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Asia Travelogue, part 4
The next day was much better. We went to the
most popular tourist site in
at the west of the city. Nearby is the Zhol pillar,
erected about 764.
Construction on the palace began in 1645 during the reign of the Fifth
Dalai Lama. By 1648, the
of the building, known as the
Gyatso, had to conceal the Dalai Lama’s death and
pretend that he was in a
prolonged retreat. The
after the Dalai Lama’s death. The Potala has served
as the home of
successive Dalai Lamas and their monastic staff from the time of the Fifth
until that of the present Dalai Lama, the Fourteenth. Before 1959, the
from all the major Geluk monasteries responsible for
staffing the
individual chapels. At present there are thirty-two monks residing in the
palace, only five of whom are fully ordained. Although for Tibetan
pilgrims the Potala is still a place of worship, the
government prefers to
treat it as a museum.
Most of the above information came from my guidebook. What’s truly
important, however, is that the palace looks cool. The Potala
is the sort
of building that allows travel agents to describe
beauty, magic, and mystery.” The landscape was once dotted with similar
palaces and monasteries, but most of them were demolished by the communists
during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, the Potala
was protected from
the Red Guards through the personal intervention of Chou En-lai.
The PRC
government is now wishing that more buildings had been spared, because they
are what bring in the tourists. If you have ever seen a series of
photographs of
you haven’t, then you are in luck, because I am attaching a photo of myself
standing in front of the Potala. This is the money
shot. When people ask
me why I went to
For a fee, we were permitted to tour the inside, although only a few of the
rooms were open to the public. First, we saw the official reception
hall ,
which was dominated by a large throne. Next, we saw the living quarters of
the Dalai Lama. There were several different chapels, one of which was
constructed in the seventh century, thus predating the surrounding palace.
We also saw the tombs of some of the past Dalai Lamas. They were each
bigger than my bedroom and covered in gold and pearls. More than anything
else, however, we saw statues -- not just Buddha statues, but also statues
of numerous deities. There were big ones and little ones; some were made
of gold and some were made of wood; some were smiling and some were
snarling; some were holding flowers and some were holding swords. One room
contained over 500 statues consisting of the principal lamas and deities of
all four orders of Tibetan Buddhism.
The statues were interesting to look at, but I ultimately became revolted
to see so much idolatry. In front of many of the larger statues, the monks
were burning butter candles. Butter candles are large bowls filled to the
brim with soft yak butter. In the center would be five or six wicks. The
butter in the center of the bowl near the wicks would be melted, but the
rest would be congealed and smoothed flat by a metal trowel. As the butter
would dissipate, the monks would replenish it from a large barrel of butter
nearby. Using the edge of a trowel, I began writing in the butter, “Jesus
is Lord”, but I didn’t get any further than the letter “J”. I decided it
wouldn’t be legible and besides that, there are probably better ways to
evangelize than by way of butter graffiti. There was also a monk coming
around the corner and I didn’t know if he was the type of Buddhist monk who
does not believe in harming any living creature, or one of those like
Caine, from Kung Fu, who could beat me until I was
senile.
I was actually surprised to see statues of so many different deities. I
was not aware that Tibetan Buddhists are polytheistic. I had read the
autobiography of Tenzin Gyatso,
the 14th Dalai Lama, and did not recall any
mention of gods and goddesses. I was not surprised to see statues of
Buddha, who was a religious philosopher regarded as embodying divine wisdom
and virtue and who supposedly reached the ultimate state of enlightenment.
However, the multiple-armed statues of deities seemed out-of-place; they
looked to be more Hindu. In fact, I learned that Buddhism entered
from
the demonic ones, were incorporated into Buddhism long ago. Many of the
facial features on the statues even look Indian in ethnicity rather than
Tibetan.
There was a lot about Tibetan Buddhism that was disappointing. Before
visiting
seen in movies and what I had read in the Dalai Lama’s book. I certainly
wouldn’t have said that I was attracted to Tibetan Buddhism, but it at
least held a certain charm. The Dalai Lama seemed very kind and sincere
and the red robes, shaved heads, and chanting all created a pleasant sheen
of inscrutability. In any event, it was good theater. However, after only
a few days in
is just one more pagan religion that robs people of their money and their
souls, in that order.
First and foremost, Tibetan Buddhism is a money racket. The number one
objective of the monks seems to be money collection. On my first day in
will sit on a mat on the ground, spinning small prayer wheels, with a big
pile of money in front of them. They ask passers-by to throw money on the
pile, supposedly in exchange for prayers that the monks will make on their
behalf. White people must be in the greatest need for prayers, because
they seem to receive a disproportionate share of the monks’ attention. One
of them asked me for money and when I laughed at him and started to walk
away, he actually grabbed my leg with both of his hands and tried to pull
me towards his money pile. When I jerked away, I lost my balance and
almost fell on the money. The other monks thought that was quite funny.
In another instance, a monk had taken the time to write on a piece of paper
in English, a request for donations for the building of a new addition to
some temple or monastery. He unfolded the paper and showed it to me with a
hopeful smile on his face. I read the note and then asked him if he would
come help build me a house. Of course, he didn’t seem to understand what I
had said, but he must have noticed that my hand wasn’t moving any closer to
my wallet. He went away.
Are monks begging for money because they need to? I seriously doubt it. I
was astonished to learn that many monks actually receive a stipend from the
government. Yes, the communists have been trying for years to wipe out
Buddhism in
seems that they do not want the practice of Buddhism to grow, but they don?
t want it to disappear. That would be bad for the
tourist industry.
Besides the government stipends, the Buddhist monks have other sources of
income. All of the Buddhist monasteries and temples were open to the
public, but they all charged admission -- that is, they charged white people
admission. On more than one occasion, we watched an endless stream of
Tibetans and Chinese entering a Buddhist building unhindered. But when
Alan and I attempted to enter, monks started shouting, “Hello! Hello!!
HELLO!!!” That was their way of telling us that we could not enter until
we paid the admission price. We noticed that one of the monks was wearing
a nice silver wristwatch and had a pager clipped to the inside of his robe.
Will someone please tell me why a monk needs a pager?
When it comes to the money game, the
slot machine. Tourists are charged 40 RMB for admission. Once inside,
they are charged extra to enter particular rooms. Also, they are charged
as much as 10 RMB extra for each large statue they want to photograph.
There is a monk in each room standing by to collect the cash. Amazingly,
some visitors feel that they still have not been bled enough, so they
simply start throwing money on the floor. I am not making this up. You
see piles of money in front of statues, pictures of past lamas, and even
beside the Dalai Lama’s bed. In other words, people pay admission for the
privilege of throwing money on the floor. There is so much money left on
the floor and in gold bowls that monks must come by periodically to collect
it all. Some people don’t want to go to the trouble of going all of the
way to the palace, so they find a framed picture of a past Dalai Lama
hanging in a shop or a restaurant and stick money in the corner of the
frame. (Photos of the current Dalai Lama are outlawed.)
The monks seem to be proud of the money they collect. In one room, there
was a large glass case containing several statues that were supposedly of
high quality. However, it was difficult to see them, because the monks had
taped paper currency to the inside of the glass for the purpose of showing
off all the different denominations that have been left there over the
years.
They also make money by selling prayer sheets, incense, and kattas.
A
katta is a thin silk or satin scarf that is frayed at
the ends. The
guidebook says that you give one to someone for saving your life or
performing a great deed. They are supposed to be prized possessions. That
might have been true at one time, but now they are nothing more than
tourist bauble like lays in
around our neck when we first arrived at the airport. I never saw a single
Tibetan wearing one. Nonetheless, people buy them in front of temples and
then take them inside and leave them in front of statues or draped around
photographs. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that monks then collect
these kattas and resell them.
To be fair, I’ll assume that Buddhists have not always been so
money-grubbing. Like the beggar children who are used by their parents,
the Buddhist monks are being used as tools by the communists to draw in
tourists and hard currency. Maybe this has affected their outlook. Also,
I think the monks that you encounter outside of the main cities are
different from the ones we encountered. Even in
few who where quite friendly and did not ask us for money. We met a monk
in a restaurant who was very engaging, considering he didn’t speak English
and spoke only a smidgen of Chinese. Alan asked him where he carried his
wallet and he smiled and showed us a hidden pocket inside his robe.
Regardless of how diligent they are at collecting money, I have to question
how they manage what they collect. It seems that most of the money goes
for ornamentation.
how do the monks spend the money that is thrown on the temple floors? They
spend it on the temple roofs. Some of them are covered in gold and can be
seen reflecting the sun’s light from far away. Also, much is spent on
statues and tombs. The tomb of the Tenth Panchen Lama
was completed in
Shigatse in 1993. The Red Chinese government donated
1,100 pounds of gold
for use in its construction. Nonetheless, I suppose the temples and
monasteries are important to the Tibetan people and perhaps they prefer
pearls on the tomb of a dead lama to drinkable water.
Okay, so are Buddhist monks good for something other than getting money off
the floor? Well, they seem to be quite adept at trashing the planet. I
have seen auto salvage yards more attractive than the areas I saw around
Buddhist monasteries. There were furnaces set up where they continuously
burned some type of green weed that produces a thick smoke. Oftentimes,
the smoke would be so thick that it would be difficult to breath. That is
on top of dozens of smoldering incense sticks. Also, there would be
prayer sheets littering the ground. Prayer sheets are multi-colored square
pieces of paper, about half the size of a dollar bill, which contain
printed prayers. Apparently, the prayers are issued to the various deities
by throwing them into the air. I’ve actually seen people throwing them out
of bus windows. Consequently, you see them on the ground everywhere.
There were also multi-colored prayer flags. They resemble the strings of
flags you see at used car lots. Each flag contains a printed prayer. We
would see strings of flags tied to boulders, trees, and the corners of
walls. I guess the prayers are nullified if the flags are taken down,
because it appeared that they are never removed, no matter how faded and
ratty they become.
Buddhists believe that dogs are reincarnated holy men, or something nutty
like that. Consequently, dogs are held in high regard in
strays everywhere. However, they did not look like your typical stray
dogs. They were all fat and happy. This is because the Buddhists leave
pans of food scraps outside the temples. Strangely, this practice does
not seem to endear people to the dogs. The dogs do not even acknowledge
the existence of humans. You can call to them, yell, whistle -- it has no
effect. Maybe the reincarnated holy men are too absorbed in philosophical
contemplation and gnawing on their goat bones.
Taken together -- the smoke, the scattered prayer sheets, the tattered
prayer flags, the stray dogs and half-eaten food -- the areas surrounding
Buddhist temples are not pleasant sites. I now consider it odd that
enlightened Hollywood liberals who like to consider themselves
environmentally aware, like Richard Gere and Harrison
Ford, are also
Buddhists. They should spend some time walking around some Buddhist
temples in
they spin prayer wheels and burn incense? Dilemma, dilemma.
After leaving the
Alan and I went to the Jokhang, which is the center of
the old city of
It is considered the most sacred temple in
King Songtsen Gampo
established it in the seventh century in order to house
the image of Akshobhya Buddha. There are currently
101 monks living there,
40 of whom have official governmental standing as Jokhang
monks. This is
where we saw the monk with the pager. It is also one of the places where
only white people were being asked to pay admission. However, I’m not sure
that the monk who stopped us was a real monk. He looked Chinese and spoke
Chinese unusually well. Anybody can buy a monk robe in the market, so
maybe he was an imitation monk stationed there for the sole purpose of
collecting money. It could be that he is no closer to being a monk than
the cashier at Long John Silver’s is to being a pirate.
The outdoor market area surrounds the Jokhang. In
fact, there are vendor
tables pressed up against the outside wall. Worshippers circumambulate the
Jokhang as they pray -- always clockwise. Every few
yards, some of them
will stop and prostrate themselves on the ground as they pray to the
building. Meanwhile, shoppers are stepping over them. Because of the
intervening vendor tables, it often appears that the worshippers are
praying to the tables. We spotted one old woman praying to a table of
watches. Later, we saw her praying to a table of felt hats. An uninformed
observer might think that capitalism had triumphed once again.
Our primary goal when we went to
the tourists in
driver to take them there. It is at least a 5-day trip. Jeeps hold six
people, including the driver, so there are often notes posted on the hotel
bulletin board by couples looking for other travelers to share the cost of
a jeep. Originally, we planned on finding two other people and renting a
jeep. However, rental cost was much more than we had anticipated -- 6,000
RMB. Besides that, there were no jeeps available. Against the advice of
other travelers, we decided to take a public bus to the next town with the
hope that jeeps would be cheaper and more plentiful there. Early the
following morning, we boarded a bus for Shigatse.
