Xining and Huangzhong - The Snow of Early Summer

Episode 2

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After plenty of sleep and some delicious halal food right across the street from my hotel the night before, I felt very energetic and was ready to make a short day trip to Huangzhong, a town that was 20 kilometers away from Xining. Mornings in Xining were quite foggy and windy, thanks to the city’s 2,100 meters (6,890 feet) elevation and the fact that it was surrounded by various high mountain ranges.  Suddenly it began to rain, which totally caught me off the guard. I had to rush back to the hotel room and grab my waterproof windbreaker. 

Yak Yogurt And Squid Kebab

The public transit, although crowded and slow during the rush hour, took me to the Xinning Bus Terminal. According to a travel guidebook, there should be buses going to Huangzhong County, where the famous Kumbum Monastery is located. You should be able to see the bus from the regular bus stop and when you hail, it would stop and pick you up. However there were no signs of any long distance buses like the travel guidebook suggested. I walked up to the bus station, and asked a transit police about the bus to Huangzhong. It turned out that I had to take the bus from the bus station, like every other long distance buses. Looked like that the travel guidebook did not get it right on that one （or you can say that I did not practice common sense.....).

Early Commute in Xining was very congested (Video Below: Bank Employees Doing Morning Exercises)

It was quite an old bus with some very stiff seat belts. Moments after the departure, the transit police who helped me earlier boarded the bus to remind everyone about fastening the seat belt. Sitting behind me were two Tibetan monks who were playing games on their flashy iPhone 6S. While there was nothing wrong about monks having expensive cellphones, that scene was on the contrary to my old perception of who Buddhist monks were supposed to be: humble, simple, and often resisted distractions like iPhone 6S from the material world. However, the fact they both had an image of Buddha as their screensavers made me believe that they were nonetheless two devoted Buddhists. Maybe even religions had to adapt to and change with the ever-changing modern world.

A Monk Shopping In Xining's City Center

Huangzhong County was located in one of the mountain ranges just outside of Xining.  When the bus began to make the climb, suddenly at one point I saw snow falling outside of the window. It was an exciting moment for me as it was the first time I saw a sizable snowfall in late May at a place that had roughly the same latitude as San Francisco. 

Snow Covered A Hill In Huangzhong

The bus dropped me off at the town center of Huangzhong. It was very convenient that there were signs everywhere pointing towards the Kumbum Monastery. Along the boulevard there were shops selling giant Buddha statues and Buddhism related merchandise and items. All the shops looked fairly new to me – were these shops there the whole time even back in the days when Kumbum was just a plain monastery?

The Monastery itself, also known as “Ta’er Monastery”, is considered the most important Gelug Pa Tibetan Buddhist Monastery outside of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The Monastery was founded on the location where Gelug Pa’s founder, Tsongkapa, was born. It was also the place where the 10th Panchen Lama and the current Dalai Lama received early education before they were brought to Lhasa. 

The Eight Stupas Are The Symbols of the Monastery And Also Where The Monastery Obtained Its Name (Ta'er)

The Entrance To The Kumbum Monastery

At the gate of the Monastery, there were a few pilgrims doing the famous Tibetan prostration. Many pilgrims prostrated hundreds and even thousands of miles to important Buddhist monasteries like the Kumbum. The journey would take months to complete and they would encounter some very harsh weather and other unforeseen situations along the way. 

During the visit, snow continued to fall from the sky. I couldn’t stop wondering: has the weather always been like this at this latitude in late May? Or was it a result of climate change – a theory that’s been widely advocated in the west?

Snow On The Main Prayer Hall's Roof

A Group Of Monks Walking In The Snow

One thing I found interesting about the Kumbum Monastery were its monks. The monks tried their best to avoid conversations or even eye contacts with most of the visitors. One time I decided to explore the residential area inside the monastery where no tourists ever frequent. There was a monk talking on the cellphone who was walking towards me. Once he noticed me, he swiftly made a turn towards one of the alleys and disappeared. Later on I found him standing on the roof on one of the buildings and watching me from above. He then disappeared again after I noticed his presence. Whenever me, or any tourist raise up the camera to shoot the monastery and its surroundings, the monks always covered up their faces with their iconic red robes or simply turned their faces away. 

Residences Behind The Monastery

Residences Inside The Monastery

Inside the chapels, there were often monks chanting. But I noticed that many of these chanting monks, interestingly, had the habit of holding a very thick stack of cash on their hands. Beside the Buddha statues, money were just as visible as the Buddha statues themselves. How easy could one be distracted by money? I could tell that I was one.

Kumbum Monastery

A Chapel At The Kumbum Monastery

Old Prayer Wheels

An old lady pilgrim asked one of the monks:

“Master, how old are you?”

The monk replied: “27. I’m turning 28.”

“Where is your family from?”

“I grew up in Huangyuan County.”

“How old were you when you became a monk?”

“Since I was 9.”

“Do you visit your family often?”

“Yeah, I go home during important festivals, as long as the monastery isn’t busy during these times. All my brothers and sisters will be there too to visit my parents.”

Picture of Tsongkapa (In the Middle)

Statues On The Roof Of The Main Prayer Hall

The Dharma Wheel

Roof Decorations At The Kumbum Monastery

I’d say that my observations at the Kumbum Monastery had completely overturned my previous knowledge of Buddhist monks. In disbelief, I began to doubt: Weren’t they supposed to be a group of people who often purposely isolate themselves physically and mentally from the material world? Weren’t they the ones who often pose cynical attitude towards material things like money and family by saying that everything is all emptiness?

The Library

The Library

The Library

Snow Lions - A Symbol of Tibet

Up on the hill, the 10th Panchen Lama’s old residence stood high. He once lived there when the Dalai Lama’s government refused to recognize him as the Panchen Lama. After the battle of Qamdo, which allowed People’s Republic of China to incorporate Tibet, the Dalai Lama’s government eventually allowed the 10th Panchen Lama to return to the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, and officially recognized him as the 10th Panchen Lama. 

10th Panchen Lama's Residence

10th Panchen Lama's Residence

10th Panchen Lama's Residence

Today, the residence is empty: very few visitors, no occupants. The 10th Panchen Lama passed away in 1989, but he didn’t take anything away from the earth with them. The residence became empty ever since. It stood like an empty shell without the soul. Its existence only reminded people of its glories in the past. Now that the master is gone, so is the purpose of this building. On the balcony in front of the residence’s broken windows I saw a cat, whom I believe could be something who had seen more than we all saw and knew more than we all knew. It looked at me with cold eyes, without any mercy, unlike the Buddhists who kept it there with compassion. 

The Door To The Residence

A Cat

As I left Huangzhong, the snow stopped.

In the afternoon, I returned to Xining and visited the Dongguan Great Mosque. The travel guide stated that there was a 25 Yuan admission one had to pay to get in. However, when I arrived at the Mosque, there was a plaque indicating that the Mosque became free of admission to all since 2015 in order to promote Islam. Looked like there was a change in the Mosque’s admission policies - maybe it changed back to the way it always supposed to be.

The Dongguan Great Mosque

Scriptures At The Mosque

The Mosque's Prayer Hall

Inside the mosque, I asked a staff at the information center about the meaning of the iconic onion dome one could find at the Dongguan Mosque and many other great Mosques.

The Minaret Of The Dongguan Great Mosque

The Dome Of The Mosque

“It symbolizes unity. The unity of Hui people and all Muslims under one God ”.

I felt shaken by the power of that explanation. At the same time I was wondering whether that had always been the explanation for why Moorish Islamic Buildings have domes built in that way. 

A Praying Muslim

On my way towards the city center, I passed through the Baiyu Alley. It was just an ordinary back street in a traditional Hui neighborhood. In there I saw the historic Baiyu Mosque, a very small traditional Chinese style mosque nobody knew how long it had been there. People I knew who had been there during the 1950s said it was already there, exactly in the same conditions back in the days. The mosque was surrounded by blocks of Khrushchyovka – Soviet style apartment buildings built to accommodate Communist pioneers and military personnels who came to Qinghai after the founding of the People’s Republic. Just one street away, modern skyscrapers mark the boundaries of the city center area with many new ones under constructions.

The Baiyu Mosque

The New Skyline And The Old World Charm

A Khrushchyovka Built In the 1950s

A Xining Resident's Home

Stairs

Something never changes, while many other things around it may change constantly.

A Backstreet Near The Baiyu Alley

A Scene At The Baiyu Alley

Eventually, I found myself at the City Center Square. By the time I reached there, it was early evening. There were various groups of people doing China’s phenomenal “square dance”- that is, a bunch of people who barely know each other dancing to popular folk music. Many of the songs they played were actually Tibetan songs, thanks to the fact that the city was part of the Tibetan Plateau.

Square Dance In Xining

Two Monks Watching People Dancing

The next morning before I boarded the train to Lhasa, I went to the City Center Square once again. This time I saw workers of different ethnic groups employed by the city working together to decorate the arboretum. There were still people dancing, but most of the crowd were drawn to an amateur choir who was singing some well-known folk songs and revolutionary classics. Residents of Xining were definitely some of the happiest people I had found anywhere on this planet.

Xining's City Landscapers

On my way back to the hotel to pick up my luggage, I realized that I might just had found the answer to the the questions and doubts I had in mind: Maybe the monks had always been the way they were and the weather had always been snowy in late May. It was just that I never got the chance to really see these things happening right in front of my eyes. Until that happens, I would not believe in what others would say about these things. Even if it happened, I would have problems coping with these new knowledge until I could convince myself that these things were true.  For many other things, maybe they had just changed the appearance, but essentially they still functioned the same way as they had always been functioning in the past and present. Maybe people had always gathered together to sing the songs with the only difference being the kind of songs they sang. Maybe the monks were holding something else before cash became the universal method of payment..........................

Xining's North Gate. There Used To Be A City Wall Surrounding The City. But Now Only the Gate Is Left

With some level of psychological satisfaction, I boarded the bus to the train station.