Lhasa Things to Do

We were very surprised to see so many monks and Tibetan devotees at the mainsquare in front of the big temple hall. All these monks and people were waiting for the start of a procession within half an hour. We were very happy to be there and decided to wait too.

In the meantime we looked around and watched the preparations. We were shocked by the respectless behaviour of some Chinese soldiers. From this big courtyard we had also, a splendid view at the valley of Lhasa !

Inside the monastery we saw a small chorten with some Tibetans rounding it. It is a custom to do this in the clockwise direction.

Chortens, the Tibetan name for stupas or pagodas, contain often holy relics. Chortens became the pure symbols for the ultimate attainment, to be realized as no-attainment actually. The levels of a chorten from ground to peak symbolize the stages on the way, equated with the 5 elements.

The square base stands for earth, the round dome for water, the conical spire for fire, the umbrella for air and the peak for mind-essence.

The meaning of the Drepung Monastery is "Rice Heep''. From the road many paths lead up along the monks quarters and the store rooms of the monastery. Above these quarters are the large assembly halls (Dukhang) with courtyards in front.

When we visited the monastery, everything was looking very clear and clean with fresh colours. They told it was because of the start of a festival the next day. What a pity, we thought, because we had to fly to Kathmandu and back home the next day.

But we were lucky, some ceremonies started at the moment of our visit.....

The Drepung Monastery stands at the foot of the mountain Gyengbuwudze and has wonderfull views across the Lhasa valley.
This Gelupka monastery was founded in 1416 by a disciple of Tsong Khapa, Jianyang Qujie. Drepung developed at one of the largest and wealthiest monasteries of Tibet.

In the 17th century there live more than 10.000 monks, at the time of the departure of the Dalai Lama to India still 6.000 and now barely 400. Drepung was a important monastic university for tantrism, teaching of the sutra's, dialectics, meditation and other teachings.

The monks in the Sera Monastery were very friendly.This older monk in the monastery let us watch and listen when he played the cymbals and gong.

The religious Tibetan music is essential to rites. When you hear it for the first time, it may sounds disconcerting or even cacaphonous. The point is that this music has not to be in tune with this world, but has to break away. This is music to unmake harmonies and to lose the self in its illusions. This religious music is purgation by sound as the mandala is purgation by sight.

In this Gelukpa Monastery we saw wonderful wall-paintings and statues. Special things we saw here, were the preserved cham-masques for the mystery performances and very holy applies as the magical dagger (phurbu) of the founder of the monastery, Xiajia Yixi, disciple of Tsong Khapa.

As the Sera monastery was the first monastery we visited in Tibet, we were overwhelmed by the very colourful interior with red pillars and bright coloured and embroidered hangings and seeing the monks, making the conical tormas. It was really impressive to be there.

On our first day in Lhasa we visited the Sera Monastery, the first one in Tibet. When we arrived at the monastery, the young monks were very curious. They welcomed us friendly and showed us the way in the direction of the temples. It was a really nice first encounter with the life in the monasteries.

It was a pity we lost so much time in Chengdu, waiting for our plane to Lhasa. So we could stay only for a short time at this monastery and did only visit one of the temples and not the rockpaintings up the mountain behind the monastery.

The Sera Monastery is built in 1419 and is situated 4 km from Lhasa at the foot of the Tatipu mountain. The Sera Monastery is known as a monastic university. The tantric mysticism, the secret study, was teached here.The monks of Sera were seen as clever and ''dangerous'' for the organisation of the uprising. Only 100 monks remained of the 5.000 once.

At the Sera Monastery are four main temples with many chapels dedicated to Tsong Khapa, Sakyamuni, Dharmapala and others.