with a Chinese official vehicle – with the 2 officials doing pre-safety check before the dignitary arrived.
We had planned to go the next day but left then!!!! Passports were checked and details laboriously recorded. We were told it was for our safety and that we could visit the monastery without taking photos. There were more delays, phone calls and debates and finally we were taken back out of the TAR to check in at the ‘Exit/Entry Administration Service Centre, public Security Bureau of Rang Tang County’.
We were supposed to collect our bags on the way, but our zealous non-English speaking police officer drove us straight over the pass to the required check in. After a long, anxious wait in the Security Bureau our gear turned up and we were checked into a hotel.
We learned that the conference is usually 2 weeks long, but that the Chinese had limited the numbers to 1000 and the length to a week. More control!!
AMAZING – what else can one say, simply glorious.
We were afforded a private tour and free access for photography and video. We started in the main prayer area – SO beautiful!!! Under restoration and being carefully repainted and repaired, we explored the 5 levels around the gorgeous central Buddha.
Then we were escorted to see the records area, the hand made wooden print stencils, the 14th Lama King’s resting place, the storage area for statues representing the 8 Buddhist traditions and the views from the rooftop.
An AMAZING experience!!! A photographer’s dream. Here are just 15 of hundreds and hundreds of photos!!!!
We arrived in Dzamthang Village (may have another name, but is the village attached to Dzamthang Monastery) late in the day.
The annual Buddhist Monks Conference was occurring in the region and there was a heightened police presence and wariness about how our presence might be received. In order to be low profile we spent our first day in the village and climbed a ‘small hill’ behind the village with a picnic lunch. This hill of about 2000m jutted above the village (already at 3,500m!). It was interesting climbing at altitude. The eldest daughter, Shuklah, and a beautiful nun carried our lunch and gear up. We breathlessly managed to just get ourselves up there!!
Again we found that there was no Internet access at all. Lots of Tibetans have iPhones, but no access to anything on-line. Chinese control of the Internet had been obvious since landing in Chengdu – no FaceBook, Twitter, Google, Wikipedia, Linked-In … etc. The absolute control in this region was marked!
The village itself was gorgeous. Yaks, cows, dogs everywhere! The buildings opened to lovely homes and glorious temples. Unfortunately the family was reduced to using the communal drop pit toilet (and of course, so were we!) We later discovered that there was a typical Chinese style bathroom in the house but it leaked and they had been unable to get it repaired for months. No plumber would come. Interestingly the usual ‘Chinese efficiency’ seemed to be selectively applied – their police station and accommodation was the best in town!
Our beautiful host family were very upset by police intimidation and indoctrination processes. We certainly saw people look out of their doors before going out. The Tibetan children were attending the Chinese school (from 8am to 6pm daily, 6 days a week plus at least an hour of homework every day). The kids are getting a very traditional Chinese education, in Chinese. Tibetans are concerned about when the children will learn their own language and culture.
There were Chinese flags everywhere, including on the Monastery and school.
The oldest lady in the house explained some of the challenges they faced. For example villagers were told that they would be paid for extending their houses. Chinese labourers arrived to help and did very shoddy work. Tibetans have had to remove walls, leave houses etc. undertaken in this scheme. Our hosts have had to take down an unsafe wall (this explained the piles of rubble around the boundary of the property). Others were moved into the new homes that were then declared unsafe. We certainly saw piles of stone everywhere and deserted houses all over the place. The Tibetans weren’t reimbursed for work done/paid for as they had been promised.
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