We have come north west from Xiahe, and have also descended by about 1000m - it's warmed up as a result; it was a bit chilly in Xiahe, especially in the evening. Anyway, what's been going on? Yesterday afternoon I spent a chaotic two hours trying to buy a Chinese mobile card - amazingly, after much discussion, photocopies of passports and the chap disappearing god knows where, I got one: should anyone feel the insatiable need to communicate it is 00 86 136 2931 5629. However, this might not last too long - the card cost 10 yuan, basically one Euro or 60p... the chap ensured me it would work in Tibet, Shanghai and Guilin so we'll see!
Today we left Xiahe for the drive across the Ganjia grasslands (pronounced Ganja...I'll let you make comments) and mountains to Tongren. The landscape was amazing a mixture of grasslands, striking mountains and gorges. We drove through this landscape in the morning stopping at various times. On one occasion we stopped to go and see some nomadic Tibetans who were in the process of sheep shearing! This was completely unplanned and was great fun as we walked among them and the poor sheep taking some shots.
The kids loved it and showed off their "sheep riding" skills - I'll not go into any further details. On the high plateau we also passed by some of the nomads tents - they have come down to the lower pastures for the summer. All quite amazing.
We then arrived in Tongren for lunchtime. Tongren is, according to my guide, a "lightly industrial town" but the main reason for our visit is the Monastery, the Long Wu.
This was fascinating, and our new local guide, Andy, did a great job in explaining more of the background of Buddhism to us. I'm now trying to remember some of the details... :) 
Top of the list is the fact that both the current Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama are from this region - and it is the only area where you can see their pictures in the monasteries.
This is a real no-no in Tibet itself, or to give it its Chinese name - the "Tibetan Autonomous Region" or TAR. We're effectively in Tibet already, but... well you can consult the history. What else did I take from it? We saw two temples, one with the Maitreya, the future living Buddha (I mentioned this one in an earlier post - you donate money to her to ensure - hopefully - a better future reincarnation) and we also saw the Green Tara. This was interesting: theCompassion Buddha, of which the Dalai Lama is the 14th reincarnation, had 1000 arms and 1000 heads, to help him do good deeds. Seeing that even this was not enough, he got 21 taras - in effect, secondary compassion "envoys" to do good deeds on his behalf.We also had the Sky Burial tradition explained to us. Turn away now if you happen to be of a weak disposition :) Essentially, this practice revolves round dissecting the body of a dead person and leaving it in the open for the vultures to eat. The idea being that the body is merely the vessel for the soul which will - hopefully - have gone skywards awaiting a better reincarnation. Andy explained the practice in some detail, including the fact that they leave smashing the skull open till last as the brains are the vultures favourite...! At this point, our brave tour leader Sam has left the building in disgust... :)
Tomorrow we head to Xining from where we will get the train to Lhasa on Monday, but in the meantime we will be checking out some monasteries along the way!
More to follow!
Rob
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