24 Hours in Repkong

Repkong (Tongren in Chinese) is considered the capital of Tibetan paintings (thangkas) and painted sculptures. After yesterday's morning clinic and language class, all nine of us boarded a bus for this famed city. We were joined by Dolma's classmate Paul, who kindly agreed to be our translator. The drive was about four hours, and like the drives of our other field trips, it was stunning! We were surrounded by towering mountains and meandering segments of the Yellow River. Several adobe-like houses lined the highway for portions of our journey.

We arrived in the evening, checked into our hotel, and went to dinner shortly thereafter. Paul suggested a Muslim restaurant, and the food was delicious! We ordered at least one dish per person (eating family style per usual) and ate almost everything. Needless to say, we had worked up quite an appetite on the drive there! Most members of our group are vegetarian, so it was nice having such a variety of Chinese vegetables. Broccoli is a standard dish for us, and last night we ordered three (large!) plates of it. We also ordered three plates of sliced, spiced potatoes. Yum! :)

After dinner we headed to the nearby square where several townspeople were doing Tibetan circle dancing to traditional songs. Several of us joined in and tried to follow along. Each song seemed to coincide with a different set of moves, which kept us on our toes (in more ways than one!). We had seen several circle dances at a traditional Tibetan dance performance and at Xining Square and had been wanting to try it for quite awhile. We'd always been too self-conscious but last night we just went for it and are glad we did!

After dancing, the two of us went on a quick tour with Paul around the city in a cab to see some sights and get oriented. We saw the city's main monastery, Rongwo Gonchen Gompa, bought some prayer beads at a nearby store, peeked into a nightclub, passed by a sculpture center, and drove around the perimeter of the city. Paul told us a little bit about the city as we drove around. Repkong, as it turns out, is the main city in its prefecture. Also, about 40-50% of its population is Tibetan.

Today we visited three monasteries, beginning with Rongwo Gonchen Gompa. This monastery, built in 1301, consists of several halls and amazing thangkas and statues. It was quite rainy in the morning, but we made it to the main hall, which contained a large, gold Buddha statue. Several monks were chanting, and their resonating voices lent an ethereal quality to our visit.

Ascending the stairs to the main hall at Rongwo Gonchen Gompa

We then visited Wutun Si, which also had impressive halls, stupas, and statues. A monk patiently showed us around several of the halls and then took us to what we considered "thangka paradise" where countless thangkas painted by monks were on display for sale. After much deliberation, we chose two: a large poster-sized thangka of Medicine Buddha and a smaller 8.5" x 11" thangka of Guan Yin, Goddess of Mercy and Compassion. Like most of the thangkas we've seen, these two have rich, bold colors and intricate detail. Pictures of these paintings will be posted in our online albums shortly.

We had lunch at the "Homeland of Repkong Arts Restaurant," which served Chinese, Tibetan, and Muslim food. We got to try tsamba, which we had heard so much about! It's a Tibetan staple consisting of yak butter, yak cheese, roasted barley, and sugar. It was really yummy (and was reminiscent of cookie dough in texture)!

Finally, we briefly visited the Gomar Gompa monastery across the valley. It had a beautiful and relatively new stupa at its entrance. We explored the grounds and then headed home. We made it back in less than 4 hours, thanks to efficient driving by our excellent driver, Liu Cheng Ching. Our drive included going through a 3340 meter-long tunnel and, like usual, breathtaking scenery along the way. :)