Snooping around the Dalai Lamas house

Thanks to the incredibly strict regulations of the Chinese government, the only way we could visit Tibet was by a guided tour. Today was day 1 of the 3 day tour and we would get to see two major attractions: Potala Palace, the home of the Dalai Lama, and Sera Monastery, hang-out of lots of monks.

Potala Palace is an impressive 1000-room white and red building built on the side of one of the mountains in the middle of Lhasa. I think after the great wall, its the next most recognised image of China. The day started up with a very tiring walk up at least 10000 steps (or it seemed like that anyway because we had mountain sickness - okay we were just unfit).

We first wandered through the personal chambers of the Dalai Lama which was interesting for about the first 3 rooms. After that they all started to look the same. However, our guide kept it interesting by interspersing the numerous rooms with lots of interesting tidbits about Buddhism, the history of Tibet and in particular indepth details of the every single Dalai Lama that ever lived as well as every Panchen Lama.

The history of Tibet is actually quite interesting. Apparently in the 7th century, the king of Tibet invited some Indian sages to teach Tibet about Buddhism. Since then Buddhism has been the major religion but has undergone a number of changes through the formation of various sects. However, in the 1400s the major Gelupa (yellow hat) sect was formed and became the dominant form of Buddhism.

All the while, numerous external forces kept interfering in Tibetan affairs, such as marauding Mongols and the nearby Chinese emperors. Thus many times, the power was taken from the Dalai Lamas only to be regained a century later by the intervention of another external force that supported Tibet. Its infact the same story that has been repeated over and over again in Tibet - the constant oppression of outsiders restricting their people.

We also got to learn a lot of various aspects of Buddhism. Its actually really complicated - there are a gazillion different Buddhas and deities all representing different stuff. Also, every second person seems to be a reincarnation of another person. The best part though is trying to remember all their names, because to us they all kind of sound the same (eg. tsong kanbah, panchen lama, mutriya).

Anyway, back to Potala. We got to see heaps of different chapels and to watch pilgrims making offerings of yak buttermilk lamps.

After Potala, we were taken to a ridiculously expensive restaurant. Thus we restricted ourselves to the cheapest items on the menu which turned out to be really tasty. In particular, we had deep friend momos (fried dumplings stuffed with yak meat) which were delicious.

After lunch we headed over to Sera monastery. The first half of the tour was just more chapels and more buddha statues but once again kept interesting by more tales about Buddhism and Tibet. I'm sure we'll be knowledgable scholars about this stuff by the end of 3 days.

After wandering through the monasteries we were taken to a big courtyard to watch the monks debate. Apparently they meet everyday at 3:30pm to debate philosophy. We were expecting some kind of orderly, reverent discussion. It seemed like that at the start anyway.

The courtyard was full of monks sitting silently cross-legged awaiting the arrival of somebody I guess. But then all of a sudden, they all paired off and started screeching, yelling, stomping and making punching and clapping motions. It was weird, like they had suddenly been possessed or something.

Our guide explained that debating worked as such. Monks pair off. One monk sits on the floor and asks the other monk a difficult question such as 'Why does a woodchuck chuck wood'. The other monk then attempts to answer the question simultaneously clapping and then making a punching motion to simulate cutting or destroying ignorance. Just weird!!

The funniest part was that we spied one monk SMSsing on his mobile in the midst of all this. I pulled out the camera and tried to film him, but I think he saw me because he immediately pulled his robe over his head. A bit later, a few other monks gathered around, and the first monk pulled out another 2 mobiles and they huddled together like giggling girls. We suspect he was either running a mobile phone trading business or they were SMSsing their girlfriends. Honestly, you don't expect this kind of behaviour from devout monks who devote their whole lives to chanting and reciting scriptures.

That night we retreated to the hotel and watched Chinese TV. Its actually quite fun making up what people are saying when you don't understand the language. We figure that we watched a movie about a lady who fell in love with a man with a mental son who enjoyed whacking the ground with a stick all day. When the local town discovered that her son-to-be enjoyed beating the ground, they tried to evict her, but then they discovered that she was bald and they hated bald people even more than mental people so they sent the whole family packing on the horse cart into the mountains. Here they met a man who sang silly songs all day while hitting the ground with a stick. The mental son hit it off with the silly song man and they all lived happily ever after.

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