Jiou Zhai Gou Park, Sichuan

My friend TangLiang and his wife, XuYe, both architects, recently spent two months bicycling from Chengdu, Sichuan to Llasa, Tibet. I refered to Tangliang as "The Olympian" in my blog, because of the daily trek he made between his home and work by bycicle of 50miles or 80km. He and his wife shared several albums of photos with me and I am preparing to post them. They spent two hours over lunch recently answering questions I had about their trip, so I plan to present their pictures accompanied by their story. A first set of pictures they shared is from parks located about eight hours by bus from Chengdu.

This is Jiou Zhai Gou park, noted for waters of deep turquoise. You can read more about the park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, here.

Pearl Waterfalls.

Mirror Lake.

This picture is of Huan Long, or Yellow Dragon Park, also a natural world heritage site. It is located a distance of two hours by bus from Jiou Zhai Gou Park. It is characterized by unique travertine rimstone pools. You can read more about it here

A next set of pictures is about Tibetan customs. Sometimes along the way, TL and XY would meet pious Tibetans who commit to walking from their villages to reach Da Zhao Si, or Jokhang Temple in Llasa.

They prostrate themselves every step along the way. The journey can take many years to complete. People assist them along the way with food. Because of the length of time it takes to complete the journey, they camp often. Sometimes it's individuals traveling, other times it is entire families.

This man is showing a stone that was passed by generations of his family to him. It is called 擦擦, or "wipe", a Tibetan word transliterated from Sanskrit, meaning to "copy" a molded clay Buddha. The stones are relics that carry significance back in history to when Bodhidharma brought Buddhism to China. They are rare. TL says that you could offer a small fortune to this man for his stones and not be able to purchase it, because his mother gave it to him; she received it from her grandmother, who received it from her grandparents, and so on...

Stuppas where people ring the bells constantly in Llasa.

The destination of the devotees is this temple, Da Zhao Si, or Jokhang Temple, a very large complex. 

Once reaching there, they continue with more prostration practices.

These are painting of the Buddha, at the base of the Potara Palace, which is seen beyond in the upper part of the photo.

View of the Potara Palace from a stuppa. The climb to the palace is up steep stairs.