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Published: April 23rd 2015
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Our first mission today was to introduce Mr Schnitzel and Carole to Sherub. A good move as it ended up with us all having a few laughs. The first stop today was Drepung Monastery, built in the 15th century and one of the 3 pillars of the Tibetan State. Reportedly the largest monastery in the world with 7500 monks in it's hey day! Drepung means rice heap. During the peaceful revolution it remained largely untouched and is now home to about 600 monks. On entering we saw a lady cooking tsampo on pine needles that she had collected and brought to the monastery to sell. The monastery was like a small village, beautiful doors, hot chicks in China, lots of dogs for Mr Schnitzel to play with. There was a huge Thanga painted on a rock above the monastery too. There was a beautiful view across Lhasa and to the snow capped mountains. There are also 4 colleges at the monastery. This monastery also holds a yoghurt festival in July because one monk lived on yoghurt for 3 years whilst meditating in the caves above the monastery. There was a beautiful prayer wheel which was powered by water. We took some
funny group shots too. Sharon says it was nice, fun and good and that! After we left we saw our first Yak up close and personal. Sherub posed for us in a borrowed hat and we encourage him to get one for himself.
We went to Lhasa kitchen for lunch and none of us felt too great afterwards. Noelene, Sharon and I had Yak burger and Judi had fresh fruit salad in a yacky sticky goo.
The afternoon was spent at the Sera Monastery. It was founded in 1419 by the disciple of the Tsong Khapa and is one of Lhasa's great Gelugpa (yellow hat) monasteries. There are 600 monks in residence now but once had about 5500 monks. There was a lot of renovating going on due to the damage during the 'Peaceful Revolution'. The paintings depicted the wheel or circle of life. Very in depth and confusing but a beautiful picture. Basically if you treat everyone like you would treat your mother and find enlightenment. If you don't, then you go down. After the visit of the temples and chapels and the assembly hall we were lucky enough to be there in
time to see the great monk mass debate. Lots of monks passionately debate Buddhist philosophy. There was a monk standing and one seated. The one who is seated is asked questions and the one standing is asking the questions. If the answer is correct, the monk brushes palm against palm whilst stepping forward and if the answer is incorrect the back of the hand hits the other palm. There was lots of shouting going on and some looked more serious than others. When we left, we saw an untethered yak eating potato peels outside the stores. A good photo opportunity.
We had a few hours free in the afternoon so Sharon and I decided to check out the 'Bling Massage'. MMMMMM - they weren't blind and I bet they wish they were. They were very strong and very good and we made wobble noises at the appropriate time. We came out battered and bruised but feel better for it. The evening was spent in Barkhor street where we climbed some ancient stairs to a vegetarian restaurant that overlooked the square and the temple. The place was nice and rustic looking but had iPad menus!!! Crazy
town. We went for a walk around the 'Kora', took some photos and enjoyed passing the time. Ready for our adventure into the countryside tomorrow.
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