Imagine a river so wide it takes an hour and 15 minutes to cross it by boat. We crossed the Yarlung Tsangpo River this morning on a small boat shared with ten Tibetans, including a mother with her ten-day-old baby daughter, a cow, two calves, and a boatman steering with an engine that looked like it belonged on a tractor. Because of the currents and shoals, he had to navigate a zig-zag course across the river; the return trip took only 30 minutes.
On the other side, we took a “luxury tour bus” (rattletrap bus) over dirt roads for about 20 minutes to Tibet’s very first Buddhist monastery, Samye. With a history of over 1200 years, Samye was built around 780, founded during the reign of King Trisong Detsen, who first allowed Buddhism into Tibet. The leaders of the indigenous religion, Bon, opposed this and tried to prevent it. The design of Samye is based on a temple in Bihar, India, and meant to represent the universe. It has one room of “secrets” – and some dark staircases leading to upper floors with various statues of Buddhas, kings, and lamas. Very ancient and mysterious.
In the late afternoon, we went to Tibet’s oldest building, a castle called Yumbulagang. Parts of it are said to date from 2000 or more years ago, but it was definitely occupied in the 7th century. From a distance, it looks like a medieval white tower, a finger pointing up from a cliff overlooking a rich agricultural valley. It reminds me of Minas Tirith, in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
We rode horses up the steep hill to see the old castle, which is now a Buddhist chapel, only a small part of the original fortress. Each of our horses had a horseboy (man, actually), who led the horse up the hill by rope. It was fun.
The most fun was when we each bought a string of colorful prayer flags. Following local custom, we wrote the names of our loved ones on the prayer flags. Each couple had a string of about 30 of them. By writing these names on the flags, then stringing them together and letting them fly in the Tibetan breeze, we asked blessings on all of you. That means you! Just think, your name is on a prayer flag fluttering in the Tibetan breeze, right now.
We took a group photo of our tour group – 12 of us, from California, Seattle and Chicago – in front of the prayer flags, strung up on the hill behind us
Blessings to all of you, especially those who have read this far! Or, as the Tibetans say, “tashidelek.”
And many thanks to Paul, who took most of these photos.
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