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Published: November 4th 2008
The weather cleared up a bit today, and we began our two and half hour long drive to Drigung Till (Thel) Monastery and Drigung Terdrom (Tidrum) Nunnery. I think the ride itself may have been a cooler experience than the actual places we were going - not to say the places we went were boring in any way, they were absolutely amazing. Snowfall from the night before left many of the mountains and valleys a majestic white. The snow covered and ice laden roads did not seem to stop our driver from speeding and plowing through the narrow one lane road that happens to be a major highway. Luckily we only slid off the road once and no critical damage was done. Also, about halfway to the monastery the back seat in the van collapsed, so we took a nice break by a river valley and had a snow fight.
After fixing the seat and a good half hour of snowball fights we made our way to Dregung Till Monastery. The uphill road to the monastery was blocked off by a truck carrying timber that lost traction due to snow and rice. We had to walk up the long
uphill road for about half an hour. This was a major feat, and workout, considering we were at an altitude of about 4500m. The Monastery was built in 1179 and at one point in time used to house 180,000 monks. It is situated on the side of a mountain - very cool. You can stay there overnight if you wish at one of the guesthouses. It was destroyed at least once before (cough…Cultural Revolution…cough), but has been rebuilt. Above the main temple at the monastery is a place where sky burials take place. For those of you that don’t know what that is, lets just say there were hundred of vultures constantly flying overhead at the monastery (they chop you up when you die and vultures eat your flesh and take you to heaven). The next stop on the journey was to Drigung Terdrom Nunnery, or Tidrum Nunnery. The nunnery was relatively close and we ate lunch once we arrived there. It is wedged in between some precipitous mountains and centered about a cool flowing stream. Prayer flags hung from cliff sides everywhere. A special feature of the nunnery is the hot spring, said to be one of the best
in Tibet. The nunnery was also destroyed at one point in time (cough…Cultural Revolution…cough), and has been rebuilt. Hearing the nuns pray in comparison to the monks was very interesting. The nuns’ praying sounds more like singing as opposed to a deep voiced chanting.
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Kay
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Lost Horizon
John, It reminds me of Lost Horizon. Have you found Shangri-La yet? How Incredibly Beautiful!