chubsang and sera and prayer flags

On Tuesday we walked up the bottom of a mountain just outside of town, to Chubsang ani gompa -- Chubsang nunnery. Chubsang is like a medieval village clustered on a mountainside. There are wandering cows and small chapels scattered through the compound, and the nuns and their abbot are incredibly friendly. As soon as we made our way up through the maze of little alleys, we were welcomed and ushered inside the abbot's rooms, where a traditional New Year's spread was all laid out, and urged upon us. There were tons of little flaky pastries, sweets, fruit, drinks, and most of all, the ubiquitous yak butter tea, bane of most foreigners travling in tibet. It's a soupy, yellow-ish tea that smells and tastes really strongly of... well, yak. Weaker versions of the tea have actually started to grow on me, though the 6 cups I had to down at the nunnery may have had to do with that. After a friendly half-hour of snacking, nuns came in with freshly-made yak momos, tibetan dumplings. Totally stuffed, we finally exited, after being given katas (traditional white scarf) by the abbot and the nuns. Instead of heading back down to the road, we bushwacked our way around the corner of the mountain, and down through dusty fields to Sera monastary, at the base.

At Sera, we began to walk the kora. Just a little way around though, we started climbing up a steep crack in the rocks to reach an outcropping where we wanted to hang some prayer flags. A good-sized climb later (bless pierce and ben for not letting me slip down backwards), we reached the top and added a long strand of prayer flags to the cluster already strung there. We had incredible views on a perfect blue-skied day. I'll load pictures when I can.

One precarious descent later, we continued the kora, edging past a holy spring as well as pilgrims slowing making their way by prostrations around the big monastay.

Yesterday, we woke up late to an invitation by the workers in our hostel to a party at noon. That sounded like good food to us, so we showed up at noon ... only to find that we were the only foreigners there, and our hosts were speaking almost solely tibetan while watching pretty terrible chinese comedy shows on the tv. After much gnoshing on more New Year's snacks (laid out in every home and gathering place these days), and toasting with chang, the local home brew, a fermented barley drink, we tried an exit strategy. It sort of worked. They asked us to come back at 2. With some misgivings we did, but we were treated to a great meal of boiled meat (yak? cow? sheep? goat?) and potatos. Our hostel may be freezing cold, have interesting plumbing and the occasional sound of scurrying feet, but it's owners and workers are totally welcoming, sharing the holiday with us from New Year's morning when they woke us up with traditional foods and drink to ring in the new year, to their own celebration yesterday.

Today, Ben and I spent the afternoon at Drepung Monastary, just outside of Lhasa. Once the largest Tibetan monastary, it is also a maze of compounds and chapels built up a mountainside. A long pilgrim path was laid out throughout the complex with arrows which often pointed in patently opposite directions, but always led us, eventually, through beautiful old courtyards, and buildings filled with chapels and relics. These old monastaries were set up by a system of colleges, each with their own leaders, living quarters, meeting halls, and chapels, and the remnants of this system were evident to us, even with far far fewer monks in residence today. Afterwards, we walked down the mountain to Nechung Monastary, which had been the home of the Nechung oracle, without whom the Dalai Lama rarely acted. The last Oracle left Tibet with the Dalai Lama in 1959. We weren't able to get inside because of the long line of pilgrims, but we were able to see enough to appreciate the pre-buddhist influences of this particular site, including themes of possession and exorcism.

Tomorrow Pierce and his friend Mattias leave (they've been here two weeks already), but Ben and I have a little more than one week left. We've been getting lots of sun, a good bit of exercize, even though it's hard to catch one's breath this high, and a lot of relaxation in addition to being treated to stunning views, friendly monks, and the sheer magnitude of being "on top of the world". The one big frustration so far has been in trying to get a trip together to travel south along the Friendship Highway, down to Everest Base Camp. It's the New Year though, and it's been hard finding anyone to help put together a trip, much less an actual driver/guide. We have some time left, so we haven't given up, but it's starting to look doubtful. Still, there are a few day/2-day trips out of town that I'm really excited about, so we'll be able to push out of Lhasa a bit, no matter what.

tashi delek

Lhasa is the holiest, friendliest place I have ever been. Today, the first day of the Year of the Pig, pilgrims, children, shopkeepers greeted me with Hello! Tashi Delek! (tashee delay) -- best wishes, good luck.

Yesterday, our first full day in Lhasa, we walked the Barkhor: the teeming, brightly colored, noisy kora (holy circumambulation) surrounding the Jokhang, the holiest site in Tibet. Crowds eddied through the cicuit, buying and selling, stopping to eat, but always flowing clockwise among the pilgrims doing their prostrations along the route. The Barkhor is the heart of the Tibetan district of Lhasa. Afterwards we followed the Lingkhor, a road which outlines the original periphery of Tibetan Lhasa. We walked in a crowd of pilgrims, all spinning their prayer wheels as they walked, and all greeting us. We walked to a hill clothed in prayer flags and decorated with holy paintings. Along the stone path people had left a myriad of junk... broken pieces of mirrors, plastic cups, small figurines and talismen, many coated with grime. And all of this stuff, under a canopy of colored flags and a haze of incense and brushed by old and bent pilgrims, was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

As we emerged on the other side, we faced a huge rock wall with an enormous blue buddha and attendants painted high up. The rock below was worn smooth by pilgrims' prostrations, and just below the cliff face was a small temple. As we were about to leave the area, a big ram wandered through at a fast clip... taking a quick look both ways and seeing no one in his way, the goat darted right into the temple! A monk, seeing him come in, ran up and smacked him right on top of the head. The ram was taking none of this, even from a monk, and tried to headbutt him! The monk eventually wrestled him out, and sent the goat, chagrined, on his way. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time!

That night, we wandered the Tibetan quarter, dodging intermittant fireworks (most set off by small children, all of whom own their own lighters) and watching as pilgrims lined up around the Jokhang. As it got close to midnight, we returned to our hostel on the outer edge of the Tibetan area, and happily found ourselves caught in the midst of the best firework show I've ever seen. Fireworks were being set off left and right -- full sized shows were going off at either end of our street, and in between, every other restaurant and shop was setting off its own chains of firecrackers, punctuated by bands of kids shooting bottle rockets across the street at eachother. It sounded like we were in the midle of a war-zone, and as any of you who know how much I love fireworks might guess, I loved every minute of it. The bedlam went on for a solid 20 minutes, and all night long we'd be woken up by a big boom from someone's belated celebration. Firecrackers have gone off now and then all day, and there are still random fireworks going off tonight. The night before we arrived, the streets were apparently filled with bonfires as people burned old things, preparing for a clean start in the new year.

Speaking of a clean start in the new year, today everyone was out and about sporting brand new clothes. It looked like the number of Tibetans had tripled because so many more people were dressed in beautiful tradition clothing. The kids, wrapped up in tiny gold and fur coats, and sometimes wearing fur hats half again their own size, were adorable. Many also had new hairstyles. Today we parked ourselves in a small grassy spot by the Jokhang and spent the afternoon warm in the sun, making friends with a few families,some young tibetans, and several monks who were fascinated by our cameras. Best people-watching ever. We have some incredible photos to show for the afternoon, and I'll add some of those to this post in a few weeks when I get back home.

Oh! I should probably mention the train ride to Lhasa! We had been worried about getting tickets, but my dean helped us out and we ended up being in a farily empty train, a big change from normal travel in China! It took about 30hours, and we spent the whole of a day glued to the windows as we passed snow, tundra, mountains, yaks, nomads, the highest freshwater lake in the world (frozen over),antelope, and did I mention yaks? The highest point that we passed by train to the top of the world was a pass 5000+ meters high. Be on the lookout for a few pictures from this part of the trip too.

One thing that's really stuck out for me here has been the begging for alms. Both people in need, as well as pilgrims, and many children, ask for money at almost every turn within the tibetan quarter. It's traditional to just give 1mao (10mao to the yuan, 8yuan to the dollar). Most people also leave mao at each altar in the temples. In fact, it's a common sight to see people making change for themselves at the alters, exchanging yuan notes for the piles of mao. I try to keep a pocketful with me all the time. There is no stigma in buddhist thought attached to begging. You face life with humility, live on what you are given, and offer people the chance to gain good karma by giving alms. It's really given me pause at times, but I'm starting to appreciate the general air of acceptance and care and above all, the incredible focus and balance of the pilgrims here.

Beijing, Xian, and a visitor!

After Chengdu, we took a 33hour train ride to Beijing where we met Eva, my roommate from college who'd taken a week off from both school and work to come visit!

We did, however, have a few obstacles to overcome. The first was that while in Chengdu, I'd had an MRI... the aide holding my things came into the room a few times and my ATM cards (both chinese and american) were demagnetized by the machine. So. No money was the first problem. After a stressful few days, Peace Corps came through with an advance on our post-peace corps settling in allowance. In my quest to access that money in my China account though, I ran right into the phenomenol beauracracy of Bank of China. The employees were kind and apologetic to a fault but as it turned out, only my personal Lanzhou Bank of China branch could help me to do anything relating to my account. Including take out money. Okayyy.

Obstacle 2 was lunar calendar related. February 18 is the Chinese New Year this year... called Chun Jie, or Spring Festival. At this time of year, all of China picks up and goes home to be with their families. Mostly by train. And in China, you can really only get train tickets in the city you are departing from, slightly problematic if you arrive in Beijing on Thursday, want to leave on Saturday night, and tickets have already been on sale for 10 days during the biggest travel rush of the year in a country of 1.3billion people. It was touch and go for a while as to whether we'd get stuck, both in Beijing and Xi'an, but miracles happen and we pretty much stayed on schedule for Eva's Week in China.

Our first day in Beijing, before Eva arrived, Ben and I went to the Summer Palace, which was an imperial retreat, now on the outskirts of the city. The enormous man-made lake which dominates the landscape was very low and a little icy, but an early morning ethereal mist burned off to a beautiful blue sky. We spent a couple hours strolling around a large hill dotted with temples and pavilions and rock gardens. The next day, Eva in tow, we headed out to Simatai, a more remote and less re-constructed section of the Great Wall, about two hours outside of Beijing. Perfect weather and a morning to ourselves on the wall made our 6am bus totally worth it. That night we went out for some delicious Beijing Duck before crashing early.

Next day, nursing extremely sore legs from the Simatai hike, we scored onward tickets to Xi'an, wrassled with the Bank of China (we lost), and wandered Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City. Sadly, several of the major temples in the Forbidden City were undergoing some reconstruction and were wrapped up in netting, but we were still able to see a lot, even finding some courtyards and buildings which I'd missed on my first visit a few years ago. There is still a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City.

Ben left us for a foot massage while Eva and I squeezed in a last minute shopping trip before catching our train. I almost lost Eva (literally!) to the crazy purse sales ladies who just about tugged her arm off, and we left after an hour, totally dazed from the guantlet of buyers and sellers. We dashed back to the hostel to grab our luggage, and then headed to the [massive] Beijing train station. The only tickets we'd been able to get our hands on were softsleepers (rather than the cheaper hardsleeper we usually travel), and we took off for Xi'an in luxury.

In Xi'an we visited the terra cotta soldiers (now being hemmed in by a large "international plaza" for business and commercial use), walked through the temple complex at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, hung out in the town square, and spent the early evening in the busy streets of the Muslim district.

We caught a train home to Lanzhou, and found that spring is peeking around the corner -- the sky is clear and blue (maybe the biggest miracle of all), and there is a warmth in the air. We also found the city dressed for the New Year, with red and gold lanterns hanging everywhere, and every bus and neighborhood decked out with flowers, lanterns, and pigs (2007 is the year of the pig). It was so nice to get home.

This morning Eva left to go back to the States, and this afternoon Ben and I are leaving for Tibet.

Go here (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081308&id=1511004) for a few photos.

IST

IST = in-service training.

For 5 days at the beginning of February, Peace Corps brought all of the China 12s (with a one day overlap with China 11s) in to Chengdu for some rejuventation. There were some language lessons, and a lot of open sessions led by our peers about all aspects of our lives here, from travel to making good assessments of our students, to chinese philosophy and history. It was something I had not been looking forward to, but after an initial day of shock from so many people speaking such loud english, I came out of the week feeling really inspired and ready for semester 2. In our medical session I learned about more worms and parisites we might be exposed to (with some pretty gnarly accompanying slides), in language sessions I really felt inspired to study much harder in the upcoming semester, and in all the time spent with other volunteers sharing stories and ideas and expertise, I felt really proud to be a part of this group and to be doing the work we're doing. We played poker and ate cheeseburgers and shared allll the failures and triumphs of our first 7 months here. On the first night, we had an open mic night that blew all of us away I think, in the face of so much talent. One site-mate pair altered some lyrics and performed an acoustic song just for us, the China PCV's, that had half the audience in tears, me included:

This is our life
Chorus:
Well, it's cold outside and the sky is gray
Pressin' down on me with its dismal face
With my feet in the air and my head on the ground
Where is my mind, Where is my mind

Verse 1:
Well, it's cold outside and the sky is gray
Pressin' down on me with its dismal face
I'm in no mood to talk so I walk quickly
Head down hood on and hope that people miss me
(Please miss me, Please miss me, I'm beggin' you, please today just today miss me)
Today, no fake smiles, No superficial speaking
No learning about another last minute meeting
I know it sounds bad but it's the way I feel and it's real for me so please just let me deal
(Let me deal, just let me deal, Today please no pep talks, just let me deal)
Let me miss my mom
Let me miss my Dad
Let me miss my job
Let me miss the man I had
Today, just let me hurt today

Chorus:
Well, it's cold outside and the sky is gray
Pressin' down on me with its dismal face
With my feet in the air and my head on the ground
Where is my mind, Where is my mind

Verse 2:
Well, it's cold outside but it's a beautiful day
I woke up, ate and showered, now I'm on my way
There's some slide in my glide and some pep in my step
As I speak to strangers on my right and my left
I'm in the mood to talk so I walk slowly
Head up hood down as I speak to those who know me
(those who know me, speak to those who know me, today it's so good to see all of those who know me)
Today, I'm full of smiles
Today, I can't stop speaking
I'm up for banquets and for last minute meetings
To me, it seems a dream this life that I've been given
Me in Peace Corps China, You got to be kiddin'
I love my students
I love my waiban
I love my site mate Matt
I love my life man
Today, I feel so good today

Chorus 2:
Well, it's cold outside but it's a beautiful day
I woke up, ate and showered, now I'm on my way
With my feet planted firm and my head held high
This is my life, This is my life
And this is my life, this is my life
And this is your life,
And this is my life
And this is our life
And this is my life,
And this is your life
And this is our life
This is our life

recap (xmas and western new year)

Internet was largely down for a few weeks after Christmas and I wasn't able to post... I did send a long email out to those who I knew read my blog. I'm reposting most of it here for the sake of continuity:

Just before Christmas, the English department put on a large "Christmas party" for the school. Several hundred students probably attended. They use the word 'party' with abandon around here, but I use it rather more cautiously because their 'parties' are usually a long performance, complete with 4-6 girl and boy hosts who all have microphones and wield them fiercely, often in ear-splitting unison. Glow sticks and swords were handed out as well as the clapping-hand noisemakers. People talk the whole time. The theme for this particular party was "Fly your dreams." Students performed everything from raps, both traditional and hip-hop dance, pop songs, traditional musical instruments, and even a comedy skit that retold Romeo and Juliet in mostly-Chinese and kept interrupting itself with product placement spots. I sang Silent Night as an offering from the small foreigner contingent at the event. Not sure if my description has made it sound fun, but I had a GREAT time. My seniors had been the main organizers for the party, dashing around all evening with super worried looks on their faces. And my sophomores were largely the stars of the night! They made up at least 75% of the performers, and did an amazing job! I was positively puffed up with pride in them. This night was an amazing culmination of the semester for me, even though only parts of it were in English. Sitting down in the audience (front and center of course -- let's not forget that I AM the honored foreigner), it really hit home that a teacher feels some ownership of every one of their students. Not like a parent does, but really sort of a slightly smaller feeling very close to that, and for so many students. I left that evening blind from about 100 camera flashes of students wanting a Christmas photo taken with the foreign teacher, and on a total teacher's high from pride at my talented kids. I finished up the 1st semester's classes that week.

With classes done, life has been rather different since Christmas. Many of the volunteers and several of our Chinese friends got together for a Christmas eve chili cook-off party. It was a really nice night, low-key and delicious. Opened gifts and packages the next day with Ben and a few of our Chinese friends.

On New Year's Eve day my department held a big bash to celebrate the end of the year, renting out the 5th floor of a hotel for the afternoon and opening it to the English teachers and their families. I was rather confused about this, til I arrived with Ben and a Chinese colleague, David, to find a mini-bowling alley, karaoke, ping-pong, and pool tables. We spent a great afternoon bowling and chatting with my colleagues before heading upstairs to the ubiquitous Chinese banquet. A number of school officials began making speeches up at the front, with no one apparently paying any attention except for clapping every few sentences. We were starving and already surreptitiously digging in to the first round of cold dishes when I heard my name. I look up and sort of do a general nod to the room, hoping that will do, but my dean rushes over, grabs my arm, and drags me up front to make a speech. I stammer through a passable thank you for the welcome/ I'm excited to be working with you all/ Xinnian Kauile! (happy new year) speech. After returning to my seat, the teachers at my table inform me that that was the first time a foreigner has been asked to speak at this event in at least the last 6 years. And to think, with just a few minutes of warning I could have done something great! To be fair, one of the best skills that China has been developing in me is public speaking. At any event I attend, there is a likely chance that I will be asked to stand up and give some sort of talk, or even sing something. Keeps me on my toes at least. The following week I finished giving oral exams and started the avoidance stage of the semester. Two reasons. The first is that at the beginning of the semester I was told that my classes were exam-based (the final exam making up the bulk of the final grade), when in fact, come to find out at the end of the semester that they are actually comprehensive. Too bad I have almost no grades from the kids with which to compile a comprehensive grade. I feel a bit of a fraud going back and filling in that sort of thing from the notes I took on each student over the semester, but I suppose it's all I can do to salvage things this time around. The other reason is that I have a whole stack of paperwork as well as some online spreadsheets -- all in Chinese -- to complete with grades and analysis. The department helpfully printed out lots of screenshots and instructions (also all in Chinese) to make the whole process a little more transparent for me. Ah well, I'll get that all sorted out and turned in over the next few days.

Yesterday I met with the 6 seniors that I'm thesis advising next semester. They have to write 25-35 page papers in English to graduate as English majors, and mine are writing on topics ranging from Milton and Hardy to Gothic British literature to whether China's young people need a new symbol such as the Long March, to the varying global symbolisms of the Dragon and whether China should keep it as part of the national identity. I know I'm a nerd but I'm sooooo excited to see what they do with these topics. On the literature side of the advising, it's a good thing I'm teaching British Literature next semester in addition to listening and speaking, so I'll have to be brushing up on the subject anyway!

Last week we found ourselves with some free days, so Ben and I took off for Xiahe, a small town 5-6 hours southwest of Lanzhou by bus. Xiahe is an incredibly special place, located right on the edge of the grasslands, and home to Labrang monastary, the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastary outside of Tibet itself. The population is part Tibetan, part Hui people (Muslim minority), and part Han. Usually an important tourist destination, we found the town deserted of foreigners. Fair enough, it was freezing afterall, especially in our room where the heat didn't quite make it on. But it was also one of most unique places I have ever been in my life. Tibetan and nomadic pilgrims pour into the town from the grasslands at various times of the year, and trickle in at all times to stock up on things or to visit the monastary. Over 1200 monks of all ages, dressed in a range of deep fuscia-colored robes wander the town and monastary. Labrang itself is a maze of housing and meeting rooms for the monks, as well as maintaining many many temples and altars. It is also home to 5 "institutes" of learning and debate. Ringing the monastary is a 3km pilgrim path lined with prayer wheels. I was going to just walk along it, without spinning the wheels. Afterall, I'm not Buddhist and was walking in the midst of real pilgrims. But as you start walking, it's impossible not to reach out and at least brush each of the beautifully painted wheels. In some long stretches of the path it became hypnotic and extremely peaceful even while the right arm aches from spinning the heavier wheels.

The view that will stick with me forever is a large courtyard in the center of the monastary with close to 200 monks scattered in debate. On a raised platform at the front, a man who I think is one of the reincarnated lamas rocked and spoke quietly. Below him, slightly older monks sat listening to groups of young monks debate. Each man or boy slapped his hands together, shooting the right one forward, everytime he made a point. There was tons of laughter and pushing and shoving. And watching it, you know that this exact scene has gone on forever in Tibetan monastaries where debate is considered a critical part of education and development and understanding. On a hillside above sat over a hundred more monks, all older and in darker robes, filling up a depression in the side of the mountain. We wanted a picture desperately, but held back because most monks don't want their picture taken. While on the path surrounding the monastary, we approached a view overlooking the courtyard and both had our cameras at the ready, but when we actually came to the gap in the wall, neither of us could bring ourselves to take a picture. So I don't have a picture of this for you. Maybe I'll try again in Tibet.