Aerial View of Tibetan Areas of China_Tibet Aerial Photography and Tourism
Aerial View of Tibetan Areas of China_Tibet Aerial Photography and Tourism.
Ngari Prefecture (Tibetan: མངའ་རིས་ས་ཁུལ་, Wylie: mnga' ris sa khul; simplified Chinese: 阿里地区; traditional Chinese: 阿里地區; pinyin: Ālǐ Dìqū) is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Its capital is Gar County. Its administrative centre is the town of Burang Town. The largest settlement is Shiquanhe. Ngari Prefecture includes part of the Aksai Chin area, a disputed region claimed by India but over which China exercises administrative control. The paved Xinjiang-Tibet Highway (新藏公路) passes through this area. There are well-known prehistoric petroglyphs near the far western town of Rutog.
The town of Ngari lies 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) above sea level in northwest Tibet some 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) west of the capital, Lhasa. Ngari Gunsa Airport began operations on July 1, 2010, becoming the fourth civil airport on the Roof of the World (shortening the trip to Lhasa to one-and-a-half hours from three or four days by car). The other airports in Tibet are Lhasa Gonggar Airport in Lhasa, Qamdo Bamda Airport in Chamdo and Nyingchi Mainling Airport.[1]
Ngari was once the heart of the ancient kingdom of Guge. Later Ngari, along with Ü and Tsang, composed Ü-Tsang, one of the traditional provinces of Tibet, the others being Amdo and Kham.
2009 Sichuan Tourism Promotion Film(English Version)
Sichuan, China.
Qiang People Community:
Labrang Monastery, Xiahe, Gansu, China 4K
Labrang Monastery, Xiahe, Gansu - Travel China Guide 4K - Labrang Monastery tourism
Labrang Monastery
=================
About 0.6 miles (1km) west from Xiahe County in Gannan Prefecture, Gansu Province, there is the Labrang Monastery. A propitious place in the hearts of the Tibetan, it stands by the Daxia River and faces the Dragon Mountain. The monastery gains reputation for its rich Tibetan culture, imposing Buddhist buildings, unique Tibetan food and long corridor of prayer wheels. Since the famous Chinese movie “World Without Thieves” was screened in 2004, Labrang Monastery became known to visitors as the shooting place.
It is the holy place where Buddhism followers learn the essence of Buddhism. In its heyday, there were over four thousand monks. Early in the morning, monks chant sutras together. The Labrang Monastery holds seven large-scale assemblies a year, among which the Summons Ceremony in the first lunar month and the Buddhist Doctrine Explaining Ritual in the seventh lunar month are the grandest ones. The former one lasts for fifteen days from 3 - 17 in the lunar January.
Layout and Structures
=================
Covering an area of 2,140 acres (about 866 hectares), the monastery contains tens of thousands of rooms that are painted red, yellow and white according to function and class. At dawn or at dusk, when the sun sheds its lights on the golden spires, they all look imposing and majestic. Starry sky over the monastery is also very impressive.
Labrang Monastery, GansuThe architectural layout of Labrang Monastery presents typical Tibetan style. The symbols of the whole construction are the white stupas in the northeast and northwest. There is Wensi College, an Exoteric Buddhism college and five Esoteric Buddhism colleges in the monastery. Wensi College is the center of the monastery, also called the Grand Sutra Hall. Buddha halls are located in the northwestern part around the Grand Sutra Hall. Other halls spread in a shape similar to a crescent moon, all richly ornamented.
The Grand Sutra Hall is the dominant place for religious activities of the Labrang Monastery and for adherents' worshipping. On the inside walls there are portraits and shrines of Buddha and bookcases.
Located in the northwest of the Grand Sutra Hall, the Grand Golden Tile Hall is the highest building in the Labrang Monastery and is strongly tinged with Nepalese flavor. It is six-storied and the roof is covered with bronze bricks that are washed by gold. Inside the hall there is a bronze figure of Buddha created by Nepalese artisans.
Buddha statues in the temples are all lifelike with kind-looking faces. Also can be seen are various butter sculptures. Walls of those temples are decorated with colorful and elaborate paintings. Walking within it, one will feel inner peace.
To get a fascinating vista of the monastery, you need to pay extra CNY 20 for Gongtang Pagoda, which is situated at the southwest corner. Visitors can go to the top of the pagoda and admire the grandness of Labrang Monastery. Or, go across the wood bridge over Xiahe River and climb to the hill facing the monastery. It is the best place to have a panoramic view.
Long Corridor of Prayer Wheels
========================
Labrang Monastery boasts the longest corridor of prayer wheels over the world, with over 1,700 scripture wheels. The hexagonal wood cylinders are carved with different scriptures and patterns on each side. The whole monastery is encircled by the corridor, stretching as long as 2.7 miles (3.5km). Walking to the end of the corridor takes more than an hour. Walk clockwise along the corridor and rotate the wheels, you will get rid of woe.
Tibetan Meal
===========
In the dining hall, you will have a special local meal. Ordering is not needed. Instead, monks will serve you with local dishes one by one. The first is a bowl of milk tea, and then comes the boiled mutton and highland barley wine. Interesting is that you will not be served with rice until you finish the wine. The last one is Tibetan bun with mutton stuffing. In summer, the meal always ends up with a cup of cool yogurt.
Dos and Don'ts:
Take off hats when you enter the main halls.
Don't touch or point at the Buddhist statues.
Don't take pictures in the main halls and Gongtang Pagoda.
Transportation
1. From Lanzhou, visitors can catch a direct bus at Lanzhou South Coach Station to Xiahe County. It departs at 7:30, 8:30, 09:30, 14:00 and 15:00. The fare is around CNY 75 and the journey takes about five hours. Since it is a long distance, you’d better leave for Xiahe in the morning. After arrival, take a taxi to Labrang Monastery.
2. From Xining, you can take a bus at Xining Passenger Transport Center, which is located at the east of the South Square of Xining Railway Station. It departs around 07:00. The journey costs CNY 80 and takes about six hours.
3. From other counties like Linxia or Hezuo, there are buses to Xiahe every day.
Kumbum Monastery ( Ta'er Temple), Huangzhong, Xining, Qinghai, China 4K
Kumbum Monastery ( Ta'er Temple), Huangzhong County, Xining, Qinghai 4K, Kumbum Monastery AmdoTibet, China Trip
Kumbum Monastery also now called Little Tower Temple is a gompa founded in 1583 in a narrow valley close to the village of Lusar in the historical region of Amdo, nowadays the Qinghai province in the People's Republic of China. Its superior monastery is Drepung Monastery, immediately to the west of Lhasa. It was ranked in importance as second only to Lhasa.
Description
==========
Alexandra David-Néel, the famous Belgian-French explorer who spent more than two years studying and translating Tibetan books at the monastery, said of it:
The configuration of the surrounding mountain ranges arrested the passage of the clouds, and forced them to turn around the rocky summit which supported the gompa forming a sea of white mist, with its waves beating silently against the cells of the monks, wreathing the wooded slopes and creating a thousand fanciful landscapes as they rolled by. Terrible hailstorms would often break over the monastery, due, said the country folk, to the malignity of the demons who sought to disturb the peace of the saintly monks.
We were taken first to the great kitchen where priests were brewing Tibetan tea in great copper cauldrons ten feet in diameter, beautifully chased with the Buddhist symbols. The stoves were the usual mud affairs and the fuel nothing but straw, which younger lamas continually fed to the fire.
Origins: The Tree of Great Merit
Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, was born in nearby Tsongkha in 1357. According to one tradition, Tsongkhapa's father took the afterbirth and buried it where the monastery is now and soon a sandalwood tree grew on the spot. Another version has it that the tree grew up where drops of blood from Tsongkhapa's umbilical cord had fallen on the ground. In any case this tree became known as the Tree of Great Merit. The leaves and the bark of this tree were reputed to bear impressions of the Buddha's face and various mystic syllables and its blossoms were said to give off a peculiarly pleasing scent.
The four-storied golden-roofed temple built around the tree where Tsongkhapa is said to have been born is called Golden Tree (Wylie: gser sdong, metaphorically wish-fulfilling tree) and is considered the holiest place at Kumbum.
On the porch of the Golden Temple, pilgrims prostrate themselves one hundred times and the boards are worn into grooves where their feet and hands touch. . . . We were taken into one great temple capable of seating twenty-five hundred priests. The great pillars were covered with brilliantly woven rugs, skins of animals, and the bright pulo cloth of the Tibetans. It was a mass of brilliant, garish colors and to my mind would have been wonderful in a more subdued light.
This is the origin of its Chinese name, Little Tower Temple. Two Catholic missionaries, Évariste Régis Huc and Joseph Gabet who arrived here in the 1840s when the tree was still living were fully prepared to dismiss The Tree of Great Merit as just another fanciful legend.
We were filled with an absolute consternation of astonishment, Huc noted in his famous book Travels in Tartary, at finding that, in point of fact, there were upon each of the leaves well-formed Tibetan characters . . . Our first impression was a suspicion of fraud on the part of the lamas; but after a minute examination of every detail, we could not discover the least deception.
Section of this tree are now preserved in a stupa in the Great Golden Temple.
The Golden Tiled Temple is revered throughout Tibet and Mongolia. It is a small building with a roof of pure gold plate. Inside, it is full of wonderful relics, great banners of silk brocade called katas, wonderful lamps of gold and silver, thousands of small vessels burning butter, a colossal figure of Tsong Kapa, said to be made of gold. All is in semi-darkness which adds to the mystical effect, and the gleam from the butter lamps threw into relief some beautifully wrought temple vessels, or the queer blank face of some saintly Buddha image.
Xiahe Gansu province China
Xiahe
Population: 130,000
Area: 8,037 square kilometers
Nationalities: Tibetan, Han and Hui
Zip Code: 747100
Area Code: 0941
Administrative Division: Labrang Town, Wanggeertang Town, Amuquhu Town, Sangke County, Ganjia County, Damai County, Madang County, Dian'ao County, Tangga'ang County, Zhayou County, Bola County, Jicang County, Yaliji County, Kecai County
Location: Xiahe County lies in the southwest of Gansu province and northwest of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. On the northeast edge of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it is located between 35°12' north latitude and 102°31' east longitude.
Physical Features: The hypsography of slopes down from northwest to southeast with an average elevation of 2,900 meters-3,100 meters (9,514 feet-10,170 feet). The highest elevation is 4,636 meters and the lowest is 2,160 meters (7,087 feet).
History: It used to be the ley of Qiang Nationality in the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC - 476BC). It was once occupied by Xianbei, Tubo and Mongolian nationalities. It has been named as Baishi County in the Western Han Period (206 BC - 24 AD), Longxi County in the Eastern Han Period (25 - 220), Jinxing County in the Western Jin Period (265 – 316), Huaiqiang County in the Northern Song Period (960 - 1127) and Labrang in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911). It was finally named as Xiahe in 1928.
Climatic Feature: It has a typical plateau continental climate. It is temperate and semiarid in the north, cold and humid in the south. The weather is windy in spring and winter, as well as rainy in summer and autumn. Usually, it has a long frost period with the frost-free period only 56 days and a total sunshine of 2,296 hours annually. The annually average temperature is about 2.6C (36.7F) with the highest of 28.4C (83F) and the lowest of -26.7C (80F). The rainfall is 444millimeters (17.5 inches) annually.
When to Go: September to December is the best time to visit there due to the pleasant weather.
Local Highlights: The traditional 'Xiang Lang Festival' which is similar to the spring outing of Han nationality (the last ten-day of June in Chinese Lunar Calendar) is a very important festival in this area. You can know more about the local customs through this festival.
Local Product: Root of Silverweed Cinquefoil, Snow Lotus, Bezoar and Aweto
Labrang Monastery:
Located at the foot of the Phoenix Mountain northwest of the county, Labrang Monastery is the first must-see attraction. It is one of the six great monasteries of Gelukpa sect as well as the location of Gansu Provincial Buddhism College. The Labrang Monastery boasts tens of thousands of statues of Buddha made of gold, silver, copper, and aluminum, as well as many Buddha hats and many Buddhist treasures adorned with pearls, jadeite, agate and diamonds.
Transportation:
1. There is no airport and railway station in this place, but Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport and Lanzhou Railway Station are nice options for passenger's convenience.
2. It is easy for passengers to take long-distance bus station to other places. Xiahe Bus Station is about 1.5km away from the entrance to the monastery and the main concentration of guesthouses. Frequent Buses operates onward to Xiahe in 3-4 hours and to Linxia in 2 hours. One bus daily runs to Langmusi in 4 hours and one bus daily leaves for Tongren in about 3 hours.
3. It is cheap to take a taxi to travel around the area. A round-trip between Xiahe and Sangke Prairie only costs about CNY40 by taxi.
For Booking Hostels:
Music Tracks used:
Buddha Bar sound tracks
References:
到達八美鎮 Bamei village (China)
蓮花古剎惠遠寺惠遠寺又稱“噶達強巴林”,意為“解脫”.惠遠寺是甘孜州唯一,藏區少有的封建王朝皇帝欽定修建的寺廟,也是到八美必須一去的地方.站在省道303公路上遠眺惠遠寺,多有柔和的皺摺,猶如盛開的蓮花;盆地內溪水叮咚,遠有森林牧場,近有村社農田,地勢平坦,風景秀麗.
Visit Tibet Monks in Sichuan China
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the regions surrounding the Himalayas and much of Central Asia. It derives from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism and preserves the Tantric status quo of eighth-century India.
---
Video made in Daocheng County, Sichuan, China.
Daocheng County or Dapba in Tibetan (Tibetan: འདབ་པ་རྫོང།, ZYPY: Dabba Zong; Chinese: 稻城县; pinyin: Dàochéng Xiàn), historically Daoba (simplified Chinese: 稻坝; traditional Chinese: 稻壩; pinyin: Dàobà), is a county of western Sichuan Province, China, located in the eastern Hengduan Mountains. It is under the administration of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture with an overwhelmingly Tibetan population. Its latitude ranges from 27° 58' to 29° 30' N and longitude 99° 56' to 100° 36', and reaches 174 kilometres (108 mi) in north-south extent and 63 km (39 mi) in east-west width, with elevations ranging from 2,000 to 6,032 m (6,562 to 19,790 ft)
Travelling VLOGS - China Part 5 - Xiahe
We head even further west and up to an altitude of 3,500m to check out the Labrang Monastery and surrounding hills around Xiahe.
Music: Hong Ting
instagram.com/stingytravellers/
Drone Vlog ✈ Namtso Lake, the Heavenly Lake in Tibet
Perhaps, the most picturesque lake in China
Ice, snow, water, mountain, blue sky - I could not ask for more :)
Taken with Mavic Air (affiliate link):
Music thanks to:
Song: Sappheiros - Embrace (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music promoted by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link:
Song: NOWË - just some melodies. (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link:
Xiahe and the Labrang Tibetan Buddhist Monastery
Xiahe
14 - 16 October 2016
Xiahe was the fourth location of our China Tour. After Beijing and Xi’an it is really a small village located in the foothills of the Himalaya. Xiahe was a part of Tibet for a long time. The population of Xiahe is mostly Tibetan. Most of the people are still dressed traditional. The purpose of our visit to Xiahe is off course the famous Labrang Tibetan Buddhist Monastery.
The Labrang Monastery is one the biggest and the most important Buddhist monastery outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Labrang Monastery is important for the people of Xiahe and of all the Buddhists in the region. However the monastery is popular for pilgrims as well. There are about 1400 monks in the monastery. That is more than what is allowed in a monastery in Lhasa, the former capitol of Tibet, and still the most important place of the Tibetan Buddhism.
We arrived in Xiahe in the afternoon. We had still some time to walk the Kora. The Kora is a meditative practice of the Tibetan Buddhists. They walk rounds around a sacred object or place. In the Labrang Monastery the walk around the monastery is 3km and counts 1174 prayer wheels. Usually they walk the Kora 3 times. Beside the 3km Kora, the Tibetan Buddhists walk Koras around a lot of other holy objects in the monastery. You also see some Buddhist prostrating. Some people are prostrating on one place. However you see them also prostrating the Kora of 3 km.
The next day we visited the inside of the Labrang Monastery and made a nice hike in the mountains near Xiahe.
The Labrang Monastery is of the Gelug school, also named Yellow caps. The next day we visited a monastery near Zuohaicun, north of Xiahe. The monks over there are called Black caps. But they were yellow caps as well. Maybe it is better to keep the Tibetan name: Karmapa. The black caps are walking the Kora as well. However they walk counterclockwise instead of clockwise.
At last we visited the town of Ka'ernangcun. The town has a 2200 years old city wall. Ka'ernangcun is situated in the Grasslands north of Xiahe. We drunk some hot Yak milk and eat some Tsampa.
Music
Dhaka van Kevin MacLeod is gelicentieerd onder een Creative Commons Attribution-licentie (
Bron:
Artiest:
The Voyage van Audionautix is gelicentieerd onder een Creative Commons Attribution-licentie (
Artiest:
Xiahe is part of the China Tour 2016. Please find the summary on YouTube:
In the same China tour you can find:
City trip Beijing, China:
The Great Wall of China (The Chinese Wall):
Terracotta Army and City Wall of Xian, China:
Xiahe and the Labrang Tibetan Buddhist Monastery:
From Xiahe to Langmusi:
The Kurte Tibetan Monastery and the Langmusi gorge hike:
Huanglong near Songpan:
Chengdu and the Chengdu Panda Reserve:
Shangri-la:
Hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek, China:
Lijiang, China:
The 3 famous Pagodas in Dali, China:
Yangshou in the Karst landscape, Guilin, China:
City trip Shanghai, China
All the videos of the China Tour are together in the following playlist:
Please find the blog of the tour on:
DO NOT forget to LIKE, SHARE and SUBSCRIBE to my channel:
Xiahe | Xiahe China | Xiahe Labrang | Labrang Monastery | Buddhism | Tibetan Buddhism | Tibetan | Tibetan monks | Sawadee | Sawadee Reizen