Below, two video clips of the monks in action.
PETER'S LETTER (5)
Dear and patient readers,
Free Day in Lhasa and whilst Kin-mun and Kay are out shopping I am taking the opportunity for an extended period at the laptop. Everyone should travel with such friends! And by the way, we all are still good friends- ain’t that a miracle?
Mind you I think I could go off a few million Buddhists quite easily if I have to suffer the cramped and dingy interiors filled with thousands of devotees and gallons of rancid yak butter again. That was yesterday when we went to the Johkang temple. In reality the problem was “us’ rather than “them” as we were encroaching on their space and devotions. There is something to be said for a non-functioning place like the Potala Palace which we ‘did’ the day before. Tourists and guides are child’s play compared with the great unwashed. One pleasant aspect though was that we were able to get onto the roof which afforded good views of the old town and the Potala Palace. Lots of “new town” buildings too but as they are largely Han Chinese areas we pretend that they aren’t there, just as I suspect that they pretend that the Tibetans really aren’t there except to attract tourism and keep business flowing. A whole big can of worms that question and as I am not partial to worms and I certainly have no answers, I’ll leave it there.
We really enjoyed the visit to the Potala Palace which happened on day two of our stay. I don’t think anyone was up to the steep climb to the levels of rooms and shrines but with gradual ascent we all made it and then very much enjoyed seeing the contents. Mostly of a religious nature for though the place was administered through the religion, the bits we saw were things like burial stupas of all the previous 13 Dali Lamas, throne rooms and audience rooms. Certainly the highlight of the visit to date, and as we only have one more monastery to see tomorrow before catching the train to the lowlands on Saturday, I think it will remain so. Mind you, the monastery at Gandan is about 40km out of town so I trust that we see a bit of the countryside. Our guide tried to talk us into an expensive trip to a holy lake some hundreds of kilometres away but precarious wellness and sense made us decline.
Keir came down with a gum infection yesterday and did my trick of paying a visit to the local dental services. $5 for the visit, $1 for the pills. He’ll doubtless dine out on the experience but the upshot was that he has antibiotics which seem to be working. He has been sent out to do some shopping whilst I do this and seemed well enough for the task. I still have periods of listlessness and breathing problems but they seem to come right after a while. The others have caught colds but are not letting such things stop them getting out and about. I think I should be able to add a snap or two just to give you an idea of things. Hope it works because Hotmail is a bit lousy with the space available for attachments.
One interesting Buddhist thing we did yesterday was go to an out of town monastery to watch a daily debating forum they have in a courtyard. It is just the monks debating matters of faith amongst themselves and the detail is not available to the viewers unless you are a Tibetan trained in theology. It lacked one’s involvement as a consequence but it was an interesting bit of theatre. Lots off noise and hand slapping as they made their points to each other.
I am sure that this is more than enough to digest, and I haven’t even mentioned the food! It is all very agreeable- even the yak meat, my only objection is that the daily lunches run to about 10 courses and I am never that hungry. Today I get to choose a simple snack of my own once K gets back from the shopping trip.
Lots of love,
P
No comments:
Post a Comment