Dalais, Debates and Dogs (4 June)

Monday was a day of D's -- starting with my own digestive challenges that meant I missed the Norbulingka.  This was particularly disappointing for me as I had hoped to stand in the space last occupied by the 14th Dalai Lama before he fled to India.  Alas, we soldier on with what life deals.  It is the way of the traveler.  The morning info (below) comes from my interpretation of Cliff's journal notes:

Summer Palace of the 14th Dalai Lama

Meditation Room at Norbulingka

Dalai Lamas, for seven generations, spent their summers at Norbulingka.  And it's the first stop of our second full day of exploring (and still acclimating) in Lhasa.  This series of sprawling and rather poorly maintained buildings and gardens, arrayed across 89 acres in what is now a modern urban center, seems saturated in sense of deep loss and absence.  

Norbulingka was founded by the seventh Dalai Lama in 1755, and became the summer residence for him and all subsequent Dalai Lamas.  Heinrich Harrer's describes in his book, Seven Years in Tibet, the spectacular annual procession relocating the Dalai Lama and his entourage from the Potala to Norbulingka.  In fact, the best preserved of the buildings is the "new summer palace," built by the current (exiled) Dalai Lama.  Note that the fountain Harrer built for the Dalai Lama still stands at the new palace entrance (see photo above).  Although almost all of Norbulingka was damaged (much has been somewhat repaired) by Chinese artillery quashing the popular uprising that followed the 14th Dalai Lama's flight, his private chambers largely survived and have been maintained almost exactly as he left them. Cliff described being awed by the space -- and by realizing that nearly sixty years have passed despite the frozen in time presentation of the private chambers.

After spending the morning close to our hotel bathroom, I rejoined the group for the afternoon and was glad not to have missed the trip to the Sera Monastery.  Sera was an "add " to our itinerary in the aftermath of a stroke suffered by the Tibetan staff member who was submitting permits and payment for our visit to the Potala Palace.  With that one link missing, all the coordination for that excursion apparently was lost.  This is the reality of working with the (rigid and bureaucratic) Chinese Government.  As a diversion from my "in the present" commitment to this blog -- I'll tell you now that the Potala will make an appearance later in our trip.  In the present, we divert to visit Sera, and give up an acclimatization day.  This will be our final pre-trek night in Lhasa.  Note: The permitting for in-country travel (different from the permit to enter Tibet) includes our detailed itinerary -- this diversion will complicate travel later in this surreal world of arbitrary rules and total inflexibility).

Entering Sera Monastery

Yak yogurt, the perfect treat

The Monk Debates

Sera Monastery and the Debates.  After lunch: The four of us (Chris, Karl, Cliff and I), plus Gary (our Western guide) and Tinsley* (not his real name -- our Tibetan Guide) head for the Sera Monastery, just on the western edge of the city.  This monastery (founded in 1419), was once a training ground for 5000 monks, now  there are (we are told) roughly 300 there.  On the grounds -- in addition to a slew of vendors (yak snacks anyone?) leading to the monastery and the government controlled security and ticket counter (more fees, another requirement to present our permit), we spy flashes of maroon and saffron robes.  The monks in training are about. 

As a functioning monastery the grounds include a library, huge industrial style kitchen (think primitive and rudimentary) and dormitories. We are allowed to view the monks’ debate (a sort of Tibetan Buddhist-Socratic method full of hand pops and open palm “pointing"). The debates are lively and loud.  Monks in robes and tennis shoes work in triads taking turns questioning and answering one another.  The two-hour daily debates take place in the monastery courtyard, and are practice for the final "dissertation" that follows approximately 20 years of novice study.  Particularly interesting is the advanced age at which the 20-year process to becoming a monk now begins in Tibet.  While previously training for the monkhood began in the early childhood (as it still does in Nepal and Bhutan), the Chinese Government restricts the training start until age 18 (when many young male Tibetans have experienced maturation such that they are reluctant to choose a life of celibacy and piety).  In our view, another example of the ongoing cultural genocide.

And finally, the Dogs of the Sera Monastery.  For all who know me, it will come as no surprise that I am perhaps most intrigued by the Sera Dogs.  All around the grounds dogs of differing breeds and appearance rest languidly next to crumbling steps, under spindly trees and along the dirt and tile walkways.  The dogs are allowed to stay on the grounds, and fed and cared for, by the resident monks who believe them to be the reincarnation of fallen monks who failed their vows.  In a culture where belief in reincarnation (and a certain hierarchy in reincarnation is bedrock), this makes a sort of sanguine sense.  The dogs are quiet (reflective?) but aware, communal, non-engaging (non-judgmental?) and content.  Ah, but I am the queen of anthropomorphizing when it comes to dogs.  It is why all of the dogs in our lives always sound just like me!  


That evening, after another dinner on the chilly rooftop of the Tibetan Family Restaurant (we are becoming experts on yak mo mos now), we rearrange our duffels and backpacks one more time for tomorrow's launch. Let the trekking begin!


*Note: I have chosen not to use our Tibetan guide's real name to protect his identity from what I now understand are the aggressively prying eyes of the Chinese Government.