Today we traveled to the village of Tongren.  We were very fortunate enough to visit Longwu Monastery.  This is one of a few monasteries in all of China which is allowed to have pictures of the 14th Dalai Lama. Since he grew up in Qinghai province, the government is a little more relaxed about his picture being shown.  However, this is not the case for the rest of the provinces in China. 

We were not allowed to take pictures inside of any of these buildings but in the very back was a large portrait of the 14th Dalai Lama.

We also got to see how small villages in China take advantage of solar energy with solar panels and “home-made” solar panels.

We stopped along the way for some lovely yak butter tea! Yum! My favorite!

Then off to the Tangka school!  Tangka’s are religious paintings which are normally very detailed.  We got to speak with an artist while he was painting.  The particular work he was finishing took him 6 months to complete.  They can depict the famous prayer found in prayer wheels or on prayer flags: “Om mani padme hum.” Or they can depict gods or stories! Usually they are really colorful and unique!

I had a lot of fun visiting the monasteries and seeing the Tangka school.  China is not a religious country so it is interesting to see how rich religious culture can be in some parts of the country.