Leaving Lhasa
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
126
158
Trip End
Jul 21, 2007
Lhasa,
China
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Kerry and I visited the other 2 main monsteries in the Lhasa area today and had a great time. Drepung is 15km to the North East and we caught a cab. It's a large place having been rebuilt after the damage inflicted during the C.R. and has many college buildings, homes for the monks, chapels and stupas and the whole is encircled by an unbroken line of well oiled prayer wheels and has a commanding view over Lhasa with mountains behind. The monastery currently houses 6000 monks.
The most interesting structure was the main assembly hall, and we were lucky enough to catch the end of the prayers. The darkened hall was filled with monks sat in rows enrobed in red, poring over their scriptures and murmuring to themselves
Beard experiment week 3
. Vividly coloured drapes hung from the ceiling all around, and incense burned and mixed with the smell of yak butter from the lamps. We stalked quietly around, and as prayer time came to an end and only the swats were left behind, we hung around the doorway. I was idly flicking through the Lonely Planet as the monks were leaving, when the pictures caught some attention. Special interest was reserved for the passage inside the front cover from the Dalai Lama, and I found myself mobbed by about twenty monks in a friendly way, as I showed them pictures from around Tibet and they marvelled at my excessive arm hair. Next on the menu was Nechung just down the road so we hopped on a tractor and chugged along. Nechung was originally the seat of the state oracle who the Dalai Lama consulted on any important decision. The oracle was supposedly able to allow himself to be possessed by the wrathful spirit of Dorje Drakden, fall into a sometimes violent trance and then bring forth the most beneficial prediction. The small monastery is an eerie place, the main doors having been painted with human blood and the paintings depicting scenes of torture and demon possession you wouldn't ordinarily associate with Buddhism. A (very) rough explanation is that Tibetan Buddhism was blended with Hinduism and it's many deities, which are ultimately different facets of the human and god nature. And it is the same with Tibetan Buddhism, so you have kind, compassionate, wrathful and even violent gods and demons which are representations of the many branches of maya, or the illusion we call reality
caretaker at Nechung
. But anyway. The most entertaining part of the day was reserved for last. We returned to Lhasa and caught a local bus north of the city to the last of the 3 main monasteries. Sera. Again it is a big place to explore but we had seen other monasteries and were here to witness the monks debating session which takes place every day 3.30 til 5.
Man alive, these guys know how to let loose. We didn't need directing to the courtyard where it all goes down, we could hear the clapping and cacophony from the gates and simply followed the trail of other tourists eager to witness the spectacle.
This is the script. The 300 or so monks gather in the gravel courtyard which is dotted with trees for shade. They separate into groups ranging from about 3 to 10, and one monk of the gaggle takes centre stage while the others sit down in a rough semicircle around him. It is the challenge of the seated monks to outwit the standing one on matters of Buddhist philosophy and it held us agog for 2 hours. As the standing monk moves towards making his point, he raises one leg in some sort of pseudo karate pose, throws his wooden prayer beads onto his left upper arm for safe keeping, and bringing both hands forward together to emit a loud clapping sound, slamming his point into the faces of his opponents, hopefully knocking their concentration off in the process
drepung
. This ostensible craziness is going on all over the yard and the monks clearly revel in it as a departure from their normally austere duties. It's all in exceedingly good humour.One particular group caught our attention, mainly for the sheer vigour of the main monk and the utter frustration and helplessness of the rookie monks. He was loving it! He was almost hoarse with his raucous argument, sweat on his brow and his claps so bombastic that he completed them with a full roundhouse!! Even though we couldn't understand a word of it, we were captivated, and followed the proceedings in some rudimentary way as he teased the seated young monks by coming between them with his bum to put them off, and laughing at them. His hands must have been red raw with the constant clapping as he drove each killer argument home. Absolutely brilliant stuff, pure entertainment.
We spent the following day in frustration, as trying to do any type of trip admin here is fraught with difficulties. We managed to post a parcel (it went on 18th May to 3 Hall Close Mary, pick a prayer bowl for yourself and give the other to your neighbour), and made a call to Oz, and it took most of the day.
The next day we left Lhasa and any kind of comfort behind, beginning the true hard core of the whole trip that would end in Kashgar.
