Xiahe

Xiahe has one of the most important Tibetan monasteries outside Tibet – the Labrang monastery. This small town is sort of divided into the Tibetan, Hans and Muslim quarters, but sometimes it is difficult to tell since there is a lot of mixing.

Hotel with Tibetan decor that we stayed in Xiahe

We went on a guided tour of the monastery and received a brief introduction of the Tibetan Buddhism. Basically, like most (all?) religions, it is about doing good. The monastery houses about a thousand monks who do what monks do – meditate, learn the sutras, astronomy and medicine. However, the guide, who is a monk, never mentioned a gathering place for the common worshippers (like something similar to a church, mosque or temple), and to my dismay later, I forgot to ask this obvious question.

A gate at Labrang Monastery A part of Labrang Monastery

There are two things that grabbed my attention about Tibetan Buddhism. One is about incarnation. I knew about the incarnation of Dalai Lama. What I did not know is that incarnation does not just happen for the top Lama, but also for other lesser Lamas. So there are many living Lamas now living in Labrang Monastery that are supposedly incarnated from earlier Lamas. There are photos of these living Lamas, together with large Buddhist statues, in each temple. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

We noticed that there many monks walking around in Xiahe and Langmusi, some of them talking on their cell phones. We saw them going into shops and restaurants, and wondered what were they doing there. Aren't they supposed to forego all worldly things? Anyway we found out what they were doing (at least some of them) when we were having dinner in a restaurant. Two monks came in and talked to us in Tibetan while holding a wad of cash. It was clear that he was asking for donations. We just ignored him, pretending not to understand – it is my "religious belief" not to just give money away without knowing what is done with it. One monk started talking to the restaurant owner and there was a loud argument. What we figured out was that the owner refused to give money since she gave earlier already. What a racket!

Prayer wheels Tibetan monk talking on cell phone (a very common sight!) - whom is he talking to?

Later on we found out where the worshippers went. There is a corridor of prayer wheels that circles the entire monastery. Each morning the worshippers go along this corridor, spinning the wheels and praying as they go. You are supposed to go around clockwise, we were told. But the really devoted worshippers do not spin the wheels. Instead they face the temple, bow and lie down on the ground. Then they get up, move over by one step (clockwise of course) and repeat the process circling the monastery. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion.

A corridor of prayer wheels