A dusty old town with hidden opportunities

The monestary from the top.
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We originally planned to go to Zhongdian (Xianggelila, or Shangri-la) because we wanted to see Tibet without actually going to Tibet (since its quite difficult to get there now, you have to have an astronomically expensive travel permit to go). We had heard that there was a very beautiful monastery there. This monastery, home to the Yellow hat sect, was the biggest Tibetan monastery in Southern China, so we thought it would be a wonderful town to see. Furthermore, the population of the town was over 50% Tibetan, so we were excited to experience this new culture, even if just for a day. Little did we know that we were in for adventures that we never expected.

Small little ladies, all with bright pink scarves wrapped around their heads.
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Before I begin my description, however, I will clarify the confusion surrounding the name of this town. The original Chinese name for this town was Zhongdian. However, in the early 1930's a novel was written by author James Hilton about a "lost paradise" which he called Shangri-la (most of us now know this name by the hotel chain all over the world). After this novel became popular, people began searching for the "real Shangri-la." It was finally decided that this town, Zhongdian, was the real Shangri-la because of a beautiful lake nearby, and various other landmarks described in the book. The name in China was officially changed to "Xianggelila," a tranliteration of Shangri-la, only two years ago. I am most familiar with Xianggelila, since that is what is most commonly used in China, so that is the name I will use for this narrative, even though the title says Zhongdian.

We never would have thought that we would have the opportunity to not only meet the monks of this famous monastery, but also drink tea with them.

A Tibetan meal, with (starting in the left corner going clockwise) braised yak meat, baba, tsampa, and cheese.
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We caught a bus in Qiaotou to go to Xianggelila. The bus was an older, rackety bus with few seats available, and I sat in a single chair directly behind the front passenger seat. The man in front of me must have smoked an entire pack of cigarettes throughout the trip, and about an hour and a half into the trip I was finding it difficult to breathe. Furthermore, all of the windows were open, and as we drove higher in altitude, I continued to get colder and colder. The driver was a heavy man with a loud booming voice, and even though he spoke Chinese, he reminded me of a big Italian man, like Paulie from Goodfellas. His mannerisms made me laugh the entire trip.

The town of Xianggelila from the monestary
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We got off at the end of a dusty trail, and attempted to find the one travelers cafe mentioned in my travel book. For about half an hour we walked searching for this place, and the cold dry air was making me more and more uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we really liked the town. One could easily tell that the town while the town was small, ancient, and almost forgotten, tourism had certainly come at full force in the recent past, as new and fancy hotels seemed to be popping up in the most unlikely of places. Nevertheless, you could see that there was a friendly character about the town.

The inside of the temples.
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The people were relaxed and genial. There were many little old ladies that wandered the streets, all bundled up with scarfs and jackets, and characteristically had fuscia scarves wrapped around their heads. Even though there seemed to be little to see, we really liked the character of the town.

Finally, we found the cafe, and sat down to a nice Tibetan breakfast. We decided early on that we wanted to try all of the regional specialties, and in the case of Xianggelila, this included yak meat and goat cheese. Our Tibetan breakfast included: baba (or traditional bread, which reminded me of Indian naan), two eggs, goat cheese (which they drowned in sugar, I still don't know why), tsampa (which was a flour like substance that they added tea to, which made it taste like bread dough), braised yak meat in soup, sweet tea (which was creamy and quite nice) and butter tea. Butter tea, as the name suggests, is a non-sweetened tea that they add salted butter to. Ally and I didn't care for it much the first time we tried it, and we ended up having to drink a lot of it throughout the day.

The temple from the road.
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After we had eaten, we went first to buy our bus tickets for the night. Then, we caught a bus that took us to the monastery. The monastery was only a couple kilometers away, but the roads were bumpy and uncomfortable. On our way, a young boy about our age hopped on the bus, and sat behind us singing, which we found quite humorous. After a couple of minutes he began asking us questions, such as where we were from, where we were going, and so on. We told him we were going to the monastery, and he told us he was going as well. We all decided to walk together once the bus had arrived.

Ally and I, drinking tea with Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Songzanli monestary.
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As we were walking we found out that this boy, although currently living in Kunming, originally grew up on the Songzanlinsi monastery, the one we had traveled all that way to see. He told us he was visiting his family for the holidays, but that day, he was traveling to the monastery to worship. He then offered to take us around the monastery for the day, and we happily and excitedly obliged.

We entered the monastery from a side entrance, where we passed by many houses with flat roofs. The Tibetan boy (named so because I don't think he ever gave us his name) explained to us that this was where many of the monks lived. We saw monks periodically stick their heads out the window, often doing chores or getting fresh air. Most of the time, they looked at us with disdain until our friend spoke Tibetan to them; then they were immediately friendly. The roads of the monastery seemed to wind around, which makes sense since there is a rather large clergy that currently resides in the monastery today.

The making of butter tea
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We then entered some of the temples, many of which were not open to the public. The rooms of the temples were usually covered in paintings and statues, often very brightly colored. The figures seemed very mythological, and the faces often very animated. The painting style was very busy; almost every surface was covered in bright colors, small figures dressed in wild clothing, or other fantastic creatures. These included Buddha figures, guardian kings, big blue dogs, and dragons. At the front of many of the temples (and often the sides as well) were many different Buddha statues, all different, and all encased in glass.

The outside of the main temple.
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In front of the statues were usually small figurines, or 3 dimensional paintings made out of wax (or butter, I'm not sure. However, the word our friend used to describe the material of the paintings was the same as what they put in the tea). The center of the temples had large red pillars and pew like benches where the monks would sit. Some of them even had very large circular sitting areas. The temples were largely empty when we entered, which gave them a cold and ominous feel to them.

We also were able to see the main three temples, which seemed to be larger versions of the other smaller ones. The largest one had 118 red pillars, and the walls were covered in more colorful murals. Next to it was the hall of the living Buddha, which encased a very large Buddha statue that reached stories high. Strange statues, such as a dog standing on top of a ghost, surrounded the large Buddha statue.

In one of the larger temples, some monks were performing a ceremony with loud drums, and the chanted mantras as they sat and worshipped. Also, in another temple, there was a small monk who stood next to a pot of water that seemed to carry a similar connotation to Holy water in Catholicism. We watched our friend reach out his hands, take the water in his hands and drink it quickly, and then bow. The monk motioned us to follow, and we did (despite my hesitations on the sanitation of the water).

However, the best experiences we had in Xianggelila was our opportunities to meet and socialize with the monks themselves. We saw a few of them throughout the day, all wearing dark red robes (as opposed to the dark orange ones I saw in Thailand). Once, we passed by one of their houses, where a young monk was cleaning a water pot. Our friend talked to him for awhile, and told us we could take a picture with him. Once we neared the larger temples, our friend met a monk he had clearly known before, and this monk invited us to drink tea with them. We were ecstatic, and followed the monk into a dark, rusty room with a large fire burning, which was a nice relief from the cold.

We were then shuffled into a back room, where many monks were seated around a smaller fire, and a teapot hung above the fire. We watched as a man who must have worked for the monastery (he was not dressed in monks robes) boiled water, added tea leaves, and then pumped the boiling water and a large clump of butter together in a device that reminded me of a butter churn. They continued to fill our cups with butter tea until we finally told them to stop; that much butter was beginning to make me nauseous. They also gave us more tsampa, which they mixed with butter. The tsampa we had had that morning had been mixed with sweet tea, and was much better tasting. Nevertheless, we choked down the food out of respect, and had simple conversations with the monks about where we were from, our studies, and our trip thus far.

At one point, an elderly monk who must have been important entered the room, as all the other monks stood to greet him. He greeted us as well, and then exited. After that, we took pictures of us with the monks (which we were granted permission to do) and continued on to see the rest of the monastery.

As we left the monastery, we looked around at some of the shops, as Ally wanted to buy something to remember this experience. She bought two Tibetan necklaces, and I bought a fuscia scarf. I knew it wasn't traditional Tibetan clothing, but I had seen many older women wear them throughout the day, and I wanted to remember that. Our friend then took us out to dinner before we had to hop on the bus. It was a local Chinese place, and we didn't exactly know what we were ordering. Nonetheless, the meal was delicious, including sauteed pork with peppers, fried potatoes, and egg and tomato soup, all of which we had eaten before, but none of which were as good as this place. After our nice meal, and exchanging phone numbers, we hopped on the night bus to Kunming.

Once again, our ability to speak Chinese, and the friendliness of the Yunnan people, allowed us to have the opportunity to go on crazy adventures. Because of our friend, we not only got into the monastery without paying, but we got to then go into places and see things that other tourists aren't allowed to see. We never would have thought that we would have the opportunity to not only meet the monks of this famous monastery, but also drink tea with them. We were especially sorry to say goodbye to this place, and I think our friend was especially sad to see us go (moreso because he had a crush on Ally than anything else). We felt so fortunate that we were able to meet yet another amazing friend.