Here are my impressions after a short visit to Shangri-la.
We arrived in Shangri-la late at night. In the morning, we headed out to see the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery. On the way, we started to realize Shangri-la was a bit weird.
empty streets, closed shops
pigs roaming the streets
is this allowed in a Buddhist monastery?
We ended up walking over a mile after getting off the bus because we got the wrong bus. It allowed us to see a bit more of town. It also allowed us to be followed my a sweet but mangy-looking dog for way too long. When we did arrive, we were stunned at how big and beautiful the monastery was. It’s more than a monastery – it’s a whole town built on this hill. Everyone seems to live right at the foot of the monastery.
The artwork inside the shrines was amazing and vibrant.
There were monks chanting and visitors burning things in prayer, which was nice. There were also several tour groups that we were constantly running away from, including a giant group of Koreans in matching red parkas. Although we were at altitude, the parkas were most definitely not necessary.
It is always really interesting to see Tibetan Buddhist monasteries outside of Tibet and compare them to the ones in Tibet. This hall looked a lot like Drepung Monastery just outside Lhasa. This temple seemed quite active but also received a lot of money and attention from tourists.
Unfortunately you can’t take pictures inside the halls. I think the artwork on the walls at this monastery was some of the best I’ve ever seen. The halls are covered in murals, which have vibrant colors and gold leaf foil, portraying the Buddhas and various deities. It’s truly incredible.
After visiting the monastery, we walked around the lake opposite the monastery to get a view from afar. That was really, really great, especially because there weren’t any other tourists. We passed a few Tibetan people circumambulating for religious reasons and we also passed some young monks.
The monastery is really stunning, especially surrounded by the mountains.
When we were about to head for the bus, we heard some music coming from the other side of a wall. We jumped over a little creek and peered around the corner of the wall. there was a huge group of people practicing some Tibetan dancing, maybe for some kind of performance. There were a few people watching, so we sat down and watched them dance for a while. It was pretty cool. There were people of all ages dancing and their instructor seemed quite intense.
We then got the bus back to town. We decided to walk around the old town in the afternoon. All the streets are pedestrian-only and the buildings are the typical wooden houses. It’s very beautiful, but it was weird because all the shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants were shut or empty. It was like a ghost town. I think the peak season for Shangri-la is during the dry season in spring, but normally Chinese tourist destinations are lot busier than this. It was eerie.
We still managed to find a few things. There was a thangka shop where the owner and painter was working on a thangka in the shop! Very cool to watch. Even the smallest ones would cost $100 or more. I would really like to buy one someday, but I’ll have to save up!
Elsewhere, we also found a thangka museum, which was really interesting.
This cafe looked cool, but we didn’t really need coffee. If you’re ever in Shangri-la, it might be worth checking out.
This cute dog was guarding a book store.
For dinner, we went to the restaurant across the street from our hostel. It served Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese food. We tried a few Tibetan dishes including a soup with square noodles in that was heavy and hearty. We also tried their momo, which are Tibetan dumplings made with yak meat. They’re really well spiced and I was happy to have an opportunity to have them again.
That evening, we hung out in our room dying Louisa’s hair actually and watching a movie. We were all feeling a bit tired, sluggish, and nauseous because of the altitude. We had an early night.
The next morning we got a bus to Lijiang.
Shangri-la was actually a weird place. Maybe it’s different during its peak season. It didn’t have a very nice vibe and I’m really glad we didn’t stay any longer than we did. The monastery was really worth seeing, especially since I’m interested in Tibetan stuff, but there’s not much to do in the town other than shop. There’s a couple of national parks nearby, which seemed cool. If we had had more time, we would have gone. I think that’s the only reason I would go back.
It might be a bit disappointing if you had high expectations of a paradise-like place to come and relax and feel at peace. It does carry a bit of the eerie vibe from the book that made Shangri-la famous in the West, Lost Horizon by James Hilton. That’s an interesting book to read, but I think Shangri-la isn’t quite what I imagined it would be.
