噶丹松赞林 — Local services in Jiantang

The history of the temple was clearly explained by a tibetan monk. Its sound smooth and related to current living situation at first. But the more i listened it sounded more like a planned trap. The monk on and off will interact with you to tell you more about your animal horoscope to make you interested. Asking which countries you are from. Came the part when the monk will ask you to go in to talk to "his teachers". He will send in those local china people in group of family or friends. But when it came to us as we are not local they insisted we go in one by one. Thats why me and my friends looked at each other and feel something is up. As for me when i went to the counter of the so called teacher he asked for my year of birth and month born. He started giving some details of my horoscope and asked if i have any religious. And i truthfully told him im a free thinker. So he moved on to ask about the year my mum is born. Telling me that i need to get a pendant for my mum in order to protect my mum health. Asking me if im willing to protect my mum health anot. I looked at the next counter and saw them selling those pendants and i told him my mum dont like to wear those pendants. The so called teacher became angry as he knew i wont buy any and told me to go away now and dont waste his time. When i came out i saw another of my friend already there. She told me the other teacher straightforward told her to donate 300, 600 or 900 cny. She rejected and came out. But my another 2 friends were not so lucky as they were talked into buying the pendants. The so called teachers of a well known tibetan temple is all about money. So are they really devoted to their god or out to make money? The temple is a beautiful place with great history. But with monks like these in the temple is it really...

The Ganden Sumtsenling is a temple of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. My Tibetan driver from a different region refused to go into the temple with me — he said it was not his temple. The buildings looked fairly new as they were built in the 1980’s after the 300+ years old temple were destroyed in the “Culture Revolution” in the 1960’s. Now that the entire “Shangri-La” had become a tourist attraction, the temple was no exception either. But still the vivid and saturated colors of religion was hard to miss. Walking the dark, deserted halls, I encountered a child monk, maybe not even in his teens. I asked if I could take a picture of him....

Spectacular and worth every hour you spend there. Easy access by local bus. Taxis are rip offs. The entrance "ticket sales" concept is for dummies who inherited their disposable money. Remember, not long ago under MAO, libraries were burnt, temples and museums containing priceless works of art were ransacked. Anyone who had received a Western education or even had family in the West became an "object of struggle". And now Xi Jinping and friends want you to pay for visiting temples and places of religious practice with money bearing...