Day 194: Samye Monastery & Yumbulhakang Palace
After a *fantastic* night sleep (mattresses and pillows really work wonders!), we met up with our guide and walked the short distance to the Samye Monastery. Originally built around the year 775, it was Tibet’s first Buddhist Monastery. The organization of the complex is based on the design of the mandela – where the central building represents the center of the universe, flanked by four, multilevel stupas facing north, east, south and west.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of video of the inside of the main temple, which is a shame as this monastery was our favorite so far. When the entered the assembly hall, we found it full of monks who were all reading from the long blocks of paper scriptures, and chanting in unison. Every now and then, one of the head monks would start ringing a bell, then another would start pounding a huge drum – it was pretty magical.
The Samye Monastery – Tibet’s first monastery was almost destroyed by a fire, but luckily a plucky chicken sounded the alarm in the middle of the night – true story! Why else would devotees be giving money to the ceramic chicken at the entrance?!
OK, this so poster in the Samye Monastery is really fucking distrurbing – it seems to show a man getting eaten by a pack of vultures. The text is all in Tibetan, so we have no idea what’s going on here – our guide tried to explain that Buddhists sometimes give food offerings to birds, but human flesh is not a custom he has ever heard of. He assured us that the guy in the picture was already dead before he was offered to the vultures…oh, I really hope so…
Yak butter candles burn inside the main temple of Samye – representing the center of the monastery’s mandela design
View from the top floor of the main temple of Samye Monastery
From our bird’s eye view, we can see monks walking through the peaceful green grounds of the monastery complex
We follow the sound of chanting and enter a courtyard where we see a huge group of monks sitting and reciting something in Tibetan
Prayer wheels surround the doorway into the white stupa of Samye
Lindsay climbs the ladder to the second level of the red stupa before exploring the black stupa
Igor enters the final stupa – the green stupa, which is filled with colorful prayer wheels
When we leave Samye, our guide presents us and our driver with yellow scarves that are meant to protect us from harm. Samdup tells us we can take off when we go to bed tonight, but Igor will continue to wear his for the next three days! Not sure if he truly thinks it’s lucky, or if he’s just convinced that yellow is totally his color
We had a 2hr drive from Samye to the nearby town of Tsedang, where we would be spending the night. While we were staying in a nice, 4-star hotel, the town itself was lacking in charm: too big to be quaint, and too small for a selection of restaurants catering to Western tourists. Normally we’d be pretty self-sufficient, picking up fruit and ramen at a nearby mini-mart, but since today was our 6-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, we were hoping to celebrate over a decent dinner. However, a walk around the neighborhood showed us that we were SOL.
We met up with our guide and driver around 3PM for a short drive out to the Yungbulakang Palace – the ancient home of the very first Tibetan king, who lived around 100 BCE. While the castle is absolutely stunning – set high upon a hilltop with streamers of prayer flags flapping behind it, and a beautiful view of the farmland opening up below – it’s also *tiny*. The “palace” is made up of barely three rooms – it was hard to imagine a royal court in this building – this king must have had a very small entourage.
A lone camel and dozens of horses wait at the bottom of the Yungbulakang Palace for tourists who would rather ride than walk to the top of the hill
Was there any doubt we would walk to the top?
Igor spins some prayer wheels as he circumnavigates the palace
Igor disappears into a wall of prayer flags
View of the Yungbulakang Palace and the surrounding village and farmlands
At the bottom of the palace we find a mural and a statue depicting the first king, Nyatri Tsenpo. According to legend, he arrived in Tibet from India – when the local people asked him where he came from, due to his unique appearance, he simply pointed up, which the locals interpreted as “I’m from Heaven,” so they thought he was a god and made him their king!
As we left the Yungbulakang Palace and drove back into town, we asked Samdup if he had *any* recommendations for dinner, explaining the special occasion. Turns out, our driver has a cousin or something who owns a restaurant in town, so he suggested we all go eat there! Not as intimate as we were hoping, but OK. It didn’t seem like our driver is very close to whichever family member runs this place, as we nearly walked into two other restaurants before finding the right one. All the restaurants looked pretty much the same: small, dark, and unfortunately full of flies. Throughout the meal, beggars kept walking into the place, hitting up the patrons for money (unsurprisingly, they always aimed for the table with the Westerners).
Despite the odd surroundings, I would rather be in a smelly, dirty Chinese noodle shop with Igor, than a three-star Michelin restaurant with anybody else in the world. After six months of travelling the far reaches of the world, he is more my best friend than ever, and every morning I still wake up excited to see him (even if we are often in different beds). Happy Anniversary, baby – I LOVE YOU!
A typical Tibetan eatery – a small shop with a TV in the back playing Arabic cartoons, translated into Tibetan
The food was pretty good – Samdup and our driver shared a huge plate of momos, while Lindsay & Igor played it safe with sautéed veggies and rice.