Monday, January 07, 2008
Tibetan town... under construction... Shigatse
These photos give you an idea of how a modern Tibetan city home is made. This entire neighborhood was being built out of farm land on the outskirts of Shigatse.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Riding on the bus... Shigatse
On our un-official, self guided city tour. The city bus was a good time!!
small temple... Shigatse
This is the inner courtyard, and the doorway leading into the inner chapel of this small monastery we visited. We were riding the city bus around, checking out the town, when we noticed this little monastery tucked between shop fronts. You can recognize when a building is actually a temple by the wide brown band painted around the top of the walls. Only religious buildings have this brown band. This place was small but intense, with many statues and paintings in the inner chapels.
Kora around small temple... Shigatse
I took the task of spinning prayer wheels quite seriously. I'm not sure about collecting merit for my next life, but it seems to strengthen a persons level of intention to never leave a prayer wheel unspun.
Small temple... Shigatse
This small white chorten was above the entrance to a small monastery we noticed as we rode by on the city bus. We called for a quick stop and jumped off the bus to take a look.
Teahouse doorway... Shigatse
These cloth flaps act as doorways at the entrances of most Tibetan teahouses. This particular design was unique... shiver me timbers!
Sunrise on the Tenzin rooftop
We started off the day collecting our dry laundry and enjoying the sun rise over the Tibetan quarter of Shigatse. We were heading in to Tashilunpo Monastery for a day of much anticipated temple exploring.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
a chorten... Tashilunpo Monastery
As we walked away from the entrance courtyard, follwing a clockwise pattern around the whole monastery complex, this chorten was one of the first places we came to. As we saw several pilgrims making their way in a kora around this chorten, we decided to do the same, making it a smaller kora within our larger kora around the temples of this very large and sprawling monastery. Tashilunpo felt like a complete village unto itself with large walkways, alleys and even streets within it's walls.
Drolma paintings... Tashilunpo Monastery
Drolma is my favorite Tibetan deity. She always wears these awesome rainbow stockings!!
Chapel of Jhampa... Tashilunpo Monastery
This chapel houses an enormous statue of the future Buddha, known as Jhampa or Maitreya. It is the worlds largest gilded statue, at over 78 feet tall. It takes an entire building to house this statue. The inside is ringed by 4 stories of balconys, so that it is possible to look the statue directly in the eye. We were only allowed to enter the first floor though. The building is impressive of itself... it has enormous walls!
Warrior monk...chapel of the 10th Panchen Lama...Tashilunpo Monastery
This monk was very interactive. He wanted to check out my book, arm AND thumb wrestle repeatedly, do pull ups from a large metal bell, joke with the pilgrims who were coming and going... anything to have fun! He was quite strong! His arms were ripped! And he was not afraid to inflict pain!
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
thankgka wall... Tashilunpo Monastery
Thangkas of this size are unfurled during special ceremonies throughout the year.
Exploring... Tashilunpo Monastery
On the far North side of the Monastery many buildings were in very bad shape, some crumbling into ruins. We decided to duck in and explore one of the sturdier of these buildings. They looked like residencial quarters, and while it was clean on the inside, it was not in great shape. We climbed up several stories on steep,narrow and completely dark wooden ladders/stairways. It was difficult to tell if the building was inhabited or not. Most of the building seemed liveable, yet it was completely silent inside. You could not even sense the stirring of another person inside the building. We came out on the roof and discovered the inescapable solar water boiler... our first clue that we were not alone.... We were soon met by a monk who had joined us on the roof. He seemed amused and surprised to find us here, and quickly invited us back to his room for a visit.
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