ChinaTeacher

XIAHE

One of my key reasons for visiting Western China was to see Labrang Monastery in Xiahe (Gansu Province).  People say that being here is the closest you can get to feeling like you’re in Tibet, without actually being there!  Labrang Monastery is one of the six major Tibetan monasteries of the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The others are Ganden, Sera and Drepung and Tashilhunpo monsteries in Tibet, and Ta’er (Kumbum) Monastery in Qinhai Province.

Outside of Lhasa, Xiahe is considered the leading Tibetan monastery town; many Tibetans come here on pilgrimage.  The town itself looks like a dusty Wild West frontier town, with nomads wandering the streets in their woolen robes (even in July) and one can easily glimpse their daggers underneath.  The town gets so dusty from the winds and sand that each afternoon I would see women sweeping sand from the streets – seems like a losing battle to me. 

Anyway, not too far outside of town is Ganjia Grasslands where one can book horse treks, or simply cycle out there and hope you meet some kind Tibetan nomads who invite you to lunch – Kathleen did!

At Labrang, a 3km Pilgrims’ Way, featuring long rows of prayer wheels (1174 I’m told) and Buddhist shrines, circles the monastery. Walking side-by-side with pilgrims and monks, you truly feel as though you’ve entered a different world.  Many pilgrims walk this route every day; it’s an excellent form of exercise, especially for those who do it as a fast pace.  I often found myself having to step aside, to avoid being run over, as others (many much older than me!) whiz by, giving the prayer wheels a forceful push with their right hand.  My right hand was pretty darn tired from turning so many prayer wheels – I don’t know how they can do it every single day! 

It’s quite interesting to watch how the pilgrims navigate their way along the prayer wheels.  Some spin every prayer-wheel once (like I did), but some skip a few, some spin the larger prayer wheels 3 times, some even longer.  I couldn’t figure out whether there is a ‘correct’ way to go about this.  Along the walls of the monastery, occasionally I would see pilgrims touch certain areas of the wall, rest their forehead on them, or even kiss them.  I felt like I was intruding on a very private and emotional moment whenever they did this.

After walking the prayer-wheel circuit around the monastery, people can walk freely inside the monastery walls, but unfortunately the doors to all the prayer halls and buildings remain closed.  Thankfully, there are guided tours into the monastery buildings conducted by the monks themselves.  They are very worthwhile and give you much insight into the monastery setup and history.

We stayed directly across the street at Tara Guesthouse for just 60 RMB (Double Room Shared Bath).  No showers – had to go across the street to the ‘public showers’ – interesting experience to be sure!  Tara has some cute Tibetan-style rooms and was doing some major renovations while we were there.  Next year you can expect more rooms with bathroom/shower facilities and higher prices, for sure!  We found the staff there to be very friendly and a few speak English, plus you can’t beat the location!  Nomad Restaurant is across the street and most of its customers are Tibetan nomads and monks – great for people-watching, both in the restaurant and down on the street.  For western food, we actually found breakfast to be pretty good at Everest Restaurant.  For lunch or dinner we often enjoyed eating at Snowy Mountain Café, run by a young fellow from the U.S.  The food was okay; we went more for the friendly conversation and to peruse English books and magazines onsite!

We were so lucky to have the chance to visit Xiahe.  The town and its monastery have been closed to travelers for the past year or so.  Permission was granted to foreigners just 2 weeks before we arrived!  Unfortunately, if you’re travelling south from Lanzhou, the bus station still won’t allow you to travel to Xiahe.  The good news is that you can purchase a bus ticket to Linxia and after that it’s easy to travel onward to Xiahe.  Travelling north, like we did, presented no problems, other than the usual ID check on the highway – I should be getting used to that by now, I guess.

IN CLOSING

My trip to Xinjiang and Western Sichuan was full of surprises, hardships and pitfalls.  But through it all, we learned a lot about ourselves and met some pretty amazing people.  My advice to all of you is to go and see Western China before they bulldoze it over into modern, over-populated concrete and glass cities.  It’s truly an amazing place!

ZOIGE/RUOERGAI

I didn’t like Zoige/Ruoergai very much because quite frankly, the rough-looking Tibetan nomads looked pretty scary to me.  Most wear traditional ‘chorpas’ (long-sleeved Tibetan coats) and many cover their faces as if they’re afraid of being recognized.  The official reason for this, I was told, is that face covers are to shield them from heavy winds and cold (yeah, right, in July?!).

In Zoige, we stayed in the smallest hotel room ever, with no windows or air ventilation.  No showers onsite, but at least there’s a common toilet down the hall, filthy, but usable.  No worries for us, as we planned to leave the next morning for Langmusi.  I know it was only one night, but I just couldn’t sleep in that room; I felt claustrophobic there.  Eventually, I did find a way to relax and get some sleep, by keeping the door open to the hallway to get some fresh air – I took a chance on our safety for sure, but it was the only way I could get some much needed sleep!

LANGMUSI

Kathy and I are in full agreement that LANGMUSI was our favourite destination in Western Sichuan, by far! First of all, it is situated on the border of Gansu and Sichuan Provinces, and is home to two monasteries: Sezhi Monastery in Sichuan Province, and Geerdeng Monastery in Gansu Province. Langmusi is really special in that to the west you have alpine scenery, and to the east: grasslands as far as the eye can see. Its surrounding countryside is dotted with temples, caves and hills, some of which are used for sky burials (you don’t want to know!). The scenery is really outstanding and excellent for long walks and hikes.

Sana Hotel was our home in Langmusi, boasting the cleanest public bathrooms and showers I have ever seen!  There is a young 14-year-old boy there who magically appears after you leave the bathroom and, voila, it’s clean again – amazing!  Showers are restricted to evenings when hot water is available, as it is dependant on solar heating to generate enough heat from the day.  We found this method of power is common in many villages throughout Western Sichuan.  Solar energy is used for electricity, hot water.  Most restaurants have a huge solar panel out front to heat everyone’s tea.

Speaking of restaurants, there’s a bit of everything on offer here: Sichuan cuisine, Lanzhou noodles, western food, and of course Tibetan food.  At Ali’s Restaurant we enjoyed a wonderful yak and potato dish – I have to admit that yak tastes pretty damn good!  We found Talo Restaurant to be the best choice for breakfast: fresh yogurt and fresh bread!  It was so good in fact, that after a few disappointments elsewhere, we ate breakfast at Talo every day after that.  Nomad’s Hostel has great potential.  Right now it has a great bar and atmosphere.  If they had kitchen facilities and could offer a food menu, I would probably head there on a daily basis.  Let’s hope that happens real soon!

Langmusi is a one main street town, packed with restaurants.  Delicious fresh bread is available everywhere from stands and street carts.  But our favourite spot is on one of the few side streets.  Amdo Crafts is a coffee shop featuring homemade desserts such as banana cake, carrot cake, cookies and muffins.  The owner created a warm and welcoming environment by playing background music, providing books/magazines to read and she also markets handicrafts made by Qinghai’s local people.  It’s such a wonderful place to escape to that we did, each and every day we were in Langmusi!

One of the highlights of Langmusi is that monks are part of daily life here.  You see monks everywhere: on the monastery grounds, around town, in the mountains, you name it.  One evening, we even got to observe monk debates – check out my photos!  Earlier, while the monks were in the prayer hall chanting, two other monks waved my friend and I over, asking us to help them carry something heavy over to the prayer hall.  I couldn’t figure out why they asked us instead of two strong guys, but hey, we’re always open to new opportunities, right?  And it paid off well for us too!  The monks took us into the building through a side door and we found ourselves in an immense prayer hall.  They said that if we agreed not to take any pictures, we could take our time and look around – it was a really amazing place.  One of the monks then guided us around the complex, explaining many of the Tibetan images and statues, as well as outlining some of the Tibetan monks’ daily routines and obligations.  Understanding little, we both realized we have a lot of research to do when we return home.  Later, while watching the monk debates, we talked about our earlier experience.  Once again, we fully appreciated the fact we were travelling independently, rather than with a tour group.  We were the only ones to get a personal tour of the prayer hall!