9/10

9/10 7:40am CST

http://picasaweb.google.com/105909573807230408134/9_10?authkey=Gv1sRgCPKenvfvrLbX6AE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l15SrABVlww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q3riFjpkqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWLr0iq8mYw

Today we're mostly taking a break. Because we advanced our schedule a bit with doing two trips yesterday, today we've got the morning free and the afternoon to visit Sera monastery. Our guide Tsenam seems to have been caught off guard by the schedule change, as he made some flimsy excuse about why he couldn't guide us through Sera. I think it'd have been slightly better if he'd told us right away yesterday when we asked to change the schedule instead of this morning. We should be able to get ourselves through Sera without too much trouble; we don't need a licensed tour guide to get tickets or enter.

For the morning though, we're just going to walk around and do some shopping. The obvious thing is that while, from stall to stall, the items are different, overall there's only a few kinds of items for sale. I was just reading on the Gaussian Unitary Exclusion principle, and I wonder if that governs the the distribution of items. You don't want to be the same as the vendor next to you, but you also don't want to be selling stuff that's too left-field, because few people will want it and you'll have trouble finding suppliers.

Walking around and just looking at the city is pretty relaxing. While I end up just buying a couple of gifts for friends back home, it's been pleasant walking around at our own pace and not having a strict agenda. I'm not even that miffed that the whole area is dedicated to tourism. We're just shopping, after all.

We head back to the hotel to have a quick lunch, and then meet up with the driver to go to Sera. The monastery is pretty close by, so we're right back out on our feet. This is a much bigger complex than the other sites, except for Norbulingkha, with dozens of buildings scattered around. Recall that a monastery is for training monks, so there's hundreds of them on site living in these dorms. The statues and chapels in the public areas look very similar to others we've seen, and without a guide to expound on them, we pass by them quickly. The main attraction at Sera is the monks' debates. This is held twice every other day. We made sure to get to Sera right before they start the event.

What happens --
The monks gather in a gravel courtyard, which is fortunately shaded by some trees. The tourists ring the outside of the courtyard. The monks split up into questioner-answerer pairs. The answering monk sits on a red pillow on the ground, while the questioning monk stands before him. When the event begins, the questioning monks proceed to present various questions. Each question is punctuated by an elaborate clapping motion, as though the questioner is sending the question on a current of air toward the answerer. If the answerer is wrong, the questioner gets to do multiple claps in succession.
Many of the monks did this with a lot of enthusiasm, seeming to have a good time of it. After all, they are all young men with a lot of youthful energy. There was a senior monk patrolling the rows, but he didn't seem to have objections to the content or procedure. Another monk was going around with what seemed to be a checklist. I suppose to make sure each pair had adequate performance? I can only assume the questions were trivia like, who was the founder of the Niungma sect? What are the Three Sorrows? What was the first Nepali chapter of Tibetan Buddhism? In any case, I'm not sure there's much debate to it.

Anyways, the monks are having a good time and enjoying themselves. It's a pleasant atmosphere, but because everything is conducted in Tibetan, we can't stay there watching it forever. We make a quiet exit (probably one of the earliest) and continue visiting around the monastery. We make a good circuit of it, hearing the monks debating the whole time. I hope nobody stayed for the whole thing.

After we left Sera, we went to our last dinner in Tibet. The coworker of my mom's college classmate couldn't make it as host, so he sent an underling to treat us to a good dinner. And boy was it a good one. We were dining at Sunset, or if you do a bit of wordplay, The Sun Never Sets. This was supposedly the best Tibetan restaurant in Lhasa. Everything was done according to Tibetan tradition, so midway into the dinner, they brought in three maids (I'm sure on any given night, some of the waitresses get to do serenade duty instead of serving) to serenade the guests. For each guest, they sing a traditional Tibetan song. After the song is over, the guest is presented with a glass of barley wine. The guest holds the glass in his left hand, and dips his right ring finger into the glass, and flicks the wine on his finger heavenward. He repeats a flick to the ground. Finally, he flicks toward the dinner table. These are the respective blessings to heaven, the earth, and the friends. Then, he takes a small sip and holds it. The maids top off the glass. He sips again, and the maids top it off again. Then he drains the glass. After he finishes, the maids put a kada on him and say Tashi delek. The maids did it to all three of us guests, singing a different song each time. It was pretty cool. The songs were really the best example of Tibetan singing, probably because they were acapella. I didn't drink my barley wine except for the sips, and I think I still managed to get a buzz off of that.

The food at the dinner had repeat dishes of stuff that we'd liked before, as well as new items. I think I liked the boiled lamb and yak momo the best. I have details in the photos. I think the only downside is that I won't be able to enjoy Rangzen in Cambridge as much, if only because of the limited menu.