THe most spritual experience of our journey..

And the most surreal...and we have no photos to prove it. That's right, we entered the huge, dark, tapestry & cloth hung monastery & watched over 1,000 monks perform religious ceremonies. It is hard to describe the atmosphere, and worth a whole story in itself. Watching the monks take their places amongst the smoky yak candle-lit room; walking, respectfully, up to pay homage & receive my own Buddhist blessing (& prayer beads) in return; the smoking incense wafting the room. This really was surreal and we felt extremely privileged to be able to watch this (kneeling as we were from the back of the room for most of the time, terrified of causing offence). What made it more real, but even stranger at the same time, was seeing the young monks (of about 7 or 8) running in late to take their place, and the ornately decorated lamas wandering in their enormous robes, headpieces reminiscent of the Dark Crystal and staffs at the ready – to whack any misbehaving boy. This really was an amazing experience. More so as it is so rarely seen by foreigners. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed, so we had to drink it in with our eyes.