This morning day and night it was raining. I woke up early to get some morning shopping in before we drove two hours to a Bun Monestary, only, because of the rain most of the people in the group vetoed that plan and decided to stay in Xiahe and take it easy so we could be nice and rested for the bus and the train the next day instead of getting everything they could out of the last days of the trip. It just doesn't make sense to me.
I suppose it worked out though in the end because we got to meet the third highest ranked Living Buddha at the monastery. We got blessed, got some Buddhist rosaries blessed, and hatas, or scarfs blessed. They found him when he was 15, announced him as a Living Buddha at 17, now he is 35. On his iPad he had Buddhist scriptures and lessons for studying. It was an odd picture seeing the Living Buddha showing all the American students huddled around him as he showed us his scriptures and pictures. He told us his responsibilities mainly keep him at Lebrang because he's kinda like an events coordinator/planner, but that he has traveled around Tibet. His family was very happy when he was discovered as a reincarnation of a high ranking Buddha and they visit each other still.
I think this may have been his first time meeting foreigners. His Chinese was rather rough but the communication worked out okayish. He ended the visit by telling us that being Buddhist doesn't have to be outwardly practiced, its about what's inside-your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs.
From there we walked the wrong way, counterclockwise, around the monastery, if you do that for too long you start to mess with the Tibetan people's cool, to get to a Tangka studio. Tangkas are painted images of Buddha or other Buddhist deities. they were originally for portable images for distant people and meditation. The man painting the ones we saw started when he was 18 and is now 38. He told us it took about 3 months to do some of the larger ones.
Outside the studio we were harassed by the holy goat. He could go where ever he wanted and do whatever and nobody could mess with or harm him. I don't really get why there is a holy goat chosen, especially since in Buddhism animals are all the same, but I guess its prolly more of a herding culture and more shamanistic blend into the Tibetan Buddhism maybe? Or its cause goats get slaughtered all the time and since in Buddhism you are not supposed to harm living creatures, the monks will occasionally choose one goat to be spared and protected. This holy goat eats street garbage, begs for food, and head butts people. All animals are equal but this one is better.
We had a replacement picnic in the hotel before Andras, Cora, Jeff, Big Joe, Tim and I headed to the Nunnery in town.
On the way to the Nunnery we crossed paths with several Nyingma monks with white stripes on their red wraps. They are part of the Tibetan Buddhist Red Hat sect.
We visited their monastery first and were attacked by a small boy in overalls. At first it seemed like he was playing when he was yelling at us from behind the door then hiding, then Cora went to play peek-a-boo with him and he threw dirt at her. When she stopped playing after that he left and returned with a piece of garbage to throw at us. Thinking it was cute, Big Joe-one of the coordinators or whatever he is considered-tossed the cup back. The kid picked it up and hurled it at us before running away. We returned to looking for any monks in the monestary but the head monk was out to lunch and so were all the others it seemed.
The kid returned with a sheet of rock half his size. It was okay cause we knew he couldn't throw it so Andras walked up to the kid and caught the rock as the boy tried to throw it at him. The kid ran off again and as we were leaving he returned with small rocks he could actually throw. He was a fierce little kid throwing rocks and we couldn't do anything to stop him. There were kid monks playing marbles outside, one of then picked the boy up by his overalls and started carrying him around. The kid must have been the little terrible guardian of the monastery.
We then climbed a hill to the nunnery. the nunnery was the same branch of the Buddhism as Lebrang-their close proximity to the monastery meant they got support from the monastery. Most nunneries don't get many donations and residual sexism makes being a nun a rough life. Most nunneries are not in the best condition. This one, with the support of Lebrang, was in very nice condition. While we were there the nuns were building a new building, setting brinks and whatnot. It sounded like many women became nuns because they had problems in their love lives or marriages, or their parents couldn't properly take care of them and so put them in the nunneries. Some women devote themselves because of their beliefs but there is not really honor in become a nun as there is with becoming a monk.Inside the temple the one female protector in Buddhism was painted beside the door and there was a focus on the female spiritual beings. Guanying, who the Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of, was a female. In Chinese Buddhism Guanying is female, in Tibetan Gaunying is male unless you are a nun.
The Nyingma monastery was safe from violent babies. Within the sect the monks with the buns can marry and the other ones can't, I believe these were the one that could. Their beliefs differ from the Yellow Hat Buddhists in that they focus on the mystical ideas, have strange protectors(such as the four faced winged protector), and don't follow the Dalai Lama.
Some pictures from around town.
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