Little Potala Palace and Yi Village

In the afternoon, we drove to the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery situated 5 kilometres from Shangri-La at elevation 3,380 metres. Built in 1679, the monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province and is sometimes referred to as the Little Potala Palace.

It was extensively damaged in the Cultural Revolution and subsequently rebuilt in 1983. It was a perfect day and we enjoyed the mystic atmosphere in this beautiful monastery backdropped by snowcapped mountains.

We saw a few monks strolling around the monastery and Evelyn took a very nice picture of one of them climbing down the stairs...
At its peak, 2000 monks lived here; today it accommodates in its rebuilt structures 700 monks in 200 associated houses.

We headed back towards Lijiang as we had to catch a flight back to Kunming from there. On the way, our driver spotted a remote Yi village in a valley and stopped the car.
On our travel we experienced many Chinese minorities and were truly fascinated by their traditions and lifestyles. We had visited Bai, Naxi and Zang people, but we had not been to an Yi village so this was our chance.

Yi people live very remotely and this village was not accessible by car. We had to climb down a steep hill on slippery stones and a muddy trail.

Yi people are one of the country's poorest and most isolated communities. They live in typical wooden sheds with the most basic living standards.
We were welcomed very friendly and we had a great time of getting to know the local families.
When we walked around the village, we saw an old Yi woman with a traditional costume and a large, black, five-pointed hat. The hats are made of four kilograms of knitted wool.
One of the farmers pulled us into his courtyard. He grabbed a big Yak and pulled it over to us. Evelyn took a few steps back. The Yak looked quite scary...

The man turned to Bastian and handed him the nose ring of the Yak... Wow, it looks as Bastian could be a really good Yak man.

After our excursion to the Yi village we passed by the towering peaks of the Haba Mountain range at over 5300 meters altitude.
Back in Lijiang, we made a final stop at Wenbi Lake to capture a few sunset pictures. It was a perfect finish to one of our most fascinating journeys.

Tibetan Family and Yak Tea

The next day we got up early as we wanted to explore the remote village of Ringha. It was a beautiful day and the valley was covered in snow.

The villagers were up already and we passed by a Tibetan lady herding a group of black pigs

In Tibet, men's work is usually done by women, who work in the fields. We saw many Tibetan women carrying heavy loads of fire wood, etc.

We followed the ladies who were selling goods near a stupa further up the mountains. The place was completely covered with colorful prayer flags.

Please note the pigs on the right side. They showed some really 'piggish' behavior!!!

Later that morning, we visited a 'rich' Tibetan family that our Naxi driver was related to. They had a huge Tibetan house with a huge courtyard.

The family invited us to their living room and the two sons made fire for us. Unlike most other Chinese people, Tibetan families are allowed to have two children.

The youngest, maybe 5 years of age, surprised us when he started smoking a cigarette... and it was not the last one he smoked that day. We were shocked!

The oldest son was 12 years old and when the mother came back from work, we were shocked another time...

Although marked by hard labor, she looked young. When we politely asked she turned out to be in her mid twenties so must have had the baby at a very young age...

She was very hospitable and instantly prepared Yak butter tea, a mixture of tea leaves, yak butter, barley flour and salt. It is always served to guests.

For the Tibetans it is one of the most important source of protein and nomads are said to often drink up to 40 cups of it a day.
For us it tasted... it's like luke warm watery oily rancid salty butter with a nice smelly finish similar to the odor of a yak's butt...
We took a few mouthfuls to show our 'appreciation' and smiled with grand relief when reaching the bottom of the bowls.
Unfortunately, we forgot that in China you automatically get a refill once finished. Bastian had two cups and was ready to go to the toilet...

Evelyn with a 'lets get out of here' smile.

Shangri-La - We found it!

According to the dictionary, Shangri-La is 'an imaginary remote paradise on earth; utopia. A distant and secluded hideaway, usually of great beauty and peacefulness'. We were curious to go, although this remote place at more than 3000 meters altitude, formerly known as Zhongdian, was actually rebranded to Shangri-La to attract more visitors.

Our drive took us past many Buddhist stupas covered in prayer flags. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside. Evelyn totally fell in love with those beautiful colors...
As we drove further up the mountains, we were beginning to breathe in the Tibetan world. We passed by many Tibetan style houses, built in square shapes with high walls and flat-roofs. Of course, lots of fresh 'meat' in front of it...

Finally, we arrived in Shangri-La which according to our guide book was a 'one yak' town, too high and remote for visitors. Today it has turned into a prime spot for tourists.

Shangri-La's GuCheng (old town) feels like a small version of Lijiang graced with lots of prayer flags.

In one of the buddhist temples we saw a huge golden prayer wheel. With the help of our guide Haba, Bastian tried hard to spin the giant wheel clockwise to gain incredible purification and unbelievable merit.

The exercise made the boys hungry and at the town square they noticed the smell of barbecued meat. On a small charcoal grill a local lady made fresh yak meat skewers...

Absolutely yummy... Yak meat was Bastian's favorite!

We checked into a nice hotel in Ringha, a high-altitude valley close to the nearby town of Shangri-La. It is above 3,400 meters.

The accommodation was spectacular and we had a huge wooden bathtub. Only the air felt very thin as we did not fully adjust to the altitude yet...