I’ve been banging on a lot recently about the road to Tawang… So, what is it that’s so great about Tawang? Well, as I hope my prior pictures will help to demonstrate, a significant component is very much a case of the journey being the destination. That said, Tawang is certainly a worthy destination in its own right. The highlight of Tawang is its Buddhist monastery. Founded in 1680, it is the second largest in the world after Lhasa.

My first glimpse of the Tawang Monastery at dawn was enough to convince me that it was indeed a special place:

That impression was enhanced when we arrived at the monastery and I was able to enjoy its tremendous vantage point. The ridge on those mountains is the Chinese border:

This is the entrance we used to enter the grounds of the monastery:

The main courtyard at the Tawang Monastery… The building dominating the picture below is the prayer hall:

This is the ornate doorway leading into the prayer hall:

Along the walls flanking the entrance above are a series of murals and paintings – such as this one below representing the path to enlightenment:

Some details of the other paintings and murals:

Entering the prayer hall… These soldiers were visiting at the same time we were:

The giant Buddha statue within the prayer hall:

There was quite an array of the musical instruments that are used in ceremonies stashed around the interior of the prayer hall – such as these trumpets:

Or these drums:

A view down into the prayer hall from the second floor:

This is an upper chamber within the prayer hall:

In the foreground of that last picture was this – an urn filled with yak butter. A candle wick is placed inside and it thus serves as a large candle:

But they don’t just use the yak butter for candles or tea… Believe it or not, this statue is made entirely of yak butter:

Some of the other artwork in the upper chamber:

Blending the old world and the new – a tea station inside the prayer hall:

Outside again and wandering around the grounds of the Tawang Monastery complex, we came across an operation for producing puffed wheat… The process would start with this man heating up these bowls of sand over the fire:

Once the sand was sufficiently heated, this woman would pour a layer of wheat onto the sand which would then be shaken to mix it together. The tremendous heat from the sand would cause the wheat to pop like popcorn, producing puffed wheat:

The sand and wheat would then be run through this sifter that retained the wheat, but allowed the sand to drop back down into the bowl it came from. The bowl of sand would then be returned to the fire to be heated up again:

And the freshly produced puffed wheat would be dumped into this basket seen below… We tried some of the hot puffed wheat and it was quite good:

Some of the people we met while exploring around the monastery…

This monk is showing us his spartan living quarters:

Weaving a basket:

I enjoyed very much just wandering around the streets and alleyways within the monastery:

Any building we entered always seemed to lead to something interesting:

This group was practicing prayers, but as soon as we were noticed they started bringing things over to us such as sweets and a plate of freshly cut apples:

These monks are congregating outside the school located within the Tawang Monastery:

A closer look at the school building:

Some of the young monks in a classroom… Aside from their traditional religious teachings, they are also taught mathematics, English and Hindi:

In regard to the monastic education, we were advised that there are four significant rules the monks must abide by if they wish to remain monks. They are as follows:

1) No big lies (white lies are okay)
2) No wives or girlfriends
3) No stealing
4) No murder

The Tawang Monastery houses 500-600 monks and they reside in the buildings with yellow roofs that you can see below…

A view down an alley into the land of yellow rooftops:

One of the homes of the monks:

This woman is spinning some of the prayer wheels located within the monastery complex. Buddhists believe this releases the prayers:

A view up to the Tawang Monastery from another entrance:

I quite liked this sign next to the entrance:

This building next to the main entrance contains a waterwheel and was churning out a continuous flow of cold, pure water:

As you can hopefully tell, the Tawang Monastery is an impressive place and, I believe, quite worth the long drive up: