Xiahe: home of the Labrang Monastery, one of the six major Tibetan monasteries of the Gelugpa order (‘Yellow Hat’ sect of Tibetan Buddhism). The guide book also has it down as the leading Tibetan monastery town outside of Lhasa. Home to the Jamyang (Living Buddah number three after the Dalai and Panchen Lamas) and 1200 monks the town was also full of Tibetans on pilgrimage.

 

We spent three days walking around things in a clockwise direction. First round the temples inside the monastery, then round the outer wall of the monastery (past the 1174 prayer wheels), and finally round the town itself up in the hills looking down from above.

 

The pictures say it all (all except why Buddhist places are supposed to be circumnavigated clockwise, I’ve yet to find that out...)

 

J