Drepung, book donation, Jokhang

Drepung

Drepung Monastery is nestled up against the mountain at the edge of Lhasa city. It is a large complex of buildings, once housing seven thousand monks. It is now home to three hundred. Pilgrims from across Tibet still come to this famous monastery to pay homage to the Buddha. The monks welcome tourists and a well-marked route through the complex helps the visitor orient to the famed contents of the chapels and assembly halls. Photographs are permitted for a small fee, usually about twenty rnb for each section of the monastery. Pilgrims carry flasks of yak butter to add to the slow burning pots that fill the air with their smoke mingled with incense. Outside, larger smoke chambers are constantly fed with juniper and cypress to create a smudge, which wafts upward carrying the prayers of the pilgrims. There is a strange balance between spirituality and power felt in this monastery. Three hundred monks instead of seven thousand represent the diminished power of Drepung Monastery. Formerly the abbot of the monastery had a voice in the operations of the city and country. Our guide, Monday, speaks of the changes since liberation. I am reminded of Quebec society and the changes of the Quiet Revolution, a shift in the balance of power from the clergy toward a secular state occurred there, too, in the ‘fifties.

The next stop in our itinerary for the day is Lhasa Beijing High School. The entire Canadian delegation was invited to donate English language books for Chinese students after James had visited Lhasa last March. At that time he met with the Principal of the school who told him that there were no authentic English language reading materials in the school. Students learned from textbooks written in China. James conceived the donation program and everyone eagerly adopted it. A total of twenty-two boxes of books, over a thousand books, were donated, some going to schools in Beijing and some to the school in Lhasa.

We arrived at the school around 11:00 a.m. in the rain. The bus turned off the approach road into the school compound where red clothed students stood shoulder to shoulder on either side of the road awaiting us. They burst into applause as the bus crawled forward between the lines of dripping, smiling, clapping students. Most of the students were seniors attending over the summer in order to improve their standing on final exams. Once inside the auditorium our delegation was seated at the front, the students behind, and the ceremony began. The Director of Education for Lhasa and the school Vice-Principal spoke while on our side; James, Sonia and I spoke. The ceremony was short and was video taped for Lhasa TV news that night. A tape will be sent to Tianjiao when we return to Vancouver.

From the school we headed to lunch with a quick stop at a local Bank of China. The clerks appeared to be overwhelmed by the busload of tourists descending upon them, including me. I was not pleased that the exchange rate for hard currency (CDN) was less than for travelers cheques. Lunch followed and then a stop to the government tourist store occupied our attention. These stores offer a guaranteed quality and authentic item in a range of Tibetan goods such as carpets, tankas, turquoise, coral and lapis lazuli jewelry. Jen and I bought a carpet and a tanka and a pair of lapis ear rings. This was our plan as far as souvenir purchases goes on this trip. The carpet was shipped to us in Surrey and arrived within ten days. It is about five feet by seven feet, hand woven and dyed with traditional colouring materials that won’t fade with time. The theme depicts a pattern of barley stukes in the field and there are small animals, some yaks and some horned sheep, that adorn the carpet. The tanka has the mark of the monk and the monastery where it was consecrated. Without this mark the tanka would be a work of art, but with the mark it is a work of religious art. In the Buddhist world this gives it a real significance.

The tour went next to the Jokhang Temple and the Barkhor district, which is the original Tibetan district in Lhasa. The Jokhang houses among other important statues, a chapel devoted to Songsten Gampo, the unifier of Tibet and its first great king. He is credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet through his two wives, one Chinese the other Nepalese. The pilgrims converge on the temple along the phalanx of vendor’s stalls on the square in front. The pilgrims circulate within and without the temple in a clockwise direction, which is also the direction to spin a prayer wheel. Inside the Jokhang the air is heavy with incense and burning yak butter. The sacredness of the place is easy to feel almost literally as the pilgrims push their way forward to their destination. As a tourist is a courtesy to make room and not block them as they go about their mission. Many devout pilgrims have come great distances on foot and many make the prostrating movement, laying down full length every three steps. A circuit around the Barkhor is not uncommon. A journey from one’s home village, although more rare, is also not uncommon.

The Organizing Committee had to leave the Jokhang early to attend a meeting with government officials at the Lhasa city administration building. The book donation ceremony at the school had been reported and the Party Secretary, Education Director, Foreign Affairs Director the school Vice-Principal and another Director of some other department all wanted to meet us. The Party Secretary was in charge and seemed a good leader, large stature, smiling and welcoming. We talked for forty minutes about friendship, co-operation and some details of schooling issues. It is apparent that schooling is being consistently addressed in the three main cities of Tibet, Lhasa, Shigatse and Gyantse. It is less practical in the more remote areas of Tibet. It would certainly be wonderful to establish a real presence in Tibet for education. James and I discussed this back at the hotel later that evening and James suggested the possible beginning of a cash donation program to support a specific school in the name of the donors. A charity number would have to be obtained in Canada but the costs of support are very reasonable from a donor perspective. This is something to pursue back in Vancouver.

The final evening in Lhasa, Jennifer, John and I walked around the market streets that surround our hotel. The hotel is located behind the large square that lies at the foot of the Potala.