Why do Monks live in Monasteries?

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We are now at Mt Emei at the Bau Gau Monastery. It is an idyllic setting which we didn't really get to appreciate yesterday as it was getting dark and the rather basic conditions and the lack of decent shower facilities has shocked us out of the 3 star luxury we have gotten used to. All the toilets are squat toilets - which we were expecting. But the head monk has refused to open the shower facilities that the group would usually use (apparently they don't shower in the winter!!) so all we have are 2 shower cubicles with rusty floors and a tap at celing height. The group has unanimously agreed not to shower for 3 days!! We are going to visit the local hotsprings tomorrow and are assuered that we can have decent showers there - they even have a hairdryer apparently!!
We went to the top of Mt Emei today. It is known all over he world (but not in our trip brochure) for being covered in mist and fog all year round. We took a bus and then a cable car to the top. It was freezing and so foggy that we could barely see the cable car in front of us!! They have a 660 ton Buddha statue at the peak and we only realised it was there when we were 10ft away from it and could sees the giant shape through the mist. We wandered around it and would come upon a new building! It was so cold that I had frost on my hat and my eyelashes. The guide didn't have a hat and his hair was frozen!! We stopped for a cup of coffee in this little hut to warm up and just as we finished the mist lifted so we all rushed out to see the view we had been missing. We just had long enough to take a few pictures before the mist descended again.
We encountered some of the regions famous 'Joking Monkeys' on our way back down. We have some pics but left the close ups to the braver members of the tour!!
In my excitement about the monastery I forgot to tell you about the the Giant Buddha we visited on our way here. The statue has been carved out of the mountain face and the stone was used to build banks to prevent flooding - the site is the converging point for 3 rivers. We climbed the hill to the top of the Buddha then down one side and up the other. The views were amazing.

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Photos

The Baugo Monastery
Beautiful setting, basic sanitation facilities!

Fuhou Temple - A Buddhist Nunnery
Did you know that Buddhists nuns shave their heads?

The Bronze Buddha at the Top of Mt Emei
The mist cleared for a few minutes allowing us to take a photo!