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Monk's boots
Monk's boots taken off before entering the temple for prayer GANSU, CHINA - (June 2007)
Thurs 31st May - Tues 5th June - (Dege to Ganzi) The next place Hee and myself wanted to go to after Dege was to the Tibetan monastery town of Xiaha in Gansu province which is several days travelling from Dege with not much of interest to stop and see along the way.
After discussions with people in the bus station (Thankfully Hee did all the discussions as he can speak a bit of Chinese and I can't!) we were told that the best route would be to go back south to Ganzi before heading north to Yushu, and then east to Xining and then onward to Xiaha.
The first stage of the journey back to Ganzi was reasonably straight forward except that it started to snow when the bus was going over the Tro La pass (approx 5000m). Quite heavily as well, which unfortunately meant that we didn't stop this time at the top of the pass but carried on straight over through to Manigango where we unfortunately had to stop one more time, fortunately only for lunch, before proceeding back down to Ganzi. The journey from Manigango to Ganzi was uneventful
and we arrived in Ganzi mid to late afternoon where we checked into the same Tibetan Guesthouse where we had previously stayed.
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(Ganzi/ Yushu/ Xining to Xiahe) -
The next day we caught the early morning bus to Yushu which was to take around 12 hours. The scenery was again spectacular and during the journey everyone on the bus was entertained by two very large Tibetan men who for most of the journey were singing Tibetian folk songs very loudly albeit with quite good voices. Apart from the singing, the journey was eventfully only for the fact that towards the end of the journey one of the bus tires exploded very loudly, at which point the Tibetans must have thought it was a bomb or something judging by the mad rush to get off the bus - no thoughts of women and children first here!!
Also Hee and myself nearly got left behind because we'd gone for some noodles during the tire changing stop. Unknown to us eating our noodles, the bus started to depart without us. However, we noticed before the bus got too far and we had to rush out of the café and run
down the street eventually catching up with the bus before it got up to full speed and left town!
There's not much to say about Yushu except that it’s a transport hub for getting in and out of north western Sichuan province and that the ethnic make up of the town was no longer predominantly Tibetan, but Chinese, with the beginnings of a Chinese Muslim influence.
After an uneventful night in Yushu it was up early again to try and find the bus station to catch the sleeper bus to Xining. The previous day, the bus had dropped us off in the middle of town and not at the bus station so we had no idea where we needed to catch the bus to Xining from. For the life of us we could not find out from anyone where the bus station was. Some people said there was wasn't a bus station and that we should wait by the side of the road for our onward bus while others vaguely waved us in some direction.
Surely with Yushu being a sizable town, there must be a bus station of some description somewhere in the town? After an
hour looking, we stumbled across what turned out to be an Estate Agents but which nevertheless had Chinese words on the wall with what looked like times next to them. With my 'none' existent Chinese, I thought these might be bus times and I walked in. (I must point out that whilst travelling with Hee who can speak good Chinese and read it (he says he can't and can only speak a little bit, but he knows enough to get by and is able to 'flirt' with the Chinese girls!), I've become a terrible traveller and have made no effort to learn Chinese, leaving it up to Hee to order our food and to sort out our hotels and travel tickets etc).
However, whilst we hadn’t entered a bus ticket office, the girl behind the counter ordered a taxi and very kindly came with us to the bus station and helped us get our bus tickets while leaving the Estate Agent’s office completely empty for 30 minutes. The property trade in Yushu mustn't be very brisk at the moment!
A few hours later we were on a sleeper bus heading to Xining which was to take around 16 hours
with the bus arriving at 6am in the morning. Again, with nothing to keep us occupied in Xining, we sought out the bus to Xiaha (or should I say Hee did) which left a few hours later and took around 4 hours.
Although the bus was full when we set of from Xining, the bus still kept on stopping and picking people up. Little plastic stools were brought out for people to sit on and positioned in the isle. I ended up sat next to a Tibetan woman who had two children on her knee (one of which had her head out of the window most of the time throwing up) and another Tibetan girl who was sitting in the isle next to me and who rested her head on my knee for the majority of the journey and fell a sleep, except for the times when she was also throwing up into a paper bag!
In this part of the world, on every single bus journey there always seems to be people throwing up. Although the roads can be bumpy and you are travelling at a high altitude, I got the impression that some of the Tibetans
very rarely get the opportunity, or have the need, to travel by bus and hence suffer more than most from motion sickness.
- (Xiaha) - We arrived in Xiaha around mid day and quickly found the guesthouse as recommended in the LP. Although located in Gansu province, Xiaha is the leading Tibetan monastery town outside Lhasa and many Tibetans come here on pilgrimage to visit the Labrang Monastery which is one of the six major Tibetan monasteries of the Gelugpa order (the 'Yellow Hat' sect of Tibetan Buddhism which is lead by the Dali Lhama). In fact, although outside the modern Chinese drawn boundaries of modern day Tibet, two Dali Lhama's have been 'reincarnated' in Gansu province, including the present one.
According to the book, the Labrang monastery was founded in 1709 by E'angzongzghe, the first generation Jiamuyang (Living Buddha), and was once home to nearly 4000 monks. However, the complex was partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution during which the number of monks was greatly reduced. Although the number of monks is again growing, according to LP there are still only around 1200 monks in residence in the complex at present.
The monastery complex is huge
and consists of numerous different temple buildings which are apparently home to six 'colleges' or institutes: the institute of Esoteric Buddhism (not sure what that is?); the Higher and Lower Institutes of Theology; the Institute of Medicine; the Institute of Law; and the Institute of Astrology.
Around the monastery complex walls are over 1000 prayer wheels which the devoted walk around turning every single wheel, while the especially devout prostrate themselves around.
Unfortunately, the only way to see the main temples is to go on a tour and photographs inside the majority of the temples are forbidden. However, fortunately there is a tour in English taken by a monk which turned out to be very good. While we were being taken around, it seemed to be prayer time and a lot of the temples resonated to the sound of the strange monotone prayer chanting that Tibetan Buddhist do. We also went into a temple which contained various ornately made sculptures made out of Yaks butter, which is a Tibetan Buddhist specialty.
After two days in Xiaha, it was unfortunately time to move on, out of the Tibetan areas of China and into the desert areas which I
was hoping would be as equally interesting as the past couple of weeks.
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