Day 142, 16th October, Tholing Monastery (Dada)
The road running westwards from Mount Kailash went over a pass of 5,198 metres and we saw the most amazing sight before us, the Zhanda stone forest. It is a range of hills cut by erosion into the most incredible shapes of colums and mounds which look like Buddhist stupas but which are entirely natural.Winding down the pass, the road eventually came to the small town of Dada where we decided to spend two nights so that we could see the amazing Tholing monastery in the afternoon and the spend the next day at the ruins of the capital of the Guge Kingdom. There were two brothers in the 10th century who vied for the crown after their father died. One was interested in politics and military matters and the other in religion. He built the Tholing monastery at the beginning of the 10th century and sought the help of the Ladakh and Sikkim states to defeat his brother.
The hotel was delightful: warm, comfortable, clean and cheap, although it could only be reached down a precipitously steep mud road, In the afternoon, we went to see Tholing monastery which was adjacent to our hotel. It is astonishing to see great beauty, such as the main 10th century statue of the Buddha which was removed and hidden during the Cultural Revolution and the mounds of stone and clay which were beautiful stupas until they were blown up during the Cultural Revolution. The murals (10th century) must have been covered up because they can still be seen in their original state. They are spellbinding.
A small number of monks are working at the monastery to restore it, but Tensing says that it will become more of a tourist attraction than a place of religious worship.
Eating dinner the the hotel’s lovely little restaurant, we met two Germans with their guides. Surprising because very few Westerners come here.
