Tour around Xining - Ta'er Monastery

Coming to Xining, of course, you have to visit Ta'er Monastery! ▶️Transportation to Ta'er Monastery? You can take bus 909 directly from Xining Railway Station! If you take a taxi or drive, it's about 30-40 minutes away! Anyway, it's really convenient! ▶️Why Ta'er Monastery? Ta'er Monastery is the imperial monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, with a high status in history and religion. It is said that the world's first Buddha is Sakyamuni, the second Buddha is Tsongkhapa, and Tsongkhapa was born here. He became a monk at the age of 7 and went to Tibet to study scriptures in his teens. He entered Nirvana in his 80s. It is said that a Bodhi tree grew from the place where Tsongkhapa was born in the tower, but he never returned after leaving home to study scriptures. His mother missed him deeply, so she built a stone tower at the place of his birth, which was later painted silver by the monks who worshipped it, turning it into a silver tower. Later, it was painted with gold and jewels, becoming what it is today. The Buddha statue inside is made of gold mixed with a large amount of jewels and agate, which is very shocking. Nowadays, the incense of Ta'er Monastery is very strong. There are hundreds of lamas in Ta'er Monastery, who chant and meditate in their own rooms on weekdays, but when you visit, you can still see the Akas coming and going, some of them are only a few years old. With the consent of their parents, they will become Akas and serve the temple and the host for their whole life. ▶️How to experience? ❤️Turning the prayer wheel There are long prayer wheels in Ta'er Monastery. The origin of the prayer wheel is that there is a scroll of scriptures inside the wheel. Turning it once is equivalent to chanting the scriptures once. You often see people silently lining up to turn the prayer wheel in turn. ❤️Tangka One of the three unique features of Ta'er Monastery, Tangka, is a traditional craft of carving and coloring with butter. The butter is a solid oil extracted from 10 jin of milk according to traditional methods. The butter needs to be carved at below zero temperature, and then it will be displayed and worshipped in the temple. The carved Buddha images are often vivid and colorful. But the shelf life of Tangka is only two years, during which the color will gradually turn yellow, so the monks will re-carve every two years. The low temperature carving environment leads to many old monks having bad joints. ❤️In addition, here strictly adheres to the beginning and the end, the direction of visit should be clockwise, can not be wrong Many local people also come to worship Buddha during the visit, devout and quiet, offering one or two yuan, then kneeling in front of the Buddha, and finally touching the forehead with the objects in front of the Buddha, representing the Buddha touching their forehead. ❤️In fact, you can spell a tour guide, will have a deeper understanding of the culture of Ta'er Monastery. The best experience!