Amdo

After a brief stay in Xilang (pronounced "Zilang"), we stayed at Kumbum which is one of the most famous monasteries in Tibet. This monastery is built over the spot where Je Tsongkhapa is said to have been born. Je Tsongkhapa is the founder of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, and is widely revered throughout Tibet as a manifestation of Manjushri, who is depicted in Tibetan paintings as an orange diety wielding the sword of wisdom above his head, cutting through ignorance. It is said that one of the temples in Kumbum is built at the site of a tree that marks the spot of Tsongkhapa's birth. This tree had leaves that had naturally arisen images of Tsongkhapa's body on them, thus the name "Kumbum", which literally means "Body" (Ku), 100,000(Bum). At least, that's how I remember the story as it was told to me by my monk friend, who I will refer to as "Aku", which just means "uncle" and is how everybody refers to monks in Amdo. Unfortunately, Kumbum feels like a tourist attraction and less like a vibrant monastery. Every day you can see bus loads of Chinese tourists dressing up in Tibetan clothes and taking pictures in front of ancient stupas at the monastery. Maybe that's not a bad thing, I'm still undecided.

I was still ill at this time and unable to eat very much. 2 days went by and I had no appetite. I was taking Tibetan medicine known as "Druptop Rilkar" which seemed to be helping, it at least put a dam up to block the "southern floods". After about 2 days I started to feel better and got some color back in my face, and a little bit of an appetite. We were able to do a full "kora" or circumambulation around the monastery, which takes about 1 hour.