Wow look at all the Yaks

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Day 4 in Tibet and it was another day of monasteries. However, this time, we were going to visit a really remote monastery, so the highlight was the views and spectacular scenery.

We had to travel for about 2 hours to get to Ganden Monastery, which is located at the very top of a big mountain. On the way we saw some awesome sights, like a lake that was so still and so crystal clear that you could see a perfect reflection of the adjacent mountain. We also got to see farmers ploughing their fields with yaks. Yaks are really weird looking - kind of like bushy cows.

On the way up the mountain to Ganden Monastery, we got to get even closer to the yaks. These yaks were all decorated, some sporting thread earings, others with knitted multicoloured headpieces. They were really cute but its odd thinking that people go to so much effort to decorate their cattle. We also got to see a hairy pig - a mountain pig I guess.

Ganden Monastery was beautiful. Its the most significant and oldest monastery in all of Tibet for the dominant strain of Buddhism, the Gelupa strain. It was here that the founder of the Gelupa sect, Tsong Kahbah, actually lived, so the monastery was full of images of the guy.

After the customary tour of all the chapels looking at way too many buddhist statues, we got to wander up to the very peak of the mountain. On the way, we saw vultures soaring in the sky and were told that this signified that there was a Tibetan sky burial happening nearby.

Sky burial is the way people are buried in Tibet. The body of the deceased is first chopped into lots of little chunks and then taken up to the top of a designated mountain. Vultures are then allowed to peck the body clean. Any remenants are then cremated. Its kind of gross, isn't it. But at least its environmentally friendly I guess.

At the very peak of the mountain we got some amazing views of the adjacent mountains and valleys. In Tibet, pilgrims climb to the top of mountains and put out long chains of prayer flags - colourful pieces of cloth with buddhist mantras written on them. Thus when you look at mountains here, you don't only see rocks and stuff, but you get this whole gamut of colour strewn across the mountainside. It was so peaceful just looking out over the valley and even more peaceful looking at the pilgrims circumambulating the temple (peaceful because we knew that it wasn't us having to wander around and around the big mountain).

On the way back to Lhasa, we got to experience a mini Tibetan dust storm. What makes it all the more exciting is that all the little colourful prayer flags and plastic bags strewn across the mountains come flying down onto the road, so its like your traveling through a whirlwind of colours. Maybe thats why the hippies liked coming to Tibet - for the psychedelic dust storms.

So thus ended our brief stint in Tibet. Even though we were kind of templed/monasteried out, we were glad that we visited all of them because it gave us a much deeper understanding of the significance of religion on this little corner of China. Plus, we got to eat 1.5kg of jelly.

Tomorrow we're off to Sichuan province of China, known for its pandas, its chinese opera, really hot spicy food, and the biggest buddha in the world.

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