And then I met a living Buddha from inner Mongolia who spoke English (he had graduated with a major in English before turning Buddhist). A very nice fellow with whom I visited more temples and had a long discussion in his room at his monastery. He explained me something very interesting about why the Chinese are so rude and disrespectful toward each others. His theory was they all learned to hate each other during the cultural revolution, with all the denunciation meetings that were taking place. They all lost the concept of respect. (Sabrina noticed it notably in queue lines where people walk on top of each other...) That could explain the rudeness. He told me that Taiwanese and Hong Kong people are very different on this domain.
He also told me that he gets his teachings directly from his master who is in India with the Dalai Lama through telepathy, and that the reason for which Tibetan and Mongolian lamas appear to be rich (he had a laptop in his room, one of the only computer in town...) is that masters give teachings in exchange of donations, because donations create a bound. So he in turn make big donations to his master and the receives his teaching back. So he'll go to India to meet his master when he'll have accumulated enough riches to offer, which apparently is a lot. I also had a cup of Mongolian tea (like the Tibetan one, without the yak yak yak). In the end he offered me a bracelet with his benediction. Very nice guy. My first encounter with a living Buddha.
Tomorrow I decided to head to Beijing by bus, and dump the bike. More that 200km in 2 days killed me. And anyway it's not that fun since it's only big roads with lots of trucks that vomit their black exhaust smoke straight into my lungs, which hurts by now. Maybe the cold air from the downhill after the pass didn't help, but still. These trucks! And when I was hooked on them going uphill I of course had to breathe through the exhaust pipe... And I'm so tired!
And I haven't seen a foreigner in 3 days, since the night in Datong where I met the Spanish guy going to Kashkar... which usually I like, but here it means that everyone constantly point their finger at me, take pictures of me, try to make me come to their restaurant 60 times a day, and when I finally accept the invitation 3 times a day (I still have to eat) I get surrounded by all the neighbors who came to observe the foreigner eating. Lots of old people just stare at me without blinking, as if looking at some alien creature, with their mouth open. (of course they don't meet so often some french guys biking around...) When I start writing in my diary it's even worse, for they don't do diaries, so they actually come on top of me to look at what I'm writing, even though they don't understand anything of course. Aah, China. What a love - hate relationship. So tomorrow night I should be in Beijing, and I'll put some movies on this blog.
Zaitian.
Wutai Shan from the mountain
Big stuppa...
Nice shop...
Workers busy at razing a whole neighborhood in Wutai Shan, so the place becomes more attractiveto tourists...
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