Here's the travel update from Team XPD2470 for Day 25 - Xiahe to Xining - 275 kms:
'The Labrang Monastery at Xiahe, Tibetan Buddhism's most important monastery town outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region was a walk down from our hotel. Strolling down we found ourselves in the midst of monks and people hurrying around offering prayers.
The monastery was founded in 1709 by the first Jamyang Shêpa, Ngawang Tsondru. The white walls and gilded roofs feature a blend of Tibetan and Indian Vihara architectural styles. The monastery contains 18 halls, six institutes of learning, a gilded stupa, a debate area, and houses nearly 60,000 sutras.
It has a Buddhist museum with a large collection of Buddha statues, sutras and murals.
Labrang Monastery boasts the longest corridor of prayer wheels over the world, with over 1,700 scripture wheels.The whole monastery is encircled by the corridor, stretching as long as 2.7 miles (3.5 km). Walking to the end of the corridor takes more than an hour.
The hotel owner, Manager, Mr. Losang was so amiable and once he heard about our Road trip and our mission, he was awed! He was born in Nepal ,educated in Darjeeling, wife was from Bylakuppe and guess what, he spoke impeccable English .
Chattering away with him was a relief from talking to each other than ourselves !
It has been hard for us to talk to people in China because of the language barrier and Rotary is almost non existent here . More over people are wary of us, these parts of China does not get many foreigners,specially from where we come from.. Aliens we must look like to them.
Left Xiahe at 12 noon . And hitting the roads that changed color ever so often was fascinating ! Great music kept us company as we slowly trudged along enjoying the scenery.
Slowly bad weather started and it got windy and then snow. The temperature dipped very quickly'.
The team will rest tonight at a hotel in Xining and embark their journey tomorrow to Jiayuguan.
'The Labrang Monastery at Xiahe, Tibetan Buddhism's most important monastery town outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region was a walk down from our hotel. Strolling down we found ourselves in the midst of monks and people hurrying around offering prayers.
The monastery was founded in 1709 by the first Jamyang Shêpa, Ngawang Tsondru. The white walls and gilded roofs feature a blend of Tibetan and Indian Vihara architectural styles. The monastery contains 18 halls, six institutes of learning, a gilded stupa, a debate area, and houses nearly 60,000 sutras.
It has a Buddhist museum with a large collection of Buddha statues, sutras and murals.
Labrang Monastery boasts the longest corridor of prayer wheels over the world, with over 1,700 scripture wheels.The whole monastery is encircled by the corridor, stretching as long as 2.7 miles (3.5 km). Walking to the end of the corridor takes more than an hour.
The hotel owner, Manager, Mr. Losang was so amiable and once he heard about our Road trip and our mission, he was awed! He was born in Nepal ,educated in Darjeeling, wife was from Bylakuppe and guess what, he spoke impeccable English .
Chattering away with him was a relief from talking to each other than ourselves !
It has been hard for us to talk to people in China because of the language barrier and Rotary is almost non existent here . More over people are wary of us, these parts of China does not get many foreigners,specially from where we come from.. Aliens we must look like to them.
Left Xiahe at 12 noon . And hitting the roads that changed color ever so often was fascinating ! Great music kept us company as we slowly trudged along enjoying the scenery.
Slowly bad weather started and it got windy and then snow. The temperature dipped very quickly'.
The team will rest tonight at a hotel in Xining and embark their journey tomorrow to Jiayuguan.