Breakfast at the hotel

Today we will visit the Qinghai Lake and take the Qinghai-Tibet Railway train to Lhasa at 2150. After breakfast we walked further from our hotel to buy more food for our train ride.

Holiday Dynasty Hotel

We went to the hotel after dinner and went to the nearby shops to buy bread and biscuits for our train ride tomorrow.

Kumbum Monastery : The Butter Sculpture Hall

This hall houses the best art of Kumbum Monastery. The making and displaying of butter sculptures has been a tradition since 1612. It all started because it is a practice in Buddhism to offer flowers as a tribute to Buddha on the altars. Since there are no fresh flowers in the winter, floower sculptures were used as a substitute. The butter sculptures now consist of Buddha, flowers , birds and pavilions.

Kumbum Monastery : Third Dalai Lama Stupa Hall

This temple was built in honour of the Third Dalai Lama. This is the site where he was born and once lived.

The Third Dalai Lama

Kumbum Monastery : The Main Assembly Hall

The Main Assembly Hall is the largest bilding here. It has 168 columns. The monks will gather to chant the sutras here. Murals are a distinct art here. They are mainly drawn from Buddhist sutras. The columns are covered with barbola and barbola are also hang between the columns.

Barbola is the art of cutting silk or satin into shapes of buddha, flowers or animals and filling them wool and cotton to make them three dimensional.

Kumbum Monastery 3

There are many temples within the monastery but photography is not allowed.