Moving to high altitude

We are beginning to climb to very high altitude, so hopefully my luck will hold and I will continue to feel OK. We are going to cross 2 high passes at 16,000ft an follow the banks of Yamdrok Tso Lake for more than 40 miles. The scenery is spectacular, and I am seeing more mountains than I have ever seen in my life, but we are still a long way from Everest.

The piles of stones on the beach are made by people adding a stone for a prayer.

Monk training

Please forgive me if I already wrote about this, but at our last hotel before we dropped off the grid 3 days ago the service was sketchy, and I am not sure it went through.

On a visit to the Drepung Monastery one of the richest and most powerful of the Yellow Sect monasteries, we happened to witness some of the 200 monks training for their final oral exams. They are split into two groups and one monk from each group is chosen to wear the yellow hat, before being blistered with questions. If the answer is correct the lead questioner slaps his left arm with his right hand, palm down, if wrong the hand will be palm up. It looked very intimidating.

The huge pile of wood is used for the fires which burn under the enormous cauldrons which cook food for 200 monks. It is the largest monastery kitchen in Tibet.

Cute kids

On our long drive we stopped by the roadside in a small village. Apparently our driver's mother in law lived there and she had brought some of her grand-children to wait by the roadside so that Yambil (our driver) could drop off some food supplies. I do not know how long she had waited, but after handing out some cookies that we had, and taking a picture, we were on our way. That is my friend Deb in the picture.

The other little two some were on some steps in Lhasa - I am sure he was flirting with her.

Traditional crafts

A staple of Tibetan food is barley flour which is made into a form of porridge, rather like our oatmeal. You can see the wheel spinning as the grain from the bag falls into the hole and is ground into flour before exiting the between the stones. The wheel is turned by fast rushing water underneath the building, which is channeled to paddles making it spin.

We have seen a lot of sheep providing wool, and mutton for food. The art of spinning it into yarn by stretching the wool a little at a time, and then twisting it with the other hand can clearly also be done by men.

Decorative buildings

This is the beautiful Stupa at the Pelkor Chode Monastery. It is typical of the decorations that Tibetans use to adorn both the inside and outside of homes and public buildings, both old and new.

A day of traveling

We were sad to leave our Kyichu hotel in Lhasa but we have to move on. Our day will mostly be a 6hr drive to Gyantse and it involves crossing two high passes, one at 15,700ft bad the second at 16,500ft, both of which are way higher than I have ever been outside of a plane. So far the altitude has not been a problem, maybe a little more tiring climbing stairs, so I am hoping it stays that way.

The road also follows the beautiful Yamdrok Tso Lake for 40 miles, with views of the snow topped mountains. According to our guide the lake changes color from the blue to white, but she did not explain how this happened.At certain places along the shore, people had stacked stones added one at a time, and said prayers for themselves as it is considered a sacred place.

The Oral Exam

The Drepung Monastery is the largest of the Yellow Sect monasterie with over two hundred monks. Buddhist monks fall into two categories, yellow, and red. The Yellow Sect is the highest as they are the only ones who even have a chance at being the Dalai Lama, but the Red are the only ones who can marry.

The day we were at Drepung they were holding the preparation tests for their oral finals. All the monks gather outside and Two by Two they are questioned by a group of five monks. The two wearing the yellow headdress are the ones being submitted to the questioning. At every correct answer the five slap there left arm palm down, if incorrect the palm will be up. They go through this numerous times to prepare.

The large woodpile is for the kitchen where enormous cauldrons cook meals for the monks, mostly, barley porridge, rice, and vegetables.