Temples, temples, tempus
Every place we went had a temple of some sort, and usually there were several...It reminded me travelling around Europe last summer in the van, when I got seriously churched out. I really didn't want to go into another historic church, you know what I mean? But the temples are different for me, each has something really special.
Beijing's Lama Temple is an oasis of calm in that crazy city. The temples are usually the only place you hear, or see, songbirds (being vegetarians, the monks don't eat 'em). And it has a proudly displayed Guiness World Record biggest sandalwood Buddha - a huge 30metre hunk of beautiful carving.
In UlaanBaatar, the Chongri temple is now a museum of religious artefacts with a fascinating if jumbled mass of Tsam dance masks, drapes, prayer flags, conch shells and the highly controversial Kangling 'spirit evoking' trumpet made from a human thigh bone.
In Tongren's monastery, we met the Master painter who teaches the disciple monks the ancient art of Thangka painting (intricate mandalas or Buddhist scenes painted with natural dyes onto linen sheets). He showed us around his studio and the temple, very graciously and with no language between us. And this was just at one of the four local temples and monasteries in this fairly small little town!
In Xiahe, we walked the 3km kora on the pilgrimage trail around the entire Labrang monastery, with the sounds of the monks prayers floating in the air, and the locals walking along with us, spinning the more than 1000 (!) prayer wheels all along the way. As the most important monastery outside of Lhasa, it was a huge and fascinating place. We went on a guided tour and i was totally overexcited to see HUGE yak butter sculptures. I kid you not, sculptures of incredible detail and size sculpted out of yak butter dyed with various powders. Wow. Check out these examples (http://en.tibettour.com.cn/geography/200412006227150102.htm)
In Kangding, we went to a busy active place with new buildings and temples being added by the artisan volunteers of the community. Brass beaters and sculptors were beavering away while the monks settled into orchestrated but no less vociferous debates on points of Buddhist dogma. But more amazingly, here I got to see a rare and beautiful thing indeed - a real sand mandala (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala). It was a life wish to see such a thing...
Each town, each stop had a stupa, a gomba, a temple or at least a rack of fluttering prayer flags - many of which are also seen at river mouths, caves, old trees, sides of hills, you name it.
Temples temples everywhere. Some ancient, some huge, some teeny, all beautiful in the way any building where people pray is. But I always enter the temples with a strong sense of sadness, as so many of them are fairly recent reconstructions or are heavily renovated. The scars of the Cultural Revolution are really everywhere. Mostly in the older people, I should think.
Up in the remote areas we have been travelling in recently, the Cultural Revolution didn't have quite as much impact. In Sichuan, a common saying is "Beijing is very far away": the government seems to have a slightly less stringent approach in the area even now, and the fact that the temples, statues and frescoes managed to survive the 1970s is largely due to the focus being on the central provinces.
Of course, it isn't just the Temples that were hit. In Lijiang, we saw a performance by a Naxi ancient music troupe, playing instruments that someone - risking their lives - had hidden or buried during the Revolution. The music was lovely, if brief, and looking at the elderly players (most in their 80s) I mostly applauded their survival.
