Tibet, Lhasa, Drepung Monastery 哲蚌寺

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Photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ourgmb/LhasaDrepungTemple20070615

On June 15, it is our last day in Lhasa. As our flight to Chengdu does not leave until 5:30 pm, we have a free morning to explore.

It was raining and we wanted to go to the Drepung Monastery, up on some hill, a little bit outside of town.

The hotel staff told us that we could get a taxi for about Y15 to get there.
Unfortunately, the few taxis that we flagged down all wanted Y40 to Y70,
because "it is up on the hill".

So, we boarded a local bus to the bottom of the hill. The driver told us to take another local bus, which was waiting (but with no signage) to go up the hill, and we did.

We spent a few hours in the Monastery, which had hardly any Chinese tourists. The other tourists, very few in number when comparing to the Lhasa temples, are mostly Japanese, Koreans and European visitors. However, there are quite a few Tibetans who bring sheep oil in thermos or in a cheese-like chunk to pay respects.

Near the entrance to the monastery, we see a lot of money-changers, who would change a Y10 to one hundred 10-cents bills (yes, China still has 10 cents bills).

The monastery is a big complex, with many temples, some big and some small.
This monastery is a Tibetan Buddist temple, but conducts a different teaching than the ones in Lhasa.

There are many people begging for money. Now, the 10 cents bills become useful, although we did not know enough to change some. We gave our hotel toothbrushes/combs, etc. to a mother with three children. We did not want to give money to those men who are obviously healthy and strong and can get work to support themselves.


We were picked up by small van arranged by the tour company at 2 pm. It took over 1 hour to get from Lhasa to the airport. The Lhasa airport is pretty nice.

At check-in, we got our airline e-tickets and realized Gary's (Chinese) name was wrong.
We went to the "correction" counter, and the staff member put a rubber stamp on the e-ticket, signed some initial and that is the process to correct the name.

Our flight was (surprisingly) on time.

When we went back to Chengdu, we found out some prices have gone up (since our Tibet trip 10 days ago).

1) Our airport bus, previously Y10, is now Y12. (We realized that later Y2 was insurance, which we could have declined).
2) The massage place that we visited went from Y15 an hour to Y20.
3) The hot-pot place, which was selling fresh fish for Y6.8 is now selling it at Y8.8 per 500g.

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