Panorama w/Prayer Cubicles
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Before we get into all the detailed shots of the buildings and

surroundings, and shots my new friend and I took of each other, I want

to give a few more panoramas of the monastery. If you look closely in

this one, you’ll see little white dots or small white huts on the

mountain behind the big buildings with golden roofs. Dao tells me

that, at a certain time each year, certain religious folk (not sure if

this is monks, students, teachers, what) retire to these cubicles for

some period of time to pray and – I guess? – fast. Keep in mind that

our conversation happened entirely in Mandarin, which he describes as

his third language (after Tibetan and Southern Gansu dialect), and is

my fourth…so though we communicated, the nuance may not have been

conveyed quite right all the time. J

Views of Labrang
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

This is the monastery seen from partway up the hills on the front side

– opposite this shot – and if you look closely, you’ll see a group of

Tibetan woman picnicking on the grass. Lots of people (though

surprisingly few of the foreigners) wander up into the hills for a

better view of the monastery compound. Maybe the foreigners’ schedules

are simply too pressed for time…such a pity, in this place!

After this you will see a ton of shots of various aspects of the

temple. Notice the prayer wheels in the background of some of them.

You’ll see me and/or Dao standing beside prayer wheels, or the how

structures that house them in the background while we’re standing in

the wheat fields. These are part of a very long pilgrim’s trail that

runs around the whole temple and includes many more than a thousand

prayer wheels, all of which are turned by pilgrims truly following

this path. (Once you start turning them, it’s bad luck or something

like that to stop without turning them all, so I never started: just

took photos!) The wheat fields are shared by the townspeople, who work

them together pretty much (he told me his brother worked them since

he’s still in school). The pilgrim’s trail, and the town in general,

is a whole other world…just picture seeing hundreds of people

streaming through the path and turning the wheel, nonstop all day,

many of whom are true pilgrims, who take two steps then prostrate

themselves, all the way up the valley and all the way around the path.

Quite amazing, really.

At Labrang
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

This is the central alley through the middle of the complex. I say

alley but of course it functions as a road, with cars and trucks

delivering things. 2,700 people live in the complex – students,

teachers, people working and worshiping in their ways. It’s quite

fascinating, and with a very different feel from what Christians think

of as a monastery – much more alive and lively, and full of people and

kids and monks young and old. Following are a few shots of some of the

bigger more beautiful buildings.

Labrang Panorama
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

This shows the (new — remember how friendly I said Tibetans are!)

friend I spent most of my second day with, on the mountain behind the

monastery at sunset. We’d already completed the full circuit of the

“pilgrim’s trail” all around the complex, and I wanted to get into the

hills above and do some hiking and watch the sunset and see the

complex from other angles. In the next sets of shots you’ll see

pilgrims on the dusty trail behind the temple, where the buildings

come too close to the mountain face to permit more prayer wheels to be

placed there, and many other shots he or I took as we wandered around

all afternoon and early evening.