Shangri-La: Ganden Sumtseling Monastery and Pudacuo National Park.
For the last 9 days, I have been in Yunnan Province, in the southwest part of China, spending time in both Kunming, the provincial capital, and Shangri-La County, capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Formally Zhongdian County, it was renamed "Shangri-La", after the fictional Buddhist utopia in James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon, in 2001. The majority ethnic group of the area is Tibetan (33%).
Not too long ago, it was only accessible by a long mountain car journey. Today, Shangri-La is becoming a popular tourist destination, and the opening of the Diqing Xianggelila Airport in 2009 has sped up that process. Located in Diqing is the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery (Songzanlin Monastery), the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan , and Pudacuo National Park, established in 2007 as China's first national park.
View of the monastery's main buildings from down-hill. The central building is undergoing repairs.
Some workmen at the monastery.
Murals beside the main entrance (not in photo).
Yaks grazing in Pudacuo National Park. The ground is covered in snow for 8 months of the year, but we visited in the height of summer.
Another yak. I've grown very fond of yaks in the last week.
Shudu Lake, in Pudacuo National Park.
Tibetan horses beside Shudu Lake.
Walking path through the national park.
Pudacuo.
Tibetan chorten in Pudacuo. When the national park was established, the Tibetans formerly living within it were provided with a fund to rebuild their villages outside the park. Their animals still graze inside the park, though, and we saw some rough wooden buildings in there also that were either winter stables for the animals or cabins for herders.
Pudacuo.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-grynne.dreamwidth.org/876181.html and has
comments.
Not too long ago, it was only accessible by a long mountain car journey. Today, Shangri-La is becoming a popular tourist destination, and the opening of the Diqing Xianggelila Airport in 2009 has sped up that process. Located in Diqing is the Ganden Sumtseling Monastery (Songzanlin Monastery), the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan , and Pudacuo National Park, established in 2007 as China's first national park.
View of the monastery's main buildings from down-hill. The central building is undergoing repairs.
Some workmen at the monastery.
Murals beside the main entrance (not in photo).
Yaks grazing in Pudacuo National Park. The ground is covered in snow for 8 months of the year, but we visited in the height of summer.
Another yak. I've grown very fond of yaks in the last week.
Shudu Lake, in Pudacuo National Park.
Tibetan horses beside Shudu Lake.
Walking path through the national park.
Pudacuo.
Tibetan chorten in Pudacuo. When the national park was established, the Tibetans formerly living within it were provided with a fund to rebuild their villages outside the park. Their animals still graze inside the park, though, and we saw some rough wooden buildings in there also that were either winter stables for the animals or cabins for herders.
Pudacuo.
This entry was originally posted at http://the-grynne.dreamwidth.org/876181.html and has
comments.