Man Man Zou

Like I’ve said before, I’m just merrily making my way through China. It was a nice unplanned surprise to head down the Silk Road in Gansu province, but we soon took a turn off to Xiahe, and found a really cool route back to the Hexi Corridor (where the traditional route is) that allowed us to avoid backtracking. The route took us through Qinghai province, which is next to Tibet.

We went to a town called Tongren, that’s famous for the many Tibetan artists who come from all over to practice thangka painting (a religious painting done on fabric). There were many villages and monasteries near Tongren as well. We headed out of town to a monastery and were approached by many monks trying to sell us their thangkas. They were beautiful to look at, but quite expensive as it apparently takes at least a month to complete each painting. I enjoyed talking with one particular monk, since he spoke Chinese simply and slowly with us, so I bought one of his paintings (350 Yuan- bargained from 600 Yuan- quite expensive but cheaper than most other paintings I saw). He explained the painting to us and was very happy that we could understand, as many tourists come through and buy paintings without knowing or caring what they mean.

After Tongren we took the most beautiful bus ride to Xining. I could go on and on about how beautiful the scenery was. I’m even considering going out of my way on the way back down the Silk Road to see this road again. The skies were just so big, with a nice mix of mountains, green grass, and snow. I took some pictures out of the window with my little Pentax camera.

Xining is the capital of Qinghai province. It was a pretty big city, so we took the taxi around everywhere. I enjoy taxi rides anyway (as long as they are fair and use the meter), since we deal with so many different amusing drivers. Some will not talk to us at all, and only use sign language. Some talk to us like we’re fluent in Chinese. Some are surprised to see us, some aren’t. Sometimes they ask pretty good questions, and tell us what they think of foreigners (they tell us we’re polite). We also get a lot of female drivers since communism promotes equality in the workforce, which I find intriguing to see. We usually try to tip them 1 or 2 Yuan, but most won’t accept it for some reason. I don’t tip anywhere else in Asia, but I feel that taxi drivers in most Asian countries (when using the meter) deserve it because each trip usually comes to 6-8 Yuan (under a buck).

We stayed for three nights in Xining even though there wasn’t much to do, because the hotel we found was so good for the money. It had all the comforts of a real 3-star hotel in North America, and was only 80 Yuan a night (10 dollars I think). It was a nice way to recuperate from traveling. Every time we stay at nice hotels, we always get a phone call between 10-11pm. If I answer, then they just hang up. If Mark answers, then he gets all kinds of offers from the girl at the other end of the line. I’m kind of annoyed that the hotels allow this, but at the same time, it’s amusing. I always make Mark answer the phone now.

About an hour away from Xining is Ta’er Si, an important Tibetan Yellow Hat Buddhist monastery. Yellow Hat, as I learned in Xiahe, is one sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Unfortunately, communism really did its toll on Ta’er Si and there really wasn’t much going on at the monastery, except for truckloads of Chinese tourists-complete with flags and loudspeakers- barging their way through the temples.

Before we bought our admission tickets, we walked up around the outskirts of the monastery and were approached by two Tibetan monks. Their English was hilariously poor (and I don’t think they could speak Chinese), but they wanted us to follow them into their home to visit their teacher. So we walked through their living quarters and entered the monk’s room.

It wasn’t at all what I expected. The monk, named Jerry (changed for privacy reasons), was typing away on his laptop computer. He told us that he was browsing the pro-Tibet forums, looking for something interesting before it gets erased by the forum moderator (to conform to government requirements). On his desk was an illegal copy of Windows XP, and hanging on his bookcase was a digital camera. It kind of reminded me of my dorm at university.

Jerry told us to sit down, and immediately starting talking… And he didn’t stop for the next five hours. It really wasn’t bad because what he said was worth hearing and his English was excellent, but I’m not exaggerating when I say he talked non-stop for five hours.

After a quick introduction (he went to Utah a few years ago to learn English, almost married an American Mormon, came back and immediately became a monk), he went straight into the topic of Tibet and the problems in China. I’ve never heard anyone, even in Taiwan, with such strong, unrestrained views against China and its government.

One of his tasks as a monk at the monastery is to teach English to the other monks, but he says that he spends most of the class time with his students having discussions about the many problems with China and Tibet. Using the secret meetings as an English class is a good cover.

After talking for a couple of hours in his room, we decided to all go out and walk through the various temples at the monastery. He made fun of the Chinese tourists, with their cigarettes hanging out of their mouths (even though it’s supposed to be non-smoking), and also the large group of intimidating Chinese officials (dressed in their soviet-green uniforms) who were touring the temples. He made an excellent tour guide, and we were often in animated discussions about what the deal is with Buddhism, as the robotic loudspeaker tour guides and herds of tourists went by.

I liked asking questions (like why the heck the Tibetan monks can eat meat!?) without feeling like I’m going to offend him, since he was very frank about things. I also like how, after visiting hundreds of temples in Asia, I’ve never been asked to become a Buddhist. I can’t imagine visiting hundreds of churches (or even just a few) back home without being cornered and told I’m going to hell if I don’t become a Christian.

So the museum-like monastery ended up being quite an experience, thanks to Jerry. We had dinner with him in the nearby town, and then he found us a bus back to Xining. I still laugh when I think of some of the things he said. Here are just a few:

“The only way the government could control it [the internet] is if they came to our house and cut the cord.” - Jerry loves the internet, and thinks that through its power is the only way that Tibet is going to progress towards autonomy.

“Monks are the only true fans of Britney Spears.” - He told us that monks listen to singers such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc… without hearing all the gossipy news about the singers. Thus, in the monk’s eyes, songs are never tainted and they continue to enjoy the songs no matter what the media tries to portray.

“I love Walmart. Walmart is my- what’s that word?- basement.” - I don’t know where that came from