Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: Gers/Yurts, Horseback riding and prayer

Today has been wonderful: temples, yurts, art history, horseback riding and more. Last night and this morning were cold. It actually was snowing while I strolled 'Ubi' last night at 11PM. Ulaanbaatar is like a gold rush town: lots of energy and growing fast. The Mongols are a nomadic people that are attempting to deal with urbanization. We started with a visit to the only remaining Buddhist temple in Mongolia. There were over 70 destroyed during the communist rule of this land. Countless monks were also killed during that purge. This lone remaining temple welcomed with a magical prayer where the locals all held ribbons of silk that the monks fed out to the group. After the chanting reached it's peak the monks drew the silk out of the hands of the locals and the locals circled the temple while the chanting continued. Each stopped by the alter to offer prayer, and then they backed out of the temple to the awaiting sub-freezing morning. From there we went to a local Mongolian house about 15 miles out of town. As we arrived they were herding horses back into the compound of yurts (gers). After a visit inside one of the gers, Ellen and I were fortunate enough to ride a Mongolian short horse. Following that we witnessed some long-pole lassoing and the traditional game where the Mongolians ride bareback and grab bags from the ground while hanging down off thier steed. Finally we went to some museums and to a cashmere factory.

Factoid: Over 50% of the 2.8 million population of Mongolia still lives in gers today.

Get Thee to a Nunnery

Today, we visited the oldest Nunnery in Tibet. Nuns don't have it as easy as monks do, who are receive more money in donations and from the government too. Nuns have to earn their keep and these nuns run a clinic and a teahouse and a store to accomplish that.

The nuns were very hospitable to us, and most likely would have been even if it were not for Rand's very generous donation.

Although they were on break in their morning meditation and having their snacks, they chanted a lovely prayer for us. We also were invited to visit the workroom where they assemble the scrolls that go inside prayer wheels and also their dormatories. Two nuns share a room and we were happy to see that they had a poster of the current Dalai Lama on the wall.

Lhasa Tibet: The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace was the home of the Dali Lama prior to exile. It was built around a cave that was used for meditation ages ago and now is a throne for statues of those key influencers of Tibetan Buddism. It is sad for me to see something that once offered an active path to enlightenment to the peoples of this area. Now it is just a shrine, that doubles as a museum. The climb up was long and the views divine. We then continued to two other temples and a market.
Factoid: Tibetan Monk sects are described as 'Red Hat', 'Yellow Hat' and others. The Yellow Hat sect have daily debates where the monks challange themselves on the teachings of Buddism. The attached video shows the monks throwing questions at each other like pitchers in a baseball game, then those sitting try to answer questions like “what is the meaning of life”.

Siep Monastery Monks Debate

At the Monastery, we witnessed the most fascinating debates going on between young monks and their master teachers. This was an exercise the monks engaged in to test the young monk's knowledge in a question and answer, spirited interrogation format.

Tibet is a blend of cultures

When we were in Lijiang, which is in Southwest China, we noticed how different many faces looked from those we saw in Beijing and Shanghai, where the faces look more typically "Chinese". Now, we are across the border in Tibet and we are seeing in people's faces what we'd read: that people here come from all over the region - Nepal, Mongolia, Burma and India and the "stan" countries - Pakistan, Afganistan being the biggest, from China and basically all over the region. There are distinct regions in Tibet too - Khampas, Amdo, Lhopa, Monpa. Here are some of the faces I've been noticing

Some other things I noticed about the people in China and Tibet - In China, where there is a one-child per family rule, parents and the whole extended family, dote on the little ones. You often see grandparents along with parents, all playing with one young child. Everyone seems very happy.

I have seen no pregnant women - maybe that's because of the family planning rules, or maybe pregnant women in China stay out of site??

Coming from the USA, it was strange to see so many families with one child - none of those families with 2 or 3 or more children as you see in the states.

Asian women's faces get lined as they age, but their hair stays black for a very long time...you can see ancient women with just a few strands of grey. So, when I said to "buy China" (equities) a few posts back, I'd skip the hair coloring companies!