Prayer Time

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We woke up after an amazing night's sleep in our 'little home in paradise'. The views of the mountains were stunning. We then talked to our friend all morning about travel and just about anything really. We chatted to Grandma too and drank chai in the garden of every vegetable known to man.


By the time we had stopped for a breath it was about 2pm. We decided to stay close by and walked to the Norbulingka Institute.

On the way we ate chana samosa and chowmein in a cute little shop and it only took about 15 minutes to get to Norbulingka.

As we arrived lots and lots of tourists were leaving and when we spoke to the man at the ticket office he explained that this was really a tourist place rather than a working monastery, where arts and craft making was demonstrated.


We continued past the workmen and into the monestary area. It appeared that there was a lot of renovation taking place as the gallery seemed to be empty. There was a pretty doll museum to see and some interesting buildings.

After the monestary we walked uphill towards a nunnery. On the way we stopped at a little cafe to take photos of their Christmas tree and merry Christmas sign, the first sign of Christmas we have seen.


On the way back down we stopped for tea and giant doughnuts in a little Tibetan cafe.

We heard a horn being blown nearby and decided to look for the horn blower. We walked up a small street full of dogs and in front of our eyes appeared a huge monastery. We could see the horn player blowing into a shell using an amazing breathing technique. He could vary the sound and the volume which was amazing to see. The monks began to congregate for prayer time and we were invited inside to watch. A very kind monk found us some comfortable cushions to sit on and we sat and watched with interest.


The monks would pray, a large drum was often beaten in time with the chanting. Cymbals were also played at times and the atmosphere was very beautiful. We stayed and watched for some time before it started to get dark and we needed to find our way back to our accommodation.

In the evening we were offered to try some of our friend's family meal, which was delicious and we drank coffee and chatted. The night disappeared and morning began. Now it was definitely time for bed!

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