Ancient Building and Ravens

Sorry I haven't updated my blog recently. Nothing terribly exciting happened until Friday. You see, on Fridays, Gen Lhakpa-la (Teacher Lhakpa) teaches the culture class for the new students. While this means that I miss out on two hours of grammar taught from Tournadre's Manual of Standard Tibetan, I think it is worth it. Two Friday's ago, we were given a lecture on ceremonies that take place after the birth of a child, learned how a child is named, and had the opportunity to be filmed, most likely for some news program on Xi Zang TV, or Tibet TV. We don't know what happened with that, but it doesn't really matter.

This past Friday, however, there was only a short lecture and then we visited the Jokhang Temple. For those of you who don't know, the Jokhang Temple was built in the middle of the 7th century to house a statue of the Buddha that a Chinese princess by the name of Wen Cheng, brought with her when she married the king of Tibet. She and the king's Nepali wife, were both partially responsible for Buddhism becoming a court religion in Tibet during this time.

Anyway, every year, Tibetans come from all around the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) to visit the temple, many make prostrations for hundred of miles and many months, to visit this very holy place.

As new students to the university, we were not required to pay the entrance fee of 70 yuan (a little less than $10). There is a catch to visiting the temple, however, and that is no photos are allowed to be taken inside the temple. Thus, I have some photos from the outside and the roof, but not inside. Instead, the ticket is a square cd with photos of the Jokhang. To date, I don't think anyone has been brave enough to actually put the cd in a computer, and I don't think I will be the first, either. So, look for my photos on my album site: community.webshots.com/user/michab3.

When you enter the temple, you are in the main meeting hall, where the monks gather to pray and chant. There is an enormous statue of Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, and important figure in Tibetan history, responsible for the subjugation of various demons that allowed the first monastery to be built. In addition, he is a tantric master, and quite a popular person in Tibet. Second, is a statue of Maitreya, or the future Buddha. It is believed that the Buddha for this span of time was Sakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha that many of us are familiar with. When the current teachings are gone from the earth, however, a new Buddha will descend from heaven and bring the teachings again. This is Maitreya. Then, in between the two, is a statue of 1000-armed Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, probably the most well-known bodhisattva because of his association with the Dalai Lamas and because of his popularity as the goddess Guan Yin in China.

As you go around the first floor of the temple, there are chapels devoted to specific Buddhas, such as the Medicine Buddha, and statues all along the walls, depicting various religious figures. Now, while the tourists rush through viewing everything, sometimes pushing in front of Tibetans, the Tibetan visitors to the temple wait patiently in line to visit each of the chapels and offer butter or small amounts of money. In fact, there is so much butter inside the temple, that the floors are slippery with it, and one must take care, or risk falling on that buttery floor.

Once you have walked clockwise to the stairwell (and Susan, I'm really not sure why it is clockwise--perhaps Dr. Cuevas knows for sure) you walk up and visit more chapels. While this may sound quite repetative, I assure you, it is not. Each chapel has different statues (some labeled, some not) lit by butter lamps in the center of the small rooms, and one is surrounded by Tibetans who have such strong devotion, and who are happy and eager to point out a particular statue or carving of interest that they think you might have missed.

Furthermore, all of the walls, with very few exceptions, are painted with deities, bodhisattvas, buddhas, or other designs, so even if you miss a chapel or two, there is plenty of beautiful imagery to examine. The final room on the second floor is actually up a flight of stairs. It is the chapel devoted to the state oracle, the Nechung Oracle. There are two statues of the deity in the chapel, and photos of the man who is the oracle. During our visit, only one statue was visible, the peaceful emanation of the deity. We were told that on certain days, the wrathful statue is visible, but most days it remains covered.

Finally, you make it up to the roof, which has an absolutely amazing view of the city, the surrounding mountains, and the pilgrims performing prostrations in front of the temple.

The visit to the Jokhang was quite obviously the highlight to Friday. During lunch at a popular tourist hotel, I was convinced by my friend Stephanie, a wonderful young woman from Switzerland, to join her on a weekend trip to a monastery of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, named Drikung Monastery, founded during the early part of the 12th century. One of the important features of this monastery is that it is home to one of the most holy and famous sky burial sites in Tibet. The sky burial is the most popular of Tibetan burials. During the burial, the body is cut into pieces and the flesh removed from the bones. The flesh is then fed to vultures, and here, to ravens. If it can be afforded, many people choose to bring their dead to this place for burial.

Our journey started at 6:30am on Saturday, when we left the dorm to make our way to the bus station, full of buses designed for use by local populations, not foreigners. Because of this, they refused to sell us tickets, but we were told by a wonderfully helpful man that if we hop on the bus, we could then pay the driver. So, we waited until about 20 minutes till 7, when the bus driver appeared and opened the door. Now, I know that having a seat on a bus when the trip is four hours long, is important, but I have never seen people shove so hard to get onto a bus. Stephanie and I managed to get seats, but not without paying the price to the pickpockets hanging around at the bus station. During the mad rush to get on the bus, Stephanie's cell phone was stolen, and so was my packet of tissues. Certainly not a big loss for me, but it was the second time in three weeks that Stephanie was robbed.

So, we managed to find seats, originally together, but we were separated by the Tibetan women sitting in front of the bus, who were definitely like a bunch of mothers, tsking about Stephanie's lost phone, and commenting about my size. Nothing new there. Then, when I thought we were ready to leave, suddenly there are five more people getting on the bus, which was already out of seats. Instead, they placed a rather large bag of apples and a bag of tsampa (roasted barley flour) in the middle of the bus floor, and three women sat on that. Two of the women were nuns and were quite amused by me during the trip. One amusing thing was of course my size, and there was a lot of arm and thigh touching going on. Second was the fact that the nun sitting a little to the front of me, kept trying to speak to me in Tibetan and aside from the general comments about name and native country and being a student, I did not understand what she said to me. Many of her words sounded strange, perhaps an accent from somewhere. So, it was amusing that I didn't understand what she said to me.

After about three and a half hours of beautiful landscape, we arrived at Terdrom nunnery, which is also a hot spring "resort". The bus driver took a break for lunch, so Stephanie and I hopped off the bus, helped the ladies down the hill with all of their luggage for their weekend stay at the spring, and then ate at the restaurant. I did take some photos of this nunnery, so they are available.

About a quarter to 1, we went back up the hill, making sure we were on time for the driver, so we could leave promptly and so we wouldn't miss the bus. But, the bus driver did not show up until 1:30. While we waited, Stephanie and I chatted with some people at the top of the hill where the cars park. Again, there was a communication problem with accent, bu I'm sure that will get better with time. What I did understand, was that one of the nuns I was sitting next to, most definitely said that I should not go back to Lhasa, but should stay there at the nunnery and be a nun. I apologized, and said I had to go back to Lhasa and study. But I suppose it is nice to know that option is available.

Finally, we get back on the bus, drive for maybe half an hour, and make it to Drikung. The monastery is beautiful, built into the side of a mountain. There is a road going up, thank goodness, but the bus didn't stay. Instead, the driver said that we were to meet him at 9am down in the town at the base of the mountain.

So, Stephanie and I got settled at the monastery guest house, which was surprisingly clean and the bedding looked almost new. Then we went out to explore a little. We were at the main temple just after the monks finished, so we were able to go inside. We took our shoes off, even though the monks said we didn't have to. I think they appreciated it, although I'm sure they take their shoes off because they do have to.

Inside the temple were more beautiful statues, like we had seen in the Jokhang. My favorite deity, Tara, has a wonderful statue there, and we offered a kata (ceremonial scarf) to a statue of Padmasambhava. We worked our way around the temple, and came, at last to a corner where the monks had made a sand mandala. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the person whose mandala it is.

Next, we started the circumambulation of the monastery, turning prayer wheels, and following a group of nomads through various smaller chapels in the monastery. Finally, Stephanie went with the nomads up towards the top of the mountain, where I decided I should not go. Not being in great physical shape, and seeing the steepness of the path, I decided to stay behind. I stood looking out at the town for a while. Then, a Tibetan family, an elderly man, woman, and their daughter, a nun, whom we had seen on the bus, asked me where my friend was, I told them, and they invited me to go with them. I followed them to a chapel which looked fairly new, and contained statues of some of the great yogis, including Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa. After that, the man said they were going to the sky burial site and I should go with them, so I did.

Now, later, when I said where I had been to another Tibetan woman we met on the bus, she said it was not far to the sky burial site, however, in my lexicon, an hour hike up to the top of a mountain constitutes a long distance. However, to Tibetans, climbing mountains is nothing. So, I would like to announce, that I climbed my first mountain at Drikung. The sky burial site was amazing. While it is not legal to take pictures, so I did not, I know that it will remain with me without photos. On top of the mountain, is a large square, fenced off and locked, to keep people out. Inside the square is a small area surrounded by rocks, and a small building. Obviously, in the not too distant past, perhaps even Saturday morning, there had been a sky burial--the ravens were still eating. There were perhaps two or three dozen ravens inside the circle of stones. For all that there were so many birds, it was eerily quiet on top of the mountain. No sounds except those that we were making.

After perhaps twenty minutes, we made our way back down the mountain, which was not so easy. While it was difficult going up, going down was even harder, with the sandy path providing a good place for one to slide off the side of the mountain. If it hadn't been for that wonderful man, I probably would have gone down the mountain the hard way. He stopped me from sliding three times, and kept hold of my hand until we were on more level ground.

Back at the monastery, Stephanie had been looking for me, and found me chatting with a couple of the monks. The monks here are super nice, and friendly. Well, once Stephanie found out where I had been, nothing would do but that she had to leave right then and go for herself. As she was leaving, it was obvious that snow was coming and she would be climbing in the storm. While this concerned me, it did not bother her too much, and she went and came back in an hour's time. While she was gone, the monks were in the courtyard in front of the main temple, preparing a body for burial, chanting, and praying as the snow fell around them.

After Stephanie returned, we went to eat, and had the opportunity to eat in the kitchen with the workers and a few of the monks. We had absolutely delicious yak momos (dumplings) and chatted with the guys in the kitchen for probably an hour. One thing about Tibetans that distinguishes them from their Chinese neighbors, is that Tibetans have a wonderful sense of humor. They know how to take jokes, and how to give back as good as they get.

Then, we went to sleep, even though it was only about 8:30. We were quite tired, and it was rally cold outside, so we bundled up in our beds, and slept.

Morning came, and at 6:30, no one was up at the monastery, so we stayed in bed until 7:30, then went down to see about breakfast, but the guys that work in the kitchen apparently slept in too, because there was no breakfast.

We left the monastery a little after 8, and made our way down the mountain, not via the road by which we had come, but by the path that was made down the middle of the mountain from the center of the monastery to the center of the town below. We were told that the way down takes about half and hour, so I was sure we were going to miss the bus, because I was sure I couldn't go down the path in half an hour. In fact, it took us about 45 minutes. There were a couple of times though, when I was really quite scared, I am not ashamed to say. It was tough, me not being a mountain person. Stephanie was the soul of patience, though, and refused to let me stay scared or freak out.

So, we made it safely down the mountain, in time for the bus, only...the bus was late, and almost full when it stopped in the town. The trip back to Lhasa was relatively uneventful, about the same as going to Drikung. The trip was definitely worth the effort. I learned a lot about myself, and managed to work through my fear of falling off a mountain. I can't say it won't happen again while I am here, but I will be able to have a little more confidence in myself. I was able to push myself as well, to finish climbing to the top of the mountain where the burial site is. Not too long ago, I would have given up, but my Tibetan friends did not let me give up. They were patient and waited for me to catch my breath, and join them. They did not care how long it took me, so long as I made it to the top to share in the experience with them.

After this excursion, I would like there to be a little time before I have to climb any more mountains, either up or down, but I am certainly excited about seeing other places here. The landscape is so beautiful, and the people are so wonderful, I can hardly wait until next weekend!