[desertblues]

(excerpts from my travel journal; please excuse bad grammar and others...a bit of background...sketchy wifi to check all)

(end 07-04)
Dinner at the hotel in the Chrysanthem room, a private dining room with a one large round table with a movable center( a lazy Susan). Adjacent a small kitchen, a restroom and a private waiter. Egg/tomato soup, egg omelette and tomato and greens, tea. Not as expensive as I thought.

(08-04 to Jiãyùguãn by train)
A Chinese breakfast and off on the road. The night temperature is -4C and the wind is fierce. By the 8.32 hour train we roll through the bare, flat Gobi desert.There is a fine layer of snow on some places, and I see a huge windpark.
After 6 hours travelling I'm in Jiãyùguãnt and out of the desert. There is little time left to see the sights, but as I'm here.... *off to see the very end of China's Great Wall, which used to mark the end of it's civilization: the western gateway of China.*

The original Great Wall begins at Shanhaiguan, near the Yellow See, under the Qin dynasty (221-207 B.C.). There after it links the other existing walls of independent kingdoms and is interspersed with natural defenses (precipitous mountains). In the days of Mao Zedong he encourages to use the free building materials of the wall, which is still done. Parts of the wall are now restored or rebuild, as China want to reclaim it's cultural history.

It is a beautiful sight to see this light brown wall, build by the Ming dynasty, curling upwards the mountain peak; at the very end two watch towers. I'm impressed to walk actually on it.
This same Ming- dynasty builds an ancient fort here in 1372 as one of the defining points of the Silk Road. Inside are several pagoda like buildings for administration, sleeping quarters, weaponry and such. All reconstructed how it used to be. And I see a temple with scowling, really ugly fierce- looking gods, for whom incense is burned..

An exhausting day, but the show goes on; caught a cold and an early night. Tomorrow up at five.

(09-04 Lánzhōu by train )
The 7.12 hour train rolls through the Hexi corridor; the snowpeaked Qílián Shān range on the right and the Mâzōng( horse mane) and Lóngshôu(dragon) ranges on the left. A cosy heated compartment welcomes me, with a thermos and a pink silk rose in a tiny vase.
For hours there's no sign of human life in this huge light brown country. It looks dry, the land, and only occasionally I see plots of farmland( rice, I think) bordered by trees, surrounded by low earth walls. It takes about 8 hours to get to Lánzhôu.

Lánzhōu or Golden City (pop.3,616.163) is the capital and largest city of the Gansu province. Hundreds of men sit in the square in front of the station on tiny chairs, playing cards, or they just hang around with a foldable chair on the arm. I see bycicles and little tricycle mopeds. It is warmer here: 16 C. No veils for the women around any more. In a park near the hotel men fly their multicolored kites and women practice a dance with brightly colored fans.

Bananas and a beer from a nearby shop is my dinner. I'm not going nowhere else today, but tomorrow I'll see Xiáhè's famous buddhist Labrang monastery.

Religion/ philosophy in China
Buddhism is founded in India around the 5th century B.C. In China it converges with Taoïst philosophy. Besides Buddhism, two important philosophies are important in China. The three mix with the ancient animistic spirits, the fox- spirits, Chinese ghosts, dragons etc.
The oldest is Taoïsm, which predates Buddhism; a difficult concept to grasp. It draws from the ' Classic of the way and it's Power', by Taote/Dàodé Jing, written down by Laotzu in the 6 th century. It tries to figure out the unknowable and indescribable principle of the universe, the Dao. It supports the allowing of things to naturally occur without any interference.
Then Confucianism, which is the core of Chinese society for the past 2000 years. It strives for social harmony and the common good. It is based upon teachings of Confucius, a 6-th century B.C. philosopher.

(10-04 Lánzhōu to Xiàhé by bus)
A welcome from a beautiful slender girl in a red kimono and a breakfast buffet of about a fifty eatables to choose from: different colors of rice, sweet patato, about ten kind of vegetables, different steamed and filled dumplings, fried eggs, fried and cooked meats and many others. I'm quite proficient now with the chopsticks; manage to eat my dry yellow rice and peas....

A 4-hour ride through the mountains today and then two days for sightseeing.
( as usual typing this along the way on my iPad).These mountains may look bare, but at the foot there's fertile soil; squares of farmland, all walled by earth so it can be irrigated at will. Peasants with yellow coned or broad round straw hats manually work the land, which have been divided into rectangular strips, covered by cotton. Donkey's plowing the field. Hothouses are here as well: at two ends a half circle wall of brow/yellow clay and plastic in between. Scattered among them are tiny brown houses with bright blue or yellow doors and elegant slanted roofs. Occasionally I see a mosque, green/ white, with a Chinese 'twist', also with golden domes. And, btw, this bus stops every two hours and not every five or six as from Kashgar to Turpan,so thumbs up for the driver.

And then a tiny village which seems to exist of two long roads, bordered by tiny shops and people living in or over them. Building is going on in this area as well as industry. Men with the white muslim scullcaps skirt the roads on their heavily laden mopeds, honking, honking.
Soon we'll be entering Tibetan country; the mountains are higher and greener. Slowly the bus crawls over the road and wriggles itself through narrow tunnels. Roads aren't finished yet and the existing two lane has to handle all usual and construction traffic.
By and by police posts, with (and this makes me reflect) next to it a construction of sandbags to take cover behind (?). By now I'm beginning to think this is more an expedition than a holiday.......

The bus arrives in Xiàhé, which population(70,000) is a mix of Tbetan(50%), Han Chinese(40%), Hui(muslim) Chinese.
I' m in another world. First thing I see is red robed monks. The hotel has Tibetan lettering on its front and looks a mixture between Tibet and China. It is somewhat cold.
The room is decorated with woodwork, on the walls, bench and cupboards, and brightly decorated and painted. The wall is painted golden. There's a kind of platform for the beds, with a thin matrass to lie on and thick quilts to lie under; even the ceiling is covered with gold stamped red/yellow/blue/green tiled cloths. The most beautiful room I have ever had in an hotel till now; and all modern comfort. Well, o.k., I'll mention one thing: it smells......just hope that isn't tea with yak butter, as I have heard many an ugly story about that.
The corridor and the courtyard are decorated in the same beautiful manner and many red lanterns hang from the ceiling....enchanting, like some fairy tale.

The Labrang Monastery in Xiàhé is one of the six major great monasteries of the Geluk (Yellow Hat) school of Tibetan Buddhism. The white walls and golden roofs of the complex shows a blend of Tibetan and Han architectural styles. The monastery contains 18 halls, six institutes of learning, a golden stupa, a sutra debate area, and houses nearly 60,000 sutras. There are about 1000 monks in residence. In the Buddhist museum is a large collection of Buddha statues, sutras and murals.
Since 1709 it is the seat of a Tibetan power base, of the nearby Tibet, that strives to maintain regional autonomy. Among the monastery's turbulent history: an attack from the Chinese muslim warlords in 1917, a genocidal war against Ngolok Tibetan in 1928 and ethnic rioting between Hui Chinese and Tibetan in the past and as recent as 2010.

Buddhism in China has been under some form of state control through most of it's history. In 1949 Buddhist institutions in China submit to the Communist authority.
Tibetan Buddhism is another story as it has a stronger political aspect: Tibet's autonomy.
In 1950, when China seizes Tibet, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, surrenders to Mao's power. In 1959 the Dalai Lama leaves Tibet and goes to live in exile in Dharamsala, India.

During the 10-year Cultural Revolution of 1966, Mao believes that after destroying all symbols of the old and of the religious culture, Marxism will naturally fill the void. A few Chinese Buddhist monasteries become state- operated. The number of monks at the Labrang monastery declines from 4000 at it's peak to 1200, as it closes from 1958-1970.

After Mao’s death in 1976 there is a shift in Chinese policies that includes freedom to practice religion. Beijing is interested in the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet because that will end the international dialogue over the Tibet Question and persuade the Tibetans to accept Chinese domination. But the Dailai Lama pleads for human rights for the Tibetan people in international councils and gets the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
Since 1990 the relations between China and the Dalai Lama are worse. China has a hardening attitude towards Tibetan culture, religion and culture.

I've walked a bit around this ' town in a town'; photographed a 101 buddhist monks. Young monks were playing ball. Many pelgrims walk the stupa's and turn the dharma wheel; a way to symbolize the Buddha's teachings.
I'm not a Buddhist, but this is fascinating from a cultural point of view. Tomorrow some serious sightseeing!

In my cup: nescafé