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Published: July 11th 2010
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Mosque in Lhasa
There is a small Muslim population in Lhasa. I wasn't meeting Pussang until 10:00, so I told him to pick me up at Summit Cafe. Of course, he was early and I wasn't finished with my cinnamon roll and coffee. We chatted for a while, then went to visit two monasteries here in Lhasa. They were small, but busy. One has about 25 monks in residence, the other I don't remember. They were both free to enter, but of course, I could not enter without a guide lest I try to stir up trouble among the monks by spouting off about my liberal views on freedom and basic human rights. So Pussang explained what the icons stood for and patiently answered my questions. I looked around at all of the money stuffed into every nook and cranny and watched people pour copious amounts of yak butter into the urns. It seems to burn longer and better than any wax or oil, by the way.
Afterwards, we had about 3 hours to kill before visiting Sera Monastery which is 5km north of downtown. I'm not sure why we had such an early start if we weren't going to Sera until 3:00. Anyway, we went to a local hangout where
Pussang meets up with his guide buddies to smoke and drink sweet mild tea and taxi drivers who finished their night shifts come to play cards. We stayed over an hour and I drank milk tea (which I like) and talked to the guides a bit. They all speak English. I watched the taxi drivers play cards and then go home to sleep. A huge thermos of milk tea is 4 yuan and a bowl of spicy noodles is only 3 yuan. This place was quite lively and I was not bored, but Pussang thought I was, so we left at 12:30 to go to Sera.
Sera monastery is famous for its afternoon debates among the monks. The debates start at 3:00, but we were there too early. Pussang said he asked a monk if they were debating today and the monk said no. I think he might have been lying just so I wouldn't be disappointed that we were there too early. Frankly, I didn't care. I think it would have been interesting to watch, but I am tired and just want to go home, so my attitude is not right to enjoy the debates, especially when they
Pussang
My guide in front of one of the smaller monasteries in Lhasa are in Tibetian and I would understand nothing. I know what would happen. I would be surrounded by, yes, Chinese tour groups, who annoy the crap out me, and I would have been elbowing people just to keep my place. As it was, we were there early and there were few tourists and a few pilgrims. It was interesting to see anyway, and on the way back down the hill I spotted something I hadn't seen in all of the made-in-China souvenirs in Lhasa. I spotted Tibetian incense burners. Beautiful. I needed one like I need a third eye, but I bought one anyway. They are not small, so I will have to heft it back on the plane, but it makes me happy to look at it. That alone was worth a trip to Sera Monastery.
Afterwards the driver and Pussang were free to go and I went to Summit to update my blog, and then I walked back to my hotel. I couldn't be bothered to eat dinner alone. It was only 6:00, but I was done for the day.
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