a land of Tibet

We're at the Johkang temple! The river is the Kyi Chu of course. The Potala is over on Mount Marpori and not far from this is Mount Chakpori where the medical temples and colleges once stood. We know something of Tibetan medicine from Art Perry's book although there is a lot more; it is a complete and profound practice. In general there are a lot of these mounts found throughout Tibet in towns where forts and monasteries were typically placed for the usual reasons. The island closest to the Norbulingka is the Kumalingka , the 'theives island'. There have to be a few crazy stories about that spot! Anyway though there is/was an old bridge covered with prayer flags that goes from the bank of the Kyi chu to the Kumalingka . Perhaps the one in that rather awesome picture at the beginning of our Footprint Tibet book. I didn't add the labels as the handwritten ones seem readable. In any case we've heard a lot of these places already. Drepung and Sera are the two monasteries ;there's the temple of the oracle of Nechung! Drepung means "rice heap" and Sera means "hail". Hail is something which often destroys crops in Tibet and as our Tibetan language book describes it the names were given to indicate the spirit of competition in debating that existed between the two places, the hail versus the rice heap! It's a bit late so two as one we'll add more to the notes a bit later beautiful one. We have a small heap of boards for your loom drying in the studio now!


	Through My Eyes * We're at the Johkang temple! The river is the Kyi Chu of course. The Potala is over on Mount Marpori and not far from this is Mount Chakpori where the medical temples and colleges once stood. We know something of Tibetan medicine from Art Perry's book although there is a lot more; it is a complete and profound practice. In general there are a lot of these mounts found throughout Tibet in towns where forts and monasteries were typically placed for the usual reasons. The island closest to the Norbulingka is the Kumalingka , the 'theives island'. There have to be a few crazy stories about that spot! Anyway though there is/was an old bridge covered with prayer flags that goes from the bank of the Kyi chu to the Kumalingka . Perhaps the one in that rather awesome picture at the beginning of our Footprint Tibet book. I didn't add the labels as the handwritten ones seem readable. In any case we've heard a lot of these places already. Drepung and Sera are the two monasteries ;there's the temple of the oracle of Nechung! Drepung means "rice heap" and Sera means "hail". Hail is something which often destroys crops in Tibet and as our Tibetan language book describes it the names were given to indicate the spirit of competition in debating that existed between the two places, the hail versus the rice heap! It's a bit late so two as one we'll add more to the notes a bit later beautiful one. We have a small heap of boards for your loom drying in the studio now! * courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions. The information for the sketches is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje. ( please click here to return to my spinning for you!)