Tashi delay :-)

Today TwoWheelsWhirled celebrates six months of travelling - although we are not quite sure how we are going to celebrate the occasion yet :-)

Photos from our two day Ganden trip...

Finally after a vast amount of strain and breath taking, lung aching and quad screaming pedal turns we reached our destination - which seemed to be placed in heaven itself - Ganden monastery :-)



Nestled away on the backside of a mountain it is seemingly in a well protected placement however this did not prevent it being partly destroyed by bombing and artillery fire during the Cultural Revolution and amongst the rebuilt structures one could easily see the remains of a damaged past. The red and white buildings, some topped with gold plated roofs, stand out against the backdrop of the brown of the mountain and the blue of the sky. The red flowing robes of the monks - the same colour as the red mausoleum that houses the tomb of Tsongkhapa (AKA the Serkhang) - occasionally trick the mind into thinking that the building itself is alive and breathing due to the movement of said colour. The red robes of the monks flow and float around the monastery buildings and kora as though they are clouds in a timeless sky.





Ganden is important because it is the main and first seat of the Gelugpa order since it was founded in 1409. Tsongkhapa was the reformer and images of him and his disciples are found throughout the site. The Dalai Lama is not the head of this order and unusually the abbotship has been earned not through reincarnation but through scholarly merit.

Prayer flags adorn the mountainsides around Ganden...



Having drunk some restorative cold Jasmine tea, I left K to babysit the bicycles whilst I went and explored the monastery grounds a little.


I walked along a narrow path greeting monks who passed by and I soon found myself at the main assembly hall (the white building on the right hand side of the photograph) .


Pairs of shoes scattered in front of the side entrance to the assembly hall indicated that it was busy inside. An old monk motioned that I may enter this way too and that there was no need for me to remove my footwear, unlike when we were in India and were removing our shoes all the time.


The assembly hall was dim inside, sunlight which did enter the building entered high up into the roof and the rays were not able to reach down to floor level. The usual smell of yak butter lamps filled nostrils and the flickering flames once again added to the mysticism. There were no other visitors in the building and rather than the sound of chattering touring groups and the crucially noisy guide, I heard the sound of monks chanting and repeating scriptures.



The hall was a hive of activity - I had caught a time when monks were starting to gather. In dribs and drabs monks would enter the hall and join those who were already seated in rows on the low, wide benches. Some of the monks were wrapped in more robes and some cross legged would be rocking back and forth as they read out loud.


I walked up some stairs to view the throne of Tsongkhapa where a monk tapped me on the back of the head with the yellow hat of the Dalai Lama and thus gave me some good luck. I then circumnambulated the hall a few more times in order to take in the atmosphere and then decided to leave due to the arrival of many more monks and the fact that K and I still had to find a campsite before sunset...