Labrang, To Have or To Be?

Located 3000m high, in a valley between the mountains of the Tibetan plateau, Labrang is one of the 6 largest monasteries of Buddhism. Founded in 1709, it belongs to the religious school of the Gelugpa, also known as “Yellow Hats School”, whose supreme head is the Dalai Lama. It occupies almost 900 hectares of land and includes 10,000 rooms, painted white, red and yellow depending on their function. It is home to a university, which has a large library, many important rituals and ceremonies take place here. The monastery also houses the highest number of monks living outside Tibet. There used to be 4,000 monks but today the Chinese government has limited its number to about 1,500.

I arrive in the late afternoon. I walk along the long paths that cross the university city from one side to the other. I still have the magic of Langmusi in my eyes, the intimacy of its dirt alleys and the timeless lifestyle of the local monks and villagers. Here the atmosphere is very different, definitely more worldly. The houses are newly painted and renovated. The pavements are being rebuilt and, turning every corner, you come across construction sites of new buildings. In the street, students-monks enliven the atmosphere with the purple of their cassocks. But there is nothing spiritual in them: they talk or write messages on the cell phone. Some get into taxis, others drive state-of-the-art SUVs. Labrang is a city that is changing face.

“I imagined Labrang as a lost paradise while it’s all a construction site. Vodafone China already offers maximum coverage”, I mutter. “This place hosts a large number of faithful,” replies my friend Daniele. “What’s wrong with using offerings to improve the quality of life of monks? Basically we live in a technological age: it is not necessary to suffer inconvenience unnecessarily”. To have or to be? Perhaps spiritual awakening lies in between.