Day 323 - Monday Morning Fever

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An easy blog entry for Ed today because he spent the day in bed with a fever and 38.5C temperature. The cause? Perhaps, as Gemma’s Dad suggested, it’s because he can’t cool down properly with his new beard.

While Ed was in bed, Gemma went with Pasang to two more monasteries today. The first was Drepung Monastery, which stands in the shadow of a tall mountain west of Lhasa. It was once Tibet’s largest monastery founded in 1416, and most of it is in its original state, so what you are looking at is the genuine thing. Gemma forked out some money for the photo charges in a number of rooms to show Ed later and for us to remember some of the different rooms of the different monasteries as they are all rolling into one.

After lunch Gemma and Pasang visited Sera Monastery, one of Lhasa’s prettiest settings. Here we skirted around the assembly hall and other attractions as the main thing to see here is the 2 hour slot (3 -5pm Monday to Saturday) of the monks debating in the court yard. As a tourist you are allowed to walk around the edge and observe the very dynamic and animated monks asking and answering questions like ‘why’, ‘what came first the chicken or the egg’ and ‘who is your favourite buddha' (okay I made that one up). All very deep and meaningful and Gemma missed her opportunity to actually get to the bottom of the question - how many beans make five.

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