"Stop Me If You've Heard This One..."
These pictures from Gansu province were taken during a nine-day trip in May 2015. Gansu is a province at the geographical heart of China. Its capital, Lanzhou, is pretty close to the center of the country as can be from what I can tell by looking at maps.
Gansu, though, is most certainly considered west China by the Chinese. Physically, the province reminds me of a small dumbbell sitting on an angle. There’s a southern (southeastern) section that is slightly large and has a high elevation (often between 2,000-3,000 meters) with a higher concentration of Muslims and Tibetans than most other areas of China. When you get closer to Xiahe, where Labrang Monastery is located, road signs are both in Tibetan and Mandarin. The LP 2011 had listed three places of interest in southern Gansu: Milarepa Palace in Hezuo, Labrang Monstery in Xiahe (listed as one of the 30 “Must Dos” in China), and Langmusi down on the Sichuan border. I had originally intended to visit all three places, but ended up dropping Langmusi – the Alpine village – and spending an extra day out west.
So all told in the south, I spent a few overcast hours in Hezuo at Milarepa Palace (as quirky as I recall LP saying it is, but also something I could have done without) before spending two nights at the Overseas Tibetan Hotel about 100 meters outside the eastern gate of Labrang Monastery in Xiahe. Xiahe was mesmerizing to me. It reminded me a little of some western US towns: one wide, main street that runs the length of town and most of the buildings are two- or three-story establishments.
Xiahe is around 3,300 meters in elevation, so altitude sickness is mentioned a few times, though I never experienced any type of nausea. I have nothing but good things to say about the hotel (not extravagant, but nice and comfortable beds), the owner (Lohsang Amso – a good man – who can also arrange bike rental, local and regional travel, etc.) and the good folks a few doors down at the Snowy Mountain Cafe – which seems to only be open in the evening – but where you can eat yak…which I did. One night, I had Nepalese yak curry (Nepalese chicken curry the other night). Other than that, I was amazed at how close (and countless) the stars in the night sky seemed to be, but given the altitude and lack of surface light, it wasn’t unexpected…just amazing.
Having spent the previous day on a morning flight from Chengdu to Lanzhou (one provincial capital to another), an hour bus ride from Lanzhou Airport downtown, another 45 minute taxi ride across town (through horrendous traffic), a 4 hour bus ride from Lanzhou down to southern Gansu that ended in Hezuo, an hour or two at Milarepa Palace in Hezuo, then finally another 1-2 hour bus from Hezuo to Xiahe, I finally found myself plopping down on my bed at the Overseas Tibetan…sometime in early evening.
Though things didn’t go exactly as planned, they were close enough and I really had no complaints. My biggest surprise was the number of mosques I saw en route to Xiahe. (I hadn’t realized that the Muslim population in this particular region was quite so large.)
Upon waking the following morning – it was a Monday, I recall – I made the incredibly short walk to the Labrang Monastery. Labrang Monastery is a fascinating place. It was founded in 1709 by Ngagong Tsunde (first generation of the third in line behind the Dalai and Panchen Lamas). It is one of the six major monasteries of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat sect) order of Tibetan Buddhism. Three of the other six are near Lhasa, one near Shigatse, and the other near Xining (Qinghai province).
This is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple (if I remember reading correctly) outside Tibet. To walk the entire kora (circumference of the temple with prayer wheels) is over a 3 km endeavor, which I undertook on that Monday morning.
It was a pleasant walk, rife with photographic opportunities – people don’t mind having their pictures taken, though the Tibetan monks…not so much. They had to give their permission, and usually didn’t want to, which was fine by me. Around the back (north) side of the monastery, there’s an outer kora trail up the mountain that would give a nice view, but I was frankly too lazy to take it (and didn’t find it, anyway).
And the people. Photographing people here (monks or otherwise) is just…a treasure trove waiting to happen. Regarding the monks living here, there apparently used to be about four thousand, but limits have been set to around 1,800 now. (All I’ll say is, like most places in China, the Cultural Revolution was none too kind...)
After walking the kora, I hung out at Everest Cafe (Lohsang’s restaurant at the Overseas Tibetan) for a no frills breakfast, then spent the remainder of the morning with a tour of the interior of the temple and wandering around the grounds. The monastery has a few different temples, monastic colleges, living residences…it’s really quite a large compound.
The day had started sunny, but by sundown was turning pretty cloudy, so no great sunset shots to be had here, and it was getting a bit chilly in the evening at that altitude, so as soon as it was evident there wouldn’t be any more shooting, I went on over to Snowy Mountain for a relaxing dinner alone before retiring to my room for the night. Tuesday morning found me on another long travel day via bus, taxi, and train…to the opposite side of the province: western Gansu province, which was almost like another planet.
"Stop Me If You've Heard This One..."
These pictures from Gansu province were taken during a nine-day trip in May 2015. Gansu is a province at the geographical heart of China. Its capital, Lanzhou, is pretty close to the center of the country as can be from what I can tell by looking at maps.
Gansu, though, is most certainly considered west China by the Chinese. Physically, the province reminds me of a small dumbbell sitting on an angle. There’s a southern (southeastern) section that is slightly large and has a high elevation (often between 2,000-3,000 meters) with a higher concentration of Muslims and Tibetans than most other areas of China. When you get closer to Xiahe, where Labrang Monastery is located, road signs are both in Tibetan and Mandarin. The LP 2011 had listed three places of interest in southern Gansu: Milarepa Palace in Hezuo, Labrang Monstery in Xiahe (listed as one of the 30 “Must Dos” in China), and Langmusi down on the Sichuan border. I had originally intended to visit all three places, but ended up dropping Langmusi – the Alpine village – and spending an extra day out west.
So all told in the south, I spent a few overcast hours in Hezuo at Milarepa Palace (as quirky as I recall LP saying it is, but also something I could have done without) before spending two nights at the Overseas Tibetan Hotel about 100 meters outside the eastern gate of Labrang Monastery in Xiahe. Xiahe was mesmerizing to me. It reminded me a little of some western US towns: one wide, main street that runs the length of town and most of the buildings are two- or three-story establishments.
Xiahe is around 3,300 meters in elevation, so altitude sickness is mentioned a few times, though I never experienced any type of nausea. I have nothing but good things to say about the hotel (not extravagant, but nice and comfortable beds), the owner (Lohsang Amso – a good man – who can also arrange bike rental, local and regional travel, etc.) and the good folks a few doors down at the Snowy Mountain Cafe – which seems to only be open in the evening – but where you can eat yak…which I did. One night, I had Nepalese yak curry (Nepalese chicken curry the other night). Other than that, I was amazed at how close (and countless) the stars in the night sky seemed to be, but given the altitude and lack of surface light, it wasn’t unexpected…just amazing.
Having spent the previous day on a morning flight from Chengdu to Lanzhou (one provincial capital to another), an hour bus ride from Lanzhou Airport downtown, another 45 minute taxi ride across town (through horrendous traffic), a 4 hour bus ride from Lanzhou down to southern Gansu that ended in Hezuo, an hour or two at Milarepa Palace in Hezuo, then finally another 1-2 hour bus from Hezuo to Xiahe, I finally found myself plopping down on my bed at the Overseas Tibetan…sometime in early evening.
Though things didn’t go exactly as planned, they were close enough and I really had no complaints. My biggest surprise was the number of mosques I saw en route to Xiahe. (I hadn’t realized that the Muslim population in this particular region was quite so large.)
Upon waking the following morning – it was a Monday, I recall – I made the incredibly short walk to the Labrang Monastery. Labrang Monastery is a fascinating place. It was founded in 1709 by Ngagong Tsunde (first generation of the third in line behind the Dalai and Panchen Lamas). It is one of the six major monasteries of the Gelugpa (Yellow Hat sect) order of Tibetan Buddhism. Three of the other six are near Lhasa, one near Shigatse, and the other near Xining (Qinghai province).
This is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple (if I remember reading correctly) outside Tibet. To walk the entire kora (circumference of the temple with prayer wheels) is over a 3 km endeavor, which I undertook on that Monday morning.
It was a pleasant walk, rife with photographic opportunities – people don’t mind having their pictures taken, though the Tibetan monks…not so much. They had to give their permission, and usually didn’t want to, which was fine by me. Around the back (north) side of the monastery, there’s an outer kora trail up the mountain that would give a nice view, but I was frankly too lazy to take it (and didn’t find it, anyway).
And the people. Photographing people here (monks or otherwise) is just…a treasure trove waiting to happen. Regarding the monks living here, there apparently used to be about four thousand, but limits have been set to around 1,800 now. (All I’ll say is, like most places in China, the Cultural Revolution was none too kind...)
After walking the kora, I hung out at Everest Cafe (Lohsang’s restaurant at the Overseas Tibetan) for a no frills breakfast, then spent the remainder of the morning with a tour of the interior of the temple and wandering around the grounds. The monastery has a few different temples, monastic colleges, living residences…it’s really quite a large compound.
The day had started sunny, but by sundown was turning pretty cloudy, so no great sunset shots to be had here, and it was getting a bit chilly in the evening at that altitude, so as soon as it was evident there wouldn’t be any more shooting, I went on over to Snowy Mountain for a relaxing dinner alone before retiring to my room for the night. Tuesday morning found me on another long travel day via bus, taxi, and train…to the opposite side of the province: western Gansu province, which was almost like another planet.