...I know it's been a long time but hey in the meantime I crossed China into Tibet then arrived in Nepal, got stuck there for 2 weeks, then flew to Bangkok, now in Laos. In other words, I was busy travelling around!!
Well to continue with my China trip....
After our horse-trekking day across the Grasslands, Kalsang, our local guide took us to visit 2 monasteries in Langmusi. Langmusi has two monasteries located on the border of western provinces of Gansu and Sichuan. Sezhi Monastery is in Sichuan Province and Geerdeng Monastery in Gansu Province. We first passed by a sacred cave with a sacred river running infront of it, adorned with the statue of a sacred tiger and a heap of blessed prayer flags & arrows. The opening was a narrow one which however led to a huge area. Many of the locals used the boulders or rather stalagmites to rub various parts of their bodies against them to heal their ailments. There was also a narrow passage way which brought good karma to anyone who managed to scramble through. Mmmm.....the idea of a narrow dark hole didn't appeal so much so I gave it a miss.
We then visited one of the monasteries which stupa contained the body of a lama who instead of being in cremated or sky buried was preserved due to the miraculous way he died, that is, meditating in lotus position. The other monastery was recently built but just as beautiful as any other with all its coloured thangkas, tantric paintings & frescos, every-sized buddhas, ceiling-high books and the strong-scented yuk butter candles. Oh, and the deep-red monks of course. Most of the ones we met formed part of the Gelupka sect of Tibetan Buddhism which were characterised by their yellow hats.
After that we bought some snacks (and I found & raced for some odd-tasting Cadbury's!!!) from the tiny stores and set off on the long dusty road again to get to our next lodging for the night; a Tibetan winter home in Thangkor. The dry arid grasslands reminded me of the Serengeti, while the yuks reminded me of the wildebeest. After about 4 hours of driving we got to a lonely makeshift cement-built house in the middle of nowhere. This was a typical winter home so that in summer they generally lived in yuk-skin tents tending to their herds in the grasslands. The house was surrounded with yuks, their dung and their guardian, that is, 'sheep-dog'!! The family welcomed us into their 2-roomed house; the outer room the kitchen and bedroom the other larger room the lounge and bedroom. We sat on cushions spread out on the floor around a yuk-dung fuelled stove. There was no furniture except for a wall unit which contained a small TV, a DVD player, family photos and a Buddha shrine. The pretty dark and long haired women, prepared dinner in the front 'garden' and kitchen. There were three of them wives and sisters of the men who were out with the herd for days on end. They offered us jasmine tea and Muslim stick bread.
It was getting dark as the sun set behind the huge mountains in the distance. The crisp cold night air was heavily setting upon us. Standing out there in the open field was almost unreal - the quietness, the solitude, the emptiness and never-ending stretches of plain land fringed with mountains. We hurried back inside to warm ourselves up by huddling next to each other (about 13 in a room) and eating dinner. We had homemade yuk meat momos (dumplings) followed by a Tibetan noodle soup. Noodles are square rather than long spaghetti looking in Tibet. Earlier on the women together with Kalsang and our friendly-turned-chef Chinese driver just cut squarish pieces from long flat pieces of dough throwing them into boiling water.
After dinner while the younger women washed the dishes outside the grandma started turning her prayer wheels. On seeing our cameras she wanted us to take a picture of her not before putting her fake teeth in place first! She was amazing and left us open mouthed the next day when we saw her carrying a huge slab of yuk butter to sell at the market, which was the size of 2 concrete bricks on her doubly-bent back.
Kalsang provided local entertainment for the evening as a folk guitarist sat in a corner singing about nomadic life and being in touch with nature. Even though we didn't understand a lyric we were enchanted by it. Lovely voice and person too!!
Bedtime was creeping upon us so as the women laid out our beds - thin mattresses, blankets and pillows on the floor lined next to each other - we plucked up courage to go to out and pay a visit to the open air squats. It was pitch black with the only exception of the amazing stars. Our head torches met the yuks' glaring eyes. Scary! I had to fix my 'gaze' into their eyes to stop them from walking into our 'bathroom' while Kathy and I took turns to expose our buts to freezing cold air and pee in a hole in the ground balancing our feet on a plank of wood on either side!!! After that I hoped I wouldn't have to wake up in the night.
Sharon made them turn off the generated lights at 10pm and we slept in between our own snores, smelly feet till the break of dawn. Although cold, there was nothing like a first morning pee in open fresh air!!! Oh yes!! the family and out Chinese friend, prepared us a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, Tibetan dough bread, honey, tea and coffee and we helped ourselves to the previous night's dinner dessert - the yogurt with sugar. YUMMY!!! :)
We set off and lunched in a drive-through town called Huonyou. It contained only one street with shops & stores and lots of dirty and poorly-clad begging children. The afternoon drive to Guergou was spectacular. We drove around high green gold and red coloured-hills so high that you had to look vertically up to see the sky. We passed through an over 1000m long tunnel and all along, whenever we caught sight beyond the valley, the distant snow-capped mountains became larger in size. That night we lodged in a 'mountain inn', by a small river. I couldn't resist a short walk in the middle of the big trees. I felt home, as in back in the some woodlands in the UK in an instant.
After dinner Catherine, Alana and I watched 'The Silence of the Snow Lion' - a documentary about the lives of the Tibetans. We were heart-broken by the end of it. I won't go into details here but it's all about one nation oppressing and suppressing another one. One of the many things which struck me throughout our trip was their endless compassion towards life and humanity. They truly live up to one of the highest Buddhist learnings and for what their Dalai Lama's human life on earth represents. Despite everything they are happy people and smile to everyone and everything - they truly are real amazing people.
ta ta for now...next our adventure on our way to Chengdu and the cute pandas :)
lots of love & kisses to all
Nicky
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