22nd July 2009
XIAHE LABRANG MONASTERY
I am currently surviving on 5 hours sleep a night despite popping beta blockers and valium. Beginning to feel a little bit crazy. We spent the evening going through Lizzie’s terribly packed backpack, which contains almost everything one could ever want for a year’s trip. In order to prevent the necessity for physio when she returns home, we decided to conduct a condensing exercise.
The backpack contained such items as: San Tropez fake tan, a full size body brush, 3 bikinis and 4pairs of shoes! I think she thought we might be going somewhere more exciting than China? We drifted off to sleep watching The Secret Life of Bees on my laptop. Alicia Keyes was in it, surprisingly.
We intended to get up early enough for the guided tour of Labrang Monastery at 10.30am but failed. What nobody mentioned previously was that there was another tour at 3.15pm! This was much better.
We spent the morning wandering around the outer areas of Labrang Monastery, unguided, watching the locals turn the large prayer wheels that are mounted along the perimeter wall of the Monastery. Everyone walked in an orderly line, turning the huge wheels and chanting or singing to themselves. We spent the rest of the morning mosying around the town, buying numerous umbrellas and other delights such as galaxy!
The locally run shops sold everything from jewellery and skinned animals to converse trainers and washing up bowls. What more could you need? Of course, being the tourists that we are, we bought some traditional Tibetan souvenirs.
Startlingly, in one of the shops there was a real live snake slithering around on the counter. The shop owner thrust the creature in our faces and laughed as we recoiled. I held it for a photo and it was quite nice. Curious behaviour, these Tibetans.
I don’t think we are quite ‘with it’ yet – travelling wise – nor are we in the right time zone. The weather is freezing and I can’t believe in 2 days time we are going to be sleeping outside in 0 degree temperature with the nomads! We could barely sleep in our room last night because it was so cold!
At 3.15pm we headed off for the tour of the Monastery led by an English speaking monk. We met a guy called Marcus from Sweden, who joined us on our tour. Our tour totalled just the 3 of us. The Chinese tour had about 4,000 visitors, with their massive cameras and constant chatter, so we considered ourselves pretty fortunate.
The monastery used to house about 4,000 monks, but after the Cultural Revolution there are now only around 1,000. They were ruthlessly killed by the Chinese upon occupation.
We were shown around all the private temples that are usually closed to the public and told all about Buddhism and the different sects throughout Tibet. They were quite forthright and adamant in stating they were NOT Chinese. Fair enough I say, after all they have been through.
Labrang Monastery was built in 1709 and consists of 6 main halls where the monks study scriptures, maths, astronomy, medicine and geography, among other things. The main hall is called the Grand Sutra Hall and can physically hold up to 4,000 monks – built for their requirement at the time. It was pretty impressive but you are not permitted to take photos inside, so I had to do some crafty covert ones – as I couldn’t let it go undocumented.
After the Monastery tour, we went for some food with our new friend Marcus. We sat amongst a building site while they freely welded and sawed up metal around us, completely devoid of any concept of safety, as usual. Sparks flying in to my Chinese quesadilla and Lizzie’s pizza. Still, it tasted good.
After dinner I taught Lizzie and Marcus how to play Shithead. We listened to Michael Jackson through my laptop speakers in the hotel bar, to the amusement and curiosity of the staff and locals. Beginners luck; Lizzie won! Tomorrow we head for Langmusi at 7.45am by bus. Another early morning. Hoping for a good night sleep.
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