Gyantse: Nuns and Chortens

6/6/07

After another (delicious) Chinese breakfast of dumplings and rice porridge, we piled into our trusty Land Cruiser and headed to Gyantse (elevation 3950m). Gyantse was a short hour drive from Shygatse on mostly paved roads. It made for a good start in the day.

When we arrived in Gyantse, the hotel we were supposed to stay at was full for the night. We were somewhat relieved because the hotel had a pile of old bed frames and mattresses out in their courtyard and they didn't look too dream inspiring. We then set off on our mini-tour of Gyantse trying to find a hotel that fit our budget and cleanliness standards (these two things appeared to be diametrically opposed). There was talk of trying to drive back to Shygatse for the night or moving on to Lhasa, but we finally settled on the Jianzang Hotel. Fortunately for Bummy, the hotel we found offered a TV with an English speaking channel. He is actually back at the hotel watching English language Chinese television now.

After lunch at the Yak Restaurant (where Bummy successfully ordered a cheese pizza), we wanted to explore the Rabse Nunnery. It was clear that our driver and guide were not familiar with this place and they did not want to take us there. We heard a variety of explanations: it is not on your itinerary, we will get fined if we go without permission, the roads are very bad. Fortunately, one of the women in the Yak Restaurant spoke English and let us know that we could easily get there by taxi. So, we left our guide and driver behind and hopped in a taxi.

The nunnery turned out to be not far from the center of town. The taxi driver dropped us off under a mass of prayer flags and it was a short walk up hill to the heart of the nunnery. It was clear that this place was not considered one of the main tourist attractions in Tibet. We were not greeted by a ticket collector or signs telling us how much it will cost to take a picture, but instead we were met by a group of curious nuns. Our first encounter happened when we entered a small chapel filled with a very large prayer wheel. Rainbow and I were busy circulating around the prayer wheel and Vivek was attempting to capture it on video, when a very sweet nun jumped in and walked around the prayer wheel with us. She and her friend were very interested to see how our video camera worked. The nun enjoyed watching the playback of herself on the video camera.

When we entered the main prayer hall we were again greeted by curious nuns. One of them asked me to take a seat next to her as she and another nun worked on drying some bowls. Before long we were surrounded by nuns curious about our camera and video recorder. I let one of the nuns take a few pictures with my camera. They were especially happy about the instant results they could enjoy. At one point I took a picture with a group of nuns and one of them grabbed some of my hair and put it on top of one of her friend's head (all of the nuns have shaved heads.) It reminded me of a picture or two I have taken with my dad! They were quite funny and friendly. It was clear from our visit that the nuns don't see too many Westerners. It felt wonderful to be able to connect with them so easily.

Since the nunnery was so close to town, we decided to walk back to our hotel. We had some Jasmine tea on the rooftop our hotel until it was time to meet Lhasing. He would take us to the Pelkor Chode Monastery. This monastery was similar to many others that we visited, but
but the main attraction was the Gyantse Kumbum, a 35 meter high chorten or stupa. As we entered the stupa, the sky began to turn dark and it was clear that we had about 15 minutes to make it to the top before it began to rain. Each level of the stupa includes several chapels with Buddhas and murals, but we walked by most of these quickly to make it to the top. From the top of the chorten we could see the entire town of Gyantse, most of which is circled by an old fortress wall. We could also watch the thunderstorm approaching in the distance. You could see the water falling in dark streams from the sky. We made it back to our car just in time to keep from getting wet.

Bummy and I grabbed our cards, ordered more tea, and enjoyed the rainstorm from the top of the hotel roof. We were hoping the rain would last through the night, but the storm moved through quickly and we had sunny skies by dinner time.

Dinner in Gyantse was a serious disappointment. Our guidebook stated that the Restaurant of Zhuang Yuan had sweet and sour chicken that was "legendary." We made the assumption that legendary implied famous for good reason, but we were sorely mistaken. We should have known better because none of us have seen a chicken since entering the country. This was the worst and most expensive meal that we have had during our trip. We had to go back to our hotel and order some additional food. I think we are all ready to send our resumes to Lonely Planet for the next Tibet update.

I just had a slightly strange encounter with a man sitting next to me in the Internet cafe. He asked to see my Tibet book, so I happily lent it to him. He was quick to point out that the Dalai Lama wrote the preface to the book. He then waved his finger across his neck (as if he was performing a decapitation) and then pointed at me. He did this a couple of times. It was a little strange. He asked to see my book again and I told him, "no." He tried to tell me that he was a teacher, but I don't know too many teachers that gesture in this way. Even the Internet cafe manager came over and gave him a look to leave me alone. So on that note, I had better sign off. We head back to Lhasa tomorrow. I am sad that we are coming to the close of our adventure.