Shangri La

This was the last destination of my trip in Yunnan. Shangri La, what a great name! A name covered in mystery, the name of the town where James Hilton 'Lost Paradise' takes place. The actual name of then town is Zhongdian in Chinese, or Gyalthang in Tibetan, but apparently it was recently renamed to Shangri La to attract more tourism, given the mistique of the name. Hard to know if this is true or not. Nonetheless, this was another highlight of the trip.

Shangri La is really near Tibet, and might be the place that is as Tibetan as it can be outside Tibet, at least in the Yunnan tourists/travellers trail. It is rally high, at 3200m, on a high plateau. For miles and miles right before getting there the terrain seemed flat, with no noticeable ups and downs. I could feel the altitude the whole staying here, with short breath on every step, specially walking up stairs. The old town is really beautiful, although a bit touristy (typical in this region), but it has some beautiful houses, squares where people dance some typical coreographies at sunset, Tibetan temples, shops selling Yunnanese and Tibetan products and restaurants serving Tibetan food. One of the temples has one of those gigantic tibetan praying wheels that we successfully made it rotate, with the help of tens of other Chinese tourists. In many places one can see the typical Tibetan flags with inscriptions on it. The whole setting made this place completely different from everything I've seen in China.

The best was going to come on the second night. We heard about a Tibetan Buddhist monastery close to the town where 700 monks live and in which apparently it is possible to stay the night. We also heard that it is possible to get there without paying the ticket if we hitchhiked on a local person's car into the area of the monastery, and so we did. We passed the checkpoint without paying and reached the monastery an hour before sunset. From outside it was breathtaking! A big group of houses on a hill with the larger monastery buildings on top. Golden roofs, red, white and yellow walls gave the buildings this earthy feeling. In front of it there is a small lake and in the mountains around one can see the Tibetan (?  Ceremonial things?).

Once we got to the main door we were asked to show the ticket, that we didn't buy. We tried to convince then to let us in, but didn't budge. But one of them saw that one of the girls on our group had a trumpet with her (she was travelling with it) and asked her to play. She played a Jazzy tune, they smiled and let us in for free.

Once inside we walked around in the yards around the main buildings and asked the monks if we could stay the night there. It was not... We walked into one of the buildings where monks were praying while singing an hypnotic chant, but at the same time some of them talked to others, laughed and made jokes. We all compared it with the western religions, in which the formality is much higher! It would be unthinkable to talk and laugh at the same time other people pray in a church, synagogue or mosque, for example. We could not take pictures inside the temple... The walls are covered with very colourful Buddhist mythology scenes (some violent and almost pornographic), the columns that support the colourful ceiling are huge and red and the massive statues of Buddha and other characters are impressive... Imagine that the foot of Buddha is as big as me. A really magical experience, helped by the fact it was past the visiting time, so there were no other tourists, and by the light of sunset on the first day and sunrise on the second.

Part of the group that hitchhiked on another car met a local that offered us bed, dinner and breakfast at his place for 70 yuan. We accepted. It was not exactly a guesthouse, it was more like a big family house where other people could spend the night. They cooked us a Tibetan dinner: yak's fat, yak's cheese' yak's butter, tea with yak's milk, Tibetan bread and vfpoegetables. Everything delicious, except the fat, which is weird for our palate. In the next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise from the lake and had the breakfast: tea with yak's milk, 'tsampa' (roast barley flour that one mixes with the yak's milk), etc. We had a last view of the temple in the morning and then head back to the hostel in town. This day the group disassembled, as everyone was going into separate directions.

I understand how some westerners feel the spiritual call when they visit places like this and decide to immerse them in this religion and culture... It is more than a hippie extravagance... if this place is this magical I can imagine how Tibet must be! Unfortunately it is not easy, nor cheap, for a foreigner to go there, and a place like this is the closest I can experience to it in this trip.