Confusingly this monastery has lots of names. SongZanLin is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan (this is the name on the direction from Shangrila town) It was also named as Ganden Sumtseling, by the fifth Dalai Lama. Emperor YongZeng of the Qing dynasty named it Guihua temple.
It is also known as the Little Potala palace after the Tibetan palace in Lhasa. We decided to visit as it was both no.2 and No 10 (under 2 of these names) in the Tripadvisor list of things to do near Shangri -La.
We hired a driver only (as both Joey and Deluth have no need for a translator being fluent in Mandarin) and headed off in cold rainy weather.
The taxi driver was full of interesting information; if sisters do not want to live separately they can share 1 husband (maximum 3 sisters – but used to be 4) Same with brothers. Ok as long as the sisters or brothers do not get jealous!
The Sumtseling monastery complex was finished in 1681 and is made up of 3 main halls Dratsang, Zhukang and Jikang and 8 Khamtsen (house or monastery colleges; a training place for monks).
There is a gilded copper roof (strong Tibetan feature) each hall is filled with wonderful frescos depicting Buddhist tales and legends, beautiful sculptures, golden figures of Buddha josses, golden lamps. We were unable to take photos inside but what was outside gives you the impression of the richness in color and frescos of the inner areas.
Sadly there was a tourist souvenir shop outside each main hall. Sarah could not resist a quick look see and came away with a very tasteful (not) prayer wheel.
To finish we strolled around the Lamuyangcuo (soul of heaven fairy) Lake outside.
The soul of Bandamlamu (goddess of the universe) resides here according to the useful “most beautiful photo” tourist info signs. Including what to do or not.
Everything slowly at 3300m!
We stopped several times to take “most beautiful photo”!
More great views of the temple across the water but probably better on a sunny still day when the flowers are out and the grass greener.
We found some monks practising the Tibetan horn (Dungchen) We thought it was more of a practice session than a call to prayer.
We tried to walkback to the start whilst Joey and Deluth took the bus, but all of us including the locals were collected on the way. (Too much strenuous exercise perhaps?)
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