I cannot tell entirely how much two days visiting in Lhasa affected me. There is a Tibetan Buddhism temple around my house and I am studying Buddhism for some period of time every day. I was skeptical of the belief as a religion; for me, this whole change is very huge. Therefore, I would like to start this journal by talking about the most decisive moment that I enter the Buddhism.
I had literally a culture shock on the Barkhor Street which surrounds Johkang Temple during staying in Lhasa. I lost words by the scene that I encountered after examined by Chinese polices to get into there. Of course there were people who prostrate during the daytime; however, there were innumerable people who prostrate and do kora(a religious circle of a building or mountain) in the evening.
That religious scene was just beauty itself. A religion would be inevitable for Tibetan people who live in harsh nature when compared to our Korean tiny one; it is warm when it should be warm, cold when it should be cold and we, Koreans, are so lucky. I was captivated by the sincerity of that form which shows fiercely what they believe by their own whole body. Observing what one has been telling is practicing asceticism. That is what I would like to learn from it and act whenever I should.
Let me start to tell you about visiting Lhasa in earnest. Following our Tibetan guide, we visited our first place, Drepung monastery. It is one of the greatest monasteries in Tibet and it belongs to the Gelug sect which it has Dalai Lama as a leader. Built in 1416, it seemed like a village rather than a monastery for me. I was heard that one time there were around 10,000 monks but now only just a few hundreds after the Cultural Revolution in China. At this moment, I and my husband argued a little bit. I claimed that Chinese government killed many people. Otherwise, he claimed few. He asked the guide about two things; whether people died or not at that time and if he was told by other people about it. The guide said yes, yes but he didn’t say too much.
It would be happy to mention about people we went together. There is no more luck than meeting good fellows in such long trip. I strongly believe there always had been fortunes with us. We were able to get close even in Drepung monastery. The group was so diverse mixed with Indian-Americans/Australians who believe in Jain, Germans, Sri Lankan, Singaporeans, American. Amongst them, the Indian people were so animated, curious and full of humor from the beginning of our trip. I called them “Indian uncles(in Korean)”.
Indian uncles and I climbed the sloping road nearby before entering the monastery. My husband didn’t go up due to tiredness. Indian uncles teased him. “You must have been absorbed whole energy by your new bride!” While watching him being tired, even puppies beside him were like him. I am not sure the reason why all puppies in Tibet sleep sagging like they are dead. Is it because too strong ultraviolet rays or people do not bully them?
After climbing, there were rocks depicting monks who wear yellow hats. The reason why Gelug sect is called as “Yellow cap” is because the monks in the sect wear yellow hats. More climbing, there was a picture of seashell which is one of the 8 holy treasures in Tibet. In front of that prayed one Tibetan.
Wandering in the monastery, I found out that people decorate with five colors(pancha-varna) whatever it rotates such as the windmill, Waterwheel. Colors have each meaning such as blue for purification, white for wisdom, red for power, green for harmony, yellow for renunciation. With this ornament, colors keep rotating by its own power. I didn’t know why they made this, later I uncovered the reason; I guess by doing this they wish colors’ holy power could spread widely. Anyway, it was so colorful that I got reminded of the color of hanbok, the Korean traditional clothes.
To be continued…
One final word
Explanation about Tibetan places was referred to the Tibet Vista Tour site we used. Please check the site if you have interests.
https://www.tibettravel.org