Category: China-Tibet
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Gyantse Dzong
The castle (dzong) of Gyantse of which the oldest parts date back to the 14th century, is towering above the city on the high clifs of the mountain. At the time Newari artists came from Nepal for carrying out the decoration of the buildings inside the fortress with murals that would influence later Tibetan painting…
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The Tibetan plateau
Lying north of the Himalayas, the Tibetan plateau has an average altitude of 4000 m. It is mostly dry and bare. Hardly any of the monsoon rains from India and Nepal manage to cross the barrier of the high Himalayan mountain ranges. So the average yearly rainfall in Tibet is only about 40 cm. That…
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Pilgrims’ attraction
During the three-day festival in July when the giant thanka is exposed – see last week’s post -, pilgrims come from far and wide. They climb the stairs to the base of the thanka-wall, walk past and go down on the other side. For a good overview of the images on the thanka it would…
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Tashilhunpo Thanka
Tashilhunpo in Shigatse is the largest monastery in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lamas. The complex contains several golden roofed monuments and a multitude of chapels filled with statues and adorned with murals, thankas and other treasures. For 362 days of the year the view of this monastic city is not exactly like…
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Shekar Monastery
It may be in the middle of nowhere, but like most of the erstwhile 1000 monasteries in Tibet, this one too could not escape the destructive fury of the Cultural Revolution. Partly rebuilt, it has again become a centre of study and worship, nourished by the “White Crystal” (Shekar) inside. Photo of the week: Shekar…
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Timeless Tibet
A child coming down the village road. It could be 200 years ago but then Daguerre’s invention wasn’t there yet to deliver proof. It could be today from a smartphone sent instantly to your screen. It was, in fact, June 1996 captured by my camera on Kodak film. Photo of the week: Shekar, Dingri, China-Tibet…
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Yak horns
The turning of prayer-wheels as in last week’s post, and prayer-flags in the wind in an earlier post, are efficient ways of multiplying and spreading the positive effects of the sacred texts they contain. Another very ancient custom is the use of engraved stone or animal skull and horn for spreading the mystic mantras over the face…
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As the world turns
Praying while you chat with friends on the square ….. for Tibetans this is possible thanks to their prayer-wheels. Sacred formulas like “om mani padme hum” can be written down repeatedly in great number on paper and put on a role inside the wheel. If turned around it is believed to have the same effect…
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Tibet café
We notice in this simple Tibetan café a not necessarily hostile mixture of human beings and their cultural expressions from China and Tibet. The big flasks and at least one of the guests are clearly Chinese, while the lady with the impressive silver buckle is a typical traditionally dressed Tibetan woman. The flasks usually contain…
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Showing of the flag
I was born after the Second World War in a liberated Netherlands. It had just suffered five years of occupation by Nazi Germany. I remember very well the yearly festivities during my childhood of the 5th of May, the day in 1945 that the country was liberated from its occupiers. When I visited Tibet in 1996,…
καιρός remembered 