May 24, 2016
restday Tabo: a good day for a restday
“This is a good day to have a restday” as a freezing wind picks up around noon. Laundry was done and hung on the line, when we returned from touring the monastery; some of the laundry was on the ground.
Our main goal today was to tour the Tabo monastery to see its ancient paintings. Sadly it is not allowed to take photos inside so you just have to take our word for it. We meet the two Tibetan motorcyclists from Manali again whom we have been seeing off and on since Rampur. There is also a Tibetan woman married to a Swiss anthropologist. For them the monks are a bit more willing to open up some of the more obscure buildings with more paintings, artifacts and photos of the Dalai Lama. There has been talk that the Dalai Lama would retire here, but it sounds like that was just a rumor to attract more tourists. There is a new building under construction and His Holiness might stop in to properly inaugurate it.
In the afternoon Patrick walks up to some of the hermit caves above Tabo. One cave is locked, but a woman unlocks it for you to see the paintings. No photos again. The other caves are just holes in the mountain side. Hermits used to live here for long periods of time to meditate and gain enlightenment. We’d rather accomplish this by riding our bikes.
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