monk in a cowboy hat
Monk in a cowboy hat! Monk in a cowboy hat! What could be more Tibetan than that? Yesterday I wandered around the Tibetan quarter of Chengdu with two Israelis I met outside the Wenshu temple (a Ch’an (= Zen) temple with lots of incense, monks in saffron, and vegetarian food). The Tibetan quarter isn’t very big, but it was completely full of shops selling religious goods, giant blenders,* and yak-herding gear (well, boots and hats, anyway). And there was a monk wearing a cowboy hat. And a lot of Chinese police on motorbikes. Today I’m off to the Taoist temple, and a probably futile attempt to buy a bottle of hand sanitizer to replace the one that airport security took. This will involve riding a bunch more city buses, which are like experiences in yak-herding from the yak side. * for butter tea, see. Poor and run-down neighborhood, but the blenders were shiny, new, and perfect.
