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From Xining to the Kumbum Lamasery
Monday, August 15, 2005-7:27 PM
The Kumbum lamasery just outside of Xining in Qinghai province is one of, if not the most important lamasery in Tibetan Buddhism outside of Tibet. It was founded to pay tribute to Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
In order to get to the lamasery from Xining, you can take bus three from the train station and get off at Guan Li Zhan and then hop on a minibus to the lamasery.
Or, if you're like me, you can hop on bus three at the train station, stay on until the last stop, get back on bus three heading in the opposite direction, get off a few stops past Guan Li Zhan, ask directions, get back onto bus three, take it to Guan Li Zhan, and then take a minibus to the lamasery.
Either way, if you do go, I hope it doesn't rain on the day you choose to visit.
It took me an hour or two more than it should have to get to the lamasery. Xining itself doesn't have an especially Tibetan feel to it. There are a few Tibetan shops here and there, but city feels more Muslim than Buddhist. The area around the lamasery, on the other hand, feels just like Lhasa.
Except for the rain.
I was invited to join a Chinese language tour of the monastery by somebody who recognized me from the bus. I was well aware my Chinese probably wasn't up to the task of capturing all the details of the history of the lamasery, but I gave it a shot anyways.
I was able to put together what the tour guide was talking about by piecing together what I could understand with what the English signs said. I don't know enough about Tibetan Buddhist to attach much significance to what I learned. It just sounded like more stories about sacred trees, prophetic dreams, and antique art.
On the way back to the bus to Xining, I looked around at a few Tibetan shops that line the road.
The shops had all sorts of cool Tibetan stuff. But I couldn't find much I wanted to buy. Whenever I found something I liked and something that was small enough to fit in my bag, the price was prohibitively expensive.
I'm not sure how long the rainy weather will last. I don't have the time to sit around and wait for a sunny day, so tomorrow I'll probably leave for Dunhuang, Gansu, a little unsatisfied that I wasn't able to explore more of the area around Xining.
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