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SICHUAN, CHINA - (May 2007)
Thurs 24th - Fri 25th May - (Kangding) One of the reasons for coming to Chengdu again on this trip was to use Chengdu as a gateway to travel to the remote parts of Sichuan province near the Tibetan '
Autonomous' region border area. Large areas of western and northern Sichuan and nearby Gansu province are largely populated by Tibetans and have been out of bounds for most foreigners until fairly recently.
As a consequence these areas have reportedly retained a more 'traditional' Tibetan culture than you would experience in Tibet itself due to the lack of the tourist industry that accompanies central Tibet and Lhasa,
However, having now been to both areas myself, I'm not too sure this is entirely correct. However that said, it has been 11 years since I went to the Tibetan 'Autonomous' region, a time when there were far less tourists than now and I'm sure Lhasa as changed a lot in that time. With the new railway line recently opened to Lhasa, literally everyone I met in Chengdu seemed to be going to Tibet so the decline in traditional Tibetan culture in central Tibet itself is probably
only going to hasten.
On this trip my original plan was to go north from Chengdu to a place called Songpan, where the thing to do is supposedly go on a horse trek, before then heading further north to Gansu province to the Tibetan monastery towns of Langmusi and Xiahe. When I last came to China this route was extremely difficult to undertake. However, with the passing of time the roads have got better and travelling restrictions less severe so it is now possible to do this trip relatively easily.
However, to my dismay when I was in Chengdu every westerner I met seemed to be going to Songpan - I had visions of 500 western backpackers setting off from Songpan, all at the same time, all doing the same horse trek!
So it was time to think again. A read of the Lonely Planet revealed another possible route which would be less touristy. A route which the book named '
The Road Less Travelled' which took you along the Sichuan-Tibet highway which travels west from Chengdu before splitting into a northern route (which is the route I was to take) and a southern route just to the
west of a place called Kangding.
The LP describes the road as
'one of the world's most, highest, roughest, most dangerous and most beautiful roads'. This may be another case of LP poetic license, but the next 10 days were certainly full of fantastic scenery! 11 years ago the road was most definitely off limits to foreigners and large parts of the surrounding area have apparently only been open to foreigners since 1999. However, it is now relatively easy to travel along, albeit very time consuming and hence there are still not many foreigners who travel along the route.
First stop on my trip was to be to a place called Kangding, an 8 hour bus journey from Chengdu. It was therefore another early start from Mix hostel in Chengdu to get to the bus station for 8am and to buy a ticket for the bus that left at 8:30.
At the bus station I met a Korean guy called Hee who was catching the same bus to Kangding. After some discussion on which route we were both taking, Hee was to become my travelling companion for the next 3 weeks.
The bus journey was fairly
uneventful, initially passing through typical Chinese countryside consisting of rice paddy fields before climbing up the foothills of mountains towards the end of the journey.
Kangding is a fairly large town situated in a valley at an elevation of 2600m with the towering peak of Gongga Shann at 7556m forming the backdrop to the town. At one time (dates unknown to me) Kangding was apparently the historical capital of the local Tibetan Kingdom of Chakla. The LP states that
'arriving in Kangding, there is a tangible sense that you've reached the end of the Chinese world and the beginning of the Tibetan'. This, for once, is perhaps a fitting description of the town with Tibetans in traditional dress being in evidence in the streets in equal measure with Chinese.
Unfortunately however, the town's architecture has a definite Chinese feel to it with drab white tiled buildings dominating the town although several 'working' Tibetan monasteries are still located in and around the town.
We arrived in Kangding in the middle of the afternoon and after a bit of a search and walk, located the Black Tent Guesthouse which is located right next door to a small monastery and
which is run by Tibetans. Hee and myself managed to check into a beautiful twin room which was laid out in traditional Tibetan style.
That afternoon I also had my first taste of Yak butter tea on this trip. As I recall, on my last trip to Tibet I got quite a liking for butter tea but after tasting it this time, I don’t know how! Perhaps it is just my selective fond memories of my past trip to Tibet getting the better of me, but this time, the tea definately didn't go down too well, in fact it was horrible!
It also didn't take long to get talking to some Tibetans who then proceeded to tell us of their dislike for the Chinese, saying that the Chinese had, and did, nothing for the Tibetan people and that the Chinese just viewed the Tibetans as good for tourism and
‘singing and dancing’! Throughout this part of the trip, we were occasionally asked about the Dali Lhama and whether we had pictures of him. His image and even mention of him is absolutely banned in China and anyone with a photo is usually put in prison!
Even though
this part of China is predominantly Tibetan, if Tibet were ever to get some form of independence (which is unfortunately never going to happen - even the Dali Lhama has given up on that idea and now only asks for 'true' autonomy), this part of Tibet would still remain part of China as it is designated as part of Sichuan province.
Unknown to us, we had arrived in Kangding on the Tibetan Buddha's birthday. (I'm not sure whether the Buddha's birthday is celebrated on different days elsewhere in the Buddhist world, or whether it is the same day?) Although we had missed a lot of the festivities such as horse riding, archery and singing and dancing, we were told that there would be
'some monks dancing' in a nearby monastery the next day.
The next day we duly arrived at the said monastery to watch the
'dancing monks'. The next few hours were just a fantastic pleasure to watch. The monastery's court yard was full to bursting with Tibetans, some of whom were dressed up in their finest clothes, together with the odd westerner.
At the given time, the monks proceeded to exit the monastery and circle
the courtyard to the sound of horns, drums and cymbals being played (not very melodic to the western ear but very atmospheric and Tibetan nevertheless) with a few of the more religious Tibetans prostrating themselves in front of the monks.
For the next few hours a series of monks dressed in different costumes came out of the monastery and into the courtyard to undertake some form of 'ritual dance' all to the sound of horns and cymbals. I've no idea what the storyline was, or what the significance of it all was, but it was just a fantastic spectacle to see.
Although the festival was still going strong, we only stayed for around 3 hours before leaving to see more of the town and surrounding countryside. I'm not sure when the festival ended - some people said it went on for another 2 hours, some others that it went on all day, but even though we only saw a few hours, it was a truly memorable day!
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