Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Xiahe Labrang Monastery - Part 5

I saw several Tibetan pilgrims in the Labrang Monastery doing the following, prostrating, movements:



From some Google searching, I believe what this woman is doing is called "prostration." Here is a New York Times article from 2001 on the practice.

As far as I understand, some pilgrims will do this for up to hundreds of miles. Considering that the Labrang Monastery is one of the holiest sites in Tibetan Buddhism and is very far outside of Tibet, it seems likely to me, from my limited understanding of their culture, that this woman and the others I saw at Labrang had been doing these movements for hundreds upon hundreds of miles.

It was truly an amazing thing to see.

1 comment:

andy said...

That lady was definitely intense!