up and out at the crack butt with our guide and driver for the two-hour drive to ganden monastery… a place (other than namtso) i also hadn’t seen during my previous venture out there.. built high on a hill, ganden – along with drepung and sera – are three major monasteries around tibet… i could try to get into who built what… but suffice it to say that that tsongkhapa and two of his students (i’m not about to butcher their names without a proper google search)… each founded/built one of the three… anyhoo, ganden has an amazing history as one of the largest … educating as many as 8,000 in its day, i think… lovely place… oodles of steps… seriously, you want good legs? come to tibet!
after another crappy box lunch, which – i swear – i will never do one of those again.. blech!… we headed back to lhasa to visit sera monastery … walked through the simply beautiful halls… heard the deep, humbling throat-singing of a monk or two… and were treated to some of the most beautiful singing by workers (my picture doesn’t do their labor justice… but kathy got some great pics, which i’ll snag… )… we even got a blessing… (i’ll take ‘em where I can get ‘em!)… and were in time to see the daily debates in the courtyard (they just started opening them to the public again last week)…
long story short, in small groups, one monk challenges the others regarding buddhist teachings, with a WHAP! of a slap at the end of the question…. honestly, mixed feelings about it… as much as I dug it, i didn’t like the feeling of taking pictures during such an integral part of their teachings… anyhoo, i took a few shots felt kinda blub about it.. and then sat and watched in amazement…
i can’t believe tomorrow is tuesday already… only four full days left… :( … the time has gone SO quickly… i’ve met some really great people… had a few crazy experiences… tackled some things that scared me… and have yet to regret one moment of this (ok, i keep forgetting to put enough sunscreen on, but other than that :)…
No comments:
Post a Comment