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Published: September 9th 2005
Chinese beggars
This elderly man appeared to be starving - he was gulping down tsampa. We loved Langmusi!! Six hours by bus from Xiahe it is a tiny remote village nestled between alpine scenery and grasslands. The setting was stunning and the whole village had a real ‘wild west’ feel about it. It was even higher then Xiahe at 3500 meters above sea level and is on the border between Sichuan and Gansu Provinces. The impact of tourism was even less noticeable then Xiahe though they were building what looked like a small hotel on the edges of the town. The trip between Xiahe and Langmusi was much better then we expected and very rough in places as the entire road was either under road works or just finished road works. Once it is completed that new hotel will be constantly full and the whole atmosphere of the area will start to change. At the moment there is only one local bus into and out of the town every day. The country between the two towns was green grasslands and rolling hills as far as you could see. We constantly passed Tibetan men on horses, saw boys on motorbikes weaving across the plains, solitary tents with waving dirty faced children and even saw lonely monks
Muslim boys
These young boys were playing marbles happily until I took my camera out - then the performance started! walking across the view heading into the horizon! The grasslands were dotted with hundreds of white tents and black yaks. Spectacular scenery - I love big open spaces!
The hotel in Langmusi was pretty basic though we did have our own rather smelly ensuite bathroom. We checked in and all left to explore the town independently - you couldn’t get lost as it was a very small town. The hills around the town were dotted with small Tibetan monasteries and the centre of the town also had a mosque as there is a large community of Hui (Muslim) Chinese living there as well. There did not seem to be as many local Tibetan nomad people within the village but the following day the town was crowded with them as they came down from the grasslands to shop. The streets were however full of monks. The city was obviously very poor as even the main street was not paved it’s entire length and certainly non of the other streets were paved at all. However we found a great café to eat at in Langmusi - it was operated by a friendly Muslim couple. They even cooked apple pie and chocolate
Tibetan farmer and his wife
This couple really wanted to talk - it was such a pity none of us spoke the others language! cake in an old fashioned wood burning oven in the centre of the restaurant. The food was delicious and we all overdosed on hot out ‘of the oven’ apple pie whilst there. Next morning everybody went for a long hike to the top of one of the mountains which overlooked the town. I decided not to go due to my cough having worsened and because I was having a little trouble breathing - we were at 3500 metres and I didn’t wish to go higher. I walked part of the way, along the valley, with the group but dropped out when they started climbing. Jerry said that the climb was pretty steep and most of them had trouble due to the altitude.
I had a great few hours on my own wandering around watching all the activity in the town. It was absolutely crazy - so many young nomad boys on motorbikes! A man had a group of monkeys performing tricks in the centre of the main road for a couple of hours - it drew a large crowd and all the traffic had to try and get past the crowds of people. I didn’t stop to look
Washing dishes for Mum
This boy was the son of the cafe where we ate most of our meals - he spent a lot of time sitting on the footpath washing plates. at the show - you often see similar groups on the streets and I get upset when I see the condition of the animals. Later in the afternoon Jerry and I walked all around the hills surrounding the village - we watched locals throw hundreds of tiny paper prayers into the sky at one of the smaller temples. Druja told us that there was going to be a festival in the next few days where all the local men would take new prayer arrows up to the top of the mountains - I had certainly seen many people buying plain pine arrows that morning - they then took them home and painted them and hung coloured silk scarves from them before taking them to the closest high ground and standing them up with the arrows pointing skywards therefore shooting their prayers to heaven.We had a meal at a Tibetan cafe that evening - great food and fun company. Druja kept us entertained with some interesting facts about the Tibetan culture.
Next morning we visited the monastery and were given a great insight into the daily lives of the monks belonging to the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The
I love this photo!
Waiting for the water to boil. monastery buildings were similar, though much smaller, then the Labrang Monastery. The exterior walls were three colours and the doors were hung with the yak fibre screens. We watched a large group of monks, mainly young boys, leave the prayer hall and after putting on their sheepskin boots, form debating groups. Watching them debating was interesting - they sounded as if they were chanting. One boy in each group would walk around the circle emphasizing his point by striking his hands together as he pointed to the particular monk he was debating with. We asked Druja what they were debating. He told us they were debating about ‘white horses’ - what would they be if they lost their colour. It seemed a strange topic but they seemed pretty enthuiastic about it. We entered the prayer hall - it was dim but the colours still glowed. Streamers of silk and brocade banners hung from the ceiling, there were dozens of small prayer cushions on the floor, the walls were lined with thousands of prayer books which are used daily, and the paintwork was the same intricate patterns we have seen in all the Chinese temples we have visited. The air was
The main street
Pigs in the main street thick with the smell of incense and the hall was lined with large golden Buddhas. We weren’t allowed to take photos but I would have loved to have taken a picture of the enormous red wooden entry doors - they were very heavy, covered with wonderful gold designs and in their centre a pair of the largest gold knobs I’ve ever seen. Whilst Druja was telling us some more about the religion a group of monks started chanting and playing music. It was great to hear the long Tibetan horns - they are brass and about 10 foot long and produce a very deep sound. We listened to them pray for the next 20 minutes before quietly leaving the hall. There was another small tour group outside who were traveling without a local guide and they weren’t allowed into the hall - they weren’t happy about it! It certainly was an advantage to travel in that area with a guide as we saw so much more then we would have seen had we been traveling alone.
Leaving the monastery and Langmusi we headed off to spend the rest of the day visiting more villages in the area. That evening
Local buses
These trucks are local buses - this was taken outside the restaurant where all the nomads had lunch before heading home. we were to sleep in a village with a local farming family. Our first stop was a tiny school. Intrepid have a policy of supporting local schools and everytime the group ate together extra money would be added to the total meal bill before it was divided evenly amongst the group. The change would then be put aside to be given to the schools in the area that the group visited. A great idea and the headmaster at our school was very pleased to receive our donation. There were no students in the classroom as it was school holidays but we met the headmasters family and some of the students - a group of dirty scruffy kids with big wide smiles. We wandered through a nearby tent village. It was very quite as most of the residents were at a party. I saw many elderly people (too old to party!) with the most incredible wrinkled faces. Again no photos - I feel uncomfortable photographing locals most of the time - you feel as if you are taking advantage of them. I did spend ten minutes ‘talking’ to two cheery ladies. They would have had a great sense of humour if
I could only speak their language. I had a rather embarrassing moment as one of the ladies was fascinated with my gold bracelet - a simple plain band - and she offered to swap her heavy strand of red coral beads for it. These ladies took us to their tents and we were given some more of the doughy bread and cups of yak butter tea.
Next Druja took us to a hall where the nomads were having the party. We created quite a sensation when we walked into the hall - it was full of dozens of Tibetans dressed in their best clothes watching their friends performing on the stage. We spent at least half an hour there and had to leave in the end because we were totally upstaging all the performers on the stage. Unfortunately the act on the stage when we left was one I would have loved to have been able to stay and listen to - a woman singing unaccompanied with the most amazing deep voice. I was fascinated with all the women’s heavy jewellery - I don’t know how their ears supported the weight of their earrings. In fact many of
Street corner
A busy day in the centre of Langmusi. the women had strips of fabric tied to the bottom of their earrings. These fabric strips were then woven into their hair which helped take the weight off their ears. After leaving the hall we drove to a river where many Tibetans were bathing in the hot springs nearby, which the area is renowned for, and swimming and washing clothes in the river. There was a small accommadation block nearby - we were told it was like a sanitarium for the locals who when they were ill came and bathed in the springs to recover. I wish we had been told that before we used their toilets - which were a pit with the excrement going into the river!!! That toilet was rated by the American girls as one of the worst on our trip. They rated every toilet we visited! I loved seeing their faces the first time we all went to a toilet in the rural areas and they realized that the toilet cubicles had no doors, low walls, no paper and no water for flushing. If you gotta go you’ve gotta go!!
We headed up the adjoining valley and visited another village. Again a wonderful welcome
Tibetan woman
Fabulous jewellery! and it was there I had my embarrassing moment no2 for the day. After taking a photo of one of the men on his motorbike (at his request) and showing it to him he promptly took 20 yuan from his pocket and wanted to buy the camera! Eventually he realized I wasn’t going to sell it to him (though I wish I could post the photo to him) and happily rode away. They all love seeing their pictures in the tiny screens on the back of the digital camera and crowd around to look at them. Before we left the village John, one of the men on our tour (Aussie) offered to race one of the Tibetan men in a running race. John considered himself very fit but was well and truly beaten by the young nomad. They loved the race and all cheered and clapped loudly when their man won! Though the valley was very pretty and peaceful it was late (around 6pm) and we still had to go to the village where we were to spend the night. We left the village with all the locals streaming after us shouting farewells and waving! We had a wonderful day!
The village that we stayed in that evening was up a steep road and we were all a little concerned that the bus wouldn’t make it! It did but just - next morning we had to walk out as the bus left after it dropped us off. Rain was forecast and the bus spent the night at the bottom of the mountain - it would never have made it down if the road had been muddy. The village was a surrounded by terraced fields, had electricity but no running water and all the streets were dirt. The houses were made of wood, with small courtyards. We slept in the living area on floor mats - the owners slept downstairs in the kitchen. The pigs also slept downstairs! The toilet was primitive - right over the vegetable patch! But they did have satellite television and their own outdoor prayer wheels. Many people in rural areas have illegal satellite television. You can apply for it but it is very expensive and the local Chinese are not usually granted licences.
Dinner was cooked by the lady who owned the house - a simple meal of rice, vegetables and mutton. We spent
the evening chatting and playing cards. Druja stayed downstairs and we heard him giving the daughter an English lesson. Most of us had a restless night - the floor was hard and there were dogs and pigs making noise all night. It was also very dark after the indoor lights went out - no streetlights! A few of us even braved the toilets during the night. Next morning we woke up early and headed off down the hill with our fried egg rolls in our hand to eat on the bus. We were not looking forward to the bus trip as it was to be our longest yet - 12 hours! We farewelled Druja - he had been a great guide and we would miss him. That night we were to stay in Songpan enroute to Jiuzhhaigou, one of China’s premier national parks.
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