Thursday 25 December 2014

The Most Amazing Monasteries Ever?

Hi.  How do you like my Potala Palace selfie?


The Potala Palace is in Lhasa, the main city in Tibet.  It's a very beautiful building, all in white, red and gold.  Here's a close-up picture.


The Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibet, used to spend a lot of his time here but he lives in India now.   

China rules Tibet but lots of people in Tibet want to be separate from China, a bit like lots of people in Scotland wanted to be separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  In Scotland they had a referendum, so everyone voted to say whether they wanted Scotland to be a separate country or not.  There isn't going to be a referendum in Tibet though; it's going to stay a part of China.

I went inside the palace and there are lots of gold statues of the Buddha (people in Tibet are mostly Buddhist, a bit like in some parts of Nepal).  There are also lots of monasteries in Tibet.  They are some of the most amazing buildings I have visited on my travels.  I have never seen so many gold statues before!



When I went to visit a monastery, the monks were learning about Buddhism.  They divided into pairs and one person asked questions while the other person had to answer.  I imagine Robin, Adam and Grace do this at school sometimes except they might be testing each other on maths or history instead of Buddhism.


I was very impressed by Tibetan monasteries.  I saw lots of them in just a few days though so I think it might be time to go and look at some more mountains now!


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