Man Man Zou

I said before that I wanted to better understand Tibetan culture. Now that I’m almost out of Tibetan land, I’ve gathered enough thoughts and observations about them that I’d like to write it down.

I think my initial expectations- and perhaps what North Americans impressions of what Tibetans are like- come from all the ‘Free Tibet’ campaigns we’ve seen in the past. I initially thought that Tibetans might be like uber-peaceful, never step on an ant, quiet and considerate kind of folk that live simple lives in little dusty huts on their fields.

Though their reputation of being peaceful is correct because of how they followed the Dalai Lama’s example of not fighting back against China, the Tibetans are actually quite wild with their swords and knives tied to their side, powerful motorbikes, roadside banditry (still to this day), ripping through town on horses, greasy hair and wild clothing, and oft-visits to bars. We just missed a knife fight outside a bar between two Tibetans on the night we returned to Langmusi from our horse trek because we were too tired to be out- too bad!

I don’t, at all, want to make it sound like Tibetans are not good people. In China, I’ve also spent time among the Han-Chinese, the Uighur people, and several village minorities, and the Tibetans have them all easily beat for downright niceness and goodness. I see the way Tibetans greet and treat strangers, the way they are to tourists, and the way they are to each other as friends, and I see a different light than how the rest of the people in China are. When I’m in a bus I see Tibetans on the streets and in the fields stop and wave at everyone in the bus. In town, people are smiling at each other and having a good time. That’s certainly not something I’ve seen a lot of so far in other parts of China.

The way they dress is something everyone must be somewhat in awe of. Their zany clothing is unlike any other fashion. The men wear warm, furry overcoats with sleeves that specially hang to the ground. They tie their swords or knives around their waste with a colorful sash. Their hats, often large and made of fur, are almost always the most impressive and vary a lot between the different Tibetan areas I’ve visited. The women dress similarly in overcoats and with swords, but along with that is some pretty awesome, somewhat tacky, jewelry. They wear large earrings and necklaces with huge colorful stones, often made of lapis lazuli (a kind of blue stone). They braid their very long hair, and add jewelry to that as well.

I must admit that I didn’t have too much of their food, since it mostly all consists of yak. Mark had a yak burger though! I tried potato filled momos, which were like dumplings, as well as their barley and yak butter dessert, zangba. There weren’t many Tibetan restaurants around, only a few set out for tourists, because I learned that opening restaurants wasn’t originally a part of Tibetan culture. The Han-Chinese introduced that to them and still very few Tibetan restaurants have opened up. If Tibetans want to eat out, they’ll likely pick up some Chinese food.

A famous drink of Tibetans is yak butter tea. I was originally excited to try this tea since it sounds so yummy, but others warned me against it and they were right, because it is the oddest, and somewhat nastiest drink I’ve tried. It’s got the unmistakable taste and smell of yak dairy, which I can’t even begin to describe, but I’ll also never forget.

Tibetan houses, both outside and inside, are beautiful. The houses usually contain several floors, and are square shaped. The windows are accented with an octagonal border, often in black with white circles or squares. On the top floor is usually a partly open air section which makes the house look nice, but I’m not sure the function of it. Inside are colors galore, with paneling detailed with Tibetan paintings right up to the ceiling. The furniture- beds, tables- are colorfully painted as well.

We passed many impressive Tibetan houses along the Northern Sichuan-Tibet highway and found out that the government sponsors them and pays for all the materials. I’m not 100% sure this is true, but I was surprised to hear something good about the Chinese government. Keep it up China! The houses were all built very nicely, without at all looking Han-Chinese influenced.

Tibetan monks seem to be quite different than the monks we met in Cambodia and Thailand (and the very few from Taiwan). The monks here are very outgoing. Most of them carry cell phones, like to joke around with each other, and aren’t as afraid of women as SE Asia monks. In Thailand and Cambodia, females can’t touch the monks, can’t pass things directly to them, and shouldn’t even be very near them. All the monks I met in China didn’t care at all. They’d grab my camera to look, touch my eyebrow piercing, and sit with us.

We’ve spent a lot of time touring the monasteries and lamaseries and tried our best to learn whatever we could about their religion from the monks- in English and whatever we’re able to understand in Chinese. It’s still Buddhism, so there are some things we already knew, but what interested me the most were the old pilgrims that I always saw circling buildings and chorten over and over again with their spinning prayer wheels and prayer beads.

Jerry, the monk who we met over a month ago in Taersi, sparked my interest in the pilgrims when he told us about his father and mother. I briefly met Jerry’s father when he came by to say that he was going on a kora (prayer circuit) for the day. Jerry was glad that his father was going out to pray all day, because he thinks that’s the best thing for old people to be doing with their time- rather than playing card games or mahjong all day. Jerry said that he was glad that his parents spend almost all of their time praying and worrying about whether or not they’ll go to hell when they die. In my opinion, I can’t blame them for worrying, based on the many paintings of hell I’ve seen in Tibetan monasteries:

Spending a couple of freezing-cold weeks going through the Tibetan towns in Sichuan province was definitely a highlight of this trip. I’m happy with the many memories I have of the Tibetans, and sad that I’ve left the area for Han-land.