Friday, August 31, 2018

A Visit to Shalu Monastery



Shalu Monastery is quite close to Shigatse and I had the chance to visit it in 1998 and in 2018. It’s very old as the original building dates to 1040, but had been restructured after an earthquake in 1329. It belongs to the Sakya Sect as indicated by the wall color. The roof is different as compared to other Tibetan temples. It is a Chinese roof with glazed bricks in the pagoda style.

Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364), Tibet's most celebrated historian, catalogued all of the 4569 religious and philosophical works at Shalu. He attracted lots of intellectuals of his time both from Tibet and India to study at Shalu.

Later Shalu monastery became an important center of esoteric studies. Alexandra David-Neel described Tummo, which is a practice to waken an inner fire. She also described a lung-gom-pas runner: “He seemed to lift himself from the ground, proceeding by leaps. It looked as if he had been endowed with the elasticity of a ball and rebounded each tine his feet touched the ground. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum. He wore the usual monastic robe and toga, both rather ragged. His left hand gripped a fold of the toga and was half hidden under the cloth. The right held a phurba (magic dagger).” Alexandra David-Neel wanted to talk to him, but was warned not to break his meditation as this would kill him.

Nowadays the monastery looks much more mundane, but still there is this touch of living history. Next time in Tibet I hope to go there again.

Look a the curved roof of of glazed bricks






Ancient books
 

Meditating, chanting, praying and learning


An unusual Thangka


A chörten in front of Shalu monastery



Links:

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The Swastika in Tibet





In Germany we associate the swastika (as a character or )  with the atrocities of the Nazis and therefore showing the swastika has lots of (useful and necessary) restrictions here. But the swastika has been in use for about 15,000 years and is a symbol of auspiciousness, good luck, divinity and spirituality in other cultures. In Hinduism the swastika (Sanskrit word! स्वस्तिक) is a symbol for the sun. In Buddhism the swastika symbolizes the footprints of the Buddha and also eternal cycling of births (samsara); and so we find it in Tibet. You can find the swastika also Tibetan Bon tradition and there it’s called yungdrung. In China it stands for the character , which means 10,000, but also myriad, all, or eternity. Please look up the Wikipedia for extensive information.

In Tibet you can see the swastika quite often -: at doorsteps, on doors, also on streetlights, on temples. The four dots are supposed to be on Indian origin.

In front of a small temple in Lhasa
 


A streetlight in Lhasa
 


Sera monastery, Lhasa
 


Door at a rural home


Links:

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FreitagsGedichte / Kurze Gedichte 31.08.2018





Garten
    im Garten
Sitzen
Wenn
Es
LangSam
Kühl wird
Das
Feuer
Lodert
Noch
Und
Wenn
Die Glut
Beginnt
Zu dunkeln
    Noch einen
HopfenTee


Adam und Eva
    Adam
Der Trottel
Und
Eva
Die
Dumme Kuh
Ein
Apfel
Vom
Baum
Der ErKenntnis
Des
Guten
    Hätte
GeReicht


ÜberFlutung
    nach der
ÜberFlutung
Der
Erde
Durch
Menschen
Starb
Das
Abenteuer
Oder
Meinst Du
Die
    Ice Bucket Challenge
Wäre Abenteuer?


Mond
die Amerikaner
Haben
Sich
Nur nicht
GeTraut
Den
Grünen
Käse
Vom
Mond
MitZu-
Bringen


Sommer
    im Sommer
Tragen
Die
Frauen
Gerne
Lange
Kleider
Warum
Wollen
Sie
Nicht
Auch
    Sonst hübsch
AusSehen


Kneipe
    wenn
Die
Kneipe
Schließt
Füllt
Die
Nacht
Die leere
    Innen-
Stadt


Gedichte
    ausWendig
GeLernte
Gedichte
Sind
Ein
Fluch
Denn
Sie
VerSchwinden
    Vom
Papier


Spiegel
    der Spiegel
Ist
Eine
Uhr
Die
Nicht
Zeit
Sondern
    Alter
Zeigt


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