GODS AND MONASTERIES OF TIBET

Is a series started by the inventivity of Unknown Mami. She is amazing. Check out her blog! Click on the image of "Sundays In My City" and you will see other travel stories along with her own.


There is no such thing as "Tibet at a glance." A culture thousands of years old, deeply rooted in spirituality cannot even begin to be understood by a foreign mind in only a few weeks. It takes years and years of studies, learning the language, living in Tibet among its people to catch a good glimpse of what Tibet really is. So forgive me for not pretending to be able to give you anything more than a snap shot of the people and the places that live and endured at the "top of the world," on the High Plateau of the Himalayas.

Traveling from the Tibetan-Nepalese border in a four wheel drive Toyota Land cruiser, one of the most reliable brands in those parts of the world, we passed by many Tibetan villages. They are usually small, only a few houses, and very isolated. They are completely dominated by the majestic landscapes surrounding them.

It was snowing at 16,000 feet altitude that day and almost everyday according to our guide.

The air was so thin that, although I was breathing deeply and more frequently than I ever remember breathing, I felt my muscles aching for oxygen even after walking 15 paces without a break.

This is one of the four guardians painted on the wall at the entrance of monasteries, in charge with keeping the bad spirits away. This guardian is from the Sakya Monastery, built in 1268 as a monastery and a watchtower.

Prayer wheels at Sakya Monastery. The colouring of the buildings are a characteristic ash grey with white and red, symbolising the Rigsum Gonpo--trinity of bodhisattvas--and distinctive mark of Sakya authority.

The road to Shigatse was steep. It was winding up and down the mountains in large hair-pin curves and sharp turns. The landscape was eerie, desert like, harsh and unforgiven. Being among these giant mountains I understood in a direct physical and spiritual way that I was only an aunt on this planet, a small particle with a life of a fraction of a second compare to these mountains that will endure for generations to come until the end of the world, piercing the sky with their peaks, indifferent to the passing of time--a very humbling perspective I will never forget.

At the top of the passes, people have hung prayer flags, for the high winds to take their wishes and sorrows the shortest way to the heavens and gods. Unable to carry with me a more comprehensive assortment of reference books on Tibet, I was consulting my little Lonely Planet travel guide about the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. It was "built in 1447 by Genden Drup--The First Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The Fifth Dalai Lama raised the prestige and standing of the monastery by declaring his teacher--then abbot of Tashilhunpo--to be a manifestation of Amitabha. Tashilhunpo became the seat of an important lineage: the Penchen ('great scholar') Lamas, secondary only to the Dalai Lama."

There is now a big controversy in the Tibetan world about the current Penchen Lama. The Chinese are trying to impose their own Penchen Lama, only a puppet in their hands--the faux Lama. The Dalai Lama recognizes a different Penchen Lama who is imprisoned and perhaps killed by the Chinese Communism regime. There is a good article on this subject in Asia Sentinel if you would like to read more.

This was by far my favorite monastery we visited. It looked almost like a medieval city. Many monks still live here. Their quarters are nestled in ancient buildings connected by a labyrinth of alley ways of broken stone crisscrossing the compound. The mountain right behind it dominates the whole complex, constant reminder of the smallness of people and all their enterprises compare with the power of nature.

Galleries inside the monastery.

The monumental entrance in the main temple.

Beating the clay to create floors harder and more durable than cement.

A guardian god at the entrance of the main temple.

Guardian lion god at the entrance of Pelkor Chode Monastery in Gyantse, a town of 15,000 people, at 12,000 feet altitude. Many of the mythical animals, like this lion, have never been seen in reality by the artists who painted them. They just learn to follow a painting tradition. That is why they often look very stylized and almost abstract.

The fortress of Gyantse.

Guardian god at the entrance of a chapel.

Guardian god at the entrace of the temple.


The Gyantse Kumbum, built in 1427. It has a spiral walk away you can take to the top and which is lined up with many small chapels, each one them the host of a treasure: statues of gods and goddesses, wall painting and mandalas.

Gods and Goddesses in the monastery.

A true treasure of the world: Buddhist manuscripts, fiercely guarded for hundred of years in caves during wars, and in the monasteries in the peace time. Highly revered, they are subject of study, research and great respect.

Lhasa--preparing to ascend into the Potala Palace, the former seat of the monastic government of Tibet until the Chinese have invaded the country in 1950s. Now a museum.

The Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa, one of the most revered monasteries in Tibet and final destination of many pilgrims.

Norbulingka Park--the former summer residence of the Dalai Lamas. This is one of the libraries.

Gate at Norbulingka Palace decorated with lion head masks.

The north gate of Norbulingka Park. The south gate that the 14th Dalai Lama used to escape the Chinese artillery fire in 1959 has been closed and never reopened again after his dramatic escape disguised as a soldier.

To learn more about Tibet and its struggles to survive the systematic work of assimilation and cultural annihilation done by the Chinese Communist government, you may start by reading Robert Turman's article Why Tibet Matters So Much.

There are places in the world of such dramatic natural beauty and compelling history that can only be truly experienced by being there and taking them in directly, through all the senses. Tibet is one of these places. Perhaps one day you too, my dear reader, will venture there.