Yesterday was absolutely wonderful, I had the most amazing time. It started at a pretty horrendous hour though, had to wake up at 5.30am to catch a 6am bus to the Ganden Monastery. This is apparently THE monastery to visit if you don't visit any others, came very highly recommended. Reading from the Tibet guide though, the elevation was set at 4500m, about 1000m higher than the city of Lhasa. Due to AMS (altitude sickness) it's not a good idea to ascend to high areas unless you have been in Lhasa for a week. We had been in Lhasa for about 3 days. Fiona had second thoughts the night before about going since she is suffering from headaches, so yesterday morning she decided not to go. That left me, Tom and Mark. So at about 5.45am, Tom and I stumbled out blindly in the rain, through the maze of Tibetan streets to get to the bus stop on Barkor Square. Somehow we made it through the quirky turns without getting lost and arrived to a packed bus full of locals. Mark ended up oversleeping so he didn't make it.
The bus ride was completely crammed! I mean, no available space was left unused - the backseat alone accommodated 8 ppl! The aisle was filled with ppl sitting on small plastic stools. I proceeded to sleep for most of the way, it was freezing and still dark outside. I woke up to a chorus of "woahhh's", i guess the universal sound of awe. I looked out as the sun was rising out from the clouds, the bus was making its way up a long serpentine road to the monastery perched near the top of the mountain. Down below were a patchwork of fields, with this one long road meandering up the mountain. The clouds were hung low due to our altitude, the mountains looked so close. It really merited a few "woahhhs"!!
I could see Ganden Monastery at the top of the mountain, it was beautiful, the monastic complex sprawled the height and breadth of the top of the mountain with the main chapel in the centre. The monastery was the most ravaged during the Chinese cultural revolution, some of the buildings were ruined and rundown, the central area had been patched up.
We got some beautiful views down to the bottom of the mountain after arriving at 8am. There were only about 3 other tourists, the rest of the ppl visiting were pilgrims. Tom and I started exploring the complex starting with the centre. We walked around randomly, taking any stairs and ladders we could find, going into doorways that were open. Consequently we found lots of little cosy chapels, somehow stumbled onto a room that may or may not have been the toilet. I really hope it was but had my reservations as I did my business down the hole through the floor and found it all falling into another room....
The monks went about their business in the monasteries, they recited the sutras and we were able to see them practising without any pretense or pomp. It was a serene experience with the added excitement of finding different areas as we randomly climbed stairs and ladders that led us deeper into the complex.
By about 11am it started raining in earnest and I was frozen to the bone. We climbed onto a roof of one building and saw that on the roof of the next building there was a small shelter area where monks were tending to 3 boiling cauldrons. We were careful not to disturb the monks but in our wet, bedraggled state, we found ourselves crossing into the next building and climbing up a ladder to the roof to see if we could go under their shelter for a bit. The monks were so welcoming though and served us unending cups of yak butter tea. It was the most amazing experience thus far in Tibet, sitting with the monks, while it rained buckets all around us, trying to gulp down tea that tasted exactly like water with melted butter. Definitely an acquired taste that after countless cups, I still had not acquired. Different streams of monk kept coming up, most probably for the entertainment value of a couple of foreigners trying to communicate without a common language. The monks were wonderful, so friendly. We sat with them for over an hour as the rain poured around us, trying to make conversation, we tried to teach them english, they tried to teach us tibetan. About midday we saw that the rain had let up and we didn't want to disturb them any further from their daily duties, so we left and explored further up the monastery.
We wandered to the top areas, probably further than the normal tourist route. One of the monks directed us up some stairs and we found that it was another living area of the monks. We stopped at some windowsills and decided to have a snack when suddenly a voice high above our heads called out in greeting. It was a boy, probably about 14 or 15, he invited the 2 of us up to rest in the chapel he was looking after. So up we went and found ourselves in a chapel and this bright smiling Tibetan boy greeting us in Chinese. I was able to communicate with him for a bit and we shared our food with him. It was nice to find out about the daily lives of these monks, this boy called himself a "little lama" he had only lived in the monastery for a year. He had a thick stack of sutras that he was studying from while he looked after the little chapel. This was the only chapel we were able to take photos freely as all the chapels discouraged photo taking. It was a great place to rest for a bit as we waited for the bus to take us back to the city. I mentioned to our little friend that we wanted to hike up to the mountains to see the views and he offered to take us up there since he knew the area well. So we were taken around the back of the mountain to some more awe-inspiring views. By this time we were all getting along really well and during a really touching moment, our little friend said he would like to be our little brother, so I would be his big sister and Tom his big brother. That was so sweet! He even gave me his address so that we can continue communicating. He walked us all the way back down to the bus stop, on the way, we heard a shout from the roof of one of the buildings. It was the monks that we had yak tea with, they were waving good-bye to us.
On our bus ride back to the city, we had lots of fun with the locals since we were sitting near the back. Some of the older people were shy but the young ones were cute, constantly smiling. We played about with our cameras, even the adults getting into the spirit and having their pictures taken. It was great, they also looked out for us when the bus stopped for another monastery, made sure we got back to the bus at the right time.
The entire day was absolutely brilliant.
So tomorrow we are doing the 9 day landcruiser trip, visiting all the main areas and going all the way to the EBC. It's a little daunting since we will be on the road for a while, I'm sure we will be quite stinky by the time we get back but if Lhasa is anything to go by, I think this will be a fun experience. I probably won't be online til we get back, so in the meantime, take care.
5.02pm Tuesday 17 Aug, 2004
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