China Day 6 - Monasteries of Lhasa

Added: August 18, 2009

Tags: Tibet animals monastery mountains photos

On Saturday 11th of July I finally started to feel completely well. And it is about time because we are heading to Ganden Monastery with altitude even higher than Lhasa is at and we will have some walk with nice views today. I am looking forward for that!

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Morning
At monasteries

At monasteries

Vultures at sky burial place

During our kora we have seen a place where Tibetans perform burials. It is done slightly differently than what we are used to. They feed dead people to vultures, because burying under ground is not practical there, not to mention that vultures help to transfer soul to heaven. We have been lucky, because we have been there out of business hours :-)

It happens over there.
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Time to leave...
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Ganden Monastery

Ganden Monastery was monastery where Je Tsongkhapa, founder of Yellow Hat sect, lived. So it is quite important for Tibetans. There are 3 big monasteries around Lhasa, Ganden is one of them, we will visit another one bit later and the 3rd one tomorrow.

We were allowed to take photos inside Assembly Hall, after paying 20 RMB and I gladly did, because we could not take photos inside monastery and palace yesterday. But it was quite dark there and without tripod the results are as they are... But better than nothing.

Ganden Monastery from road as we approached it. The kora starts on the left side, it goes behind the hill and then returns from the right. From this photo it does not look like a long walk.
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Assembly Hall in the middle.
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Detail of yak.
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Sera Monastery

When we were done with exploration of Ganden Monastery as well as with yak noodle soup we have returned to Lhasa and went to Sera Monastery that is nearby.

Sera is another famous monastery in the area. It also have several colleges where monks are studying. Sera is famous nowadays for possibility to see debating monks.

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I should have mentioned it probably with Potala Palace, but that red thing in the wall is traditionally used reed of some kind. It is growing at high altitudes of Tibetan mountains and after using it in walls it creates a composite that helps to withstand earthquakes.
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It is pity we did not absolve kora here. It goes around nice boulders like these. I believe I would like it a lot.
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Monks were even more lively than at Jokhang Temple yesterday. Their movements, clapping and arguing was spectacular. I have regretted only once my camera cannot make movies. In Sera Monastery. (Time for upgrade? Probably not.)
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