Miao Border Great Wall of Zhenyuan

Xiahe, China

Video with images of Labrang monastery in Xiahe a village of thirteen thousand inhabitants at an altitude of three thousand meters in Gansu province of China. In the past the village was an important border stop for the caravans along the Silk Road in the direction of Tibet. At the beginning of the eighteenth century a local priest built a monastery near the village. Later his successors established various related monasteries al over the country. The Labrang monastery is one of the most influential monasteries of lamaism or Tibetan Buddhism. At the start of the People's Republic of China there were three thousand monks in the monastery. During the Cultural Revolution however the buildings and many treasures inside were destroyed. The monks were forced to look for another job. Later the damage has been repaired and the buildings have been restored. Gradually many monks returned to the monastery. At present two thousand monks live in the monastery. They come from all parts of the country. The monastery is a centre of Buddhist art and science. It has many sacred scrolls and books.

The Labrang monastery has six halls, eighty four temples and more than five hundred apartments for the monks. It accommodates six academic training institutions in the field of philosophy, almanac, astronomy, arts, medicine and logic. All buildings in the complex are made of stone and earth with timber beams. Each hall has a light green crystal roof. The wall has a dark brown colour underneath the roof to emphasize the majestic status of the building. The temples all have a different architectural feel and look.

The Labrang monastery has many religious symbols which are typical for Tibetan Buddhism. Each hall has a metal cylinder on the roof filled with mantras or sacred texts. On the roof is also a dharma wheel flanked by two deer. It is the traditional symbol of Buddhist preaching. In the buildings hang thangka or role paintings fabricated by the monks. They are made of cotton, silk or paper and show religious scenes. At the bottom of the painting is a heavy wooden stick to roll the painting for transport or storage. Some of these paintings depict a mandala or a geometrical pattern which is symbol of the spirit and body of Buddha. Their design is based on circles and squares around a focus point in the centre to support meditation. The complex has various chorten or stupas which symbolize the elements of the cosmos. The square basis is the earth, the circle above is the water, and the spire is like fire. The upper part of the spire is like heaven. The rings around the spire represent the circles of life in order to reach heaven.

The Labrang monastery is part of the gelugpa order. The monks live in celibacy and once a full monk they wear a yellow hat. Still young of age they move to the monastery to get an education and bring honour to their family. They become a monk at the age of seven. The intelligent boys go to college in the monastery. After a long period of hard study they might become a lama or abbot of the monastery. Many students however become a writer, poet or artist and depict religious scenes in words and pictures. Other students become a doctor, teacher or administrator. The highest authority in the monastery is in the hands of the lama who is believed to be a holy person and the reincarnation of a former saint. At the top of the organization is the Dalai Lama or Ocean of Wisdom and the Panchen Lama or Great Teacher who do not reside in the Labrang monastery. The colour of their clothes indicates the status of the monks. The rapjung or prenovices have a brownish red habit, the getsul or novices have a dark red habit, while the gelong have a dark red habit as well as a yellow hat.

Each day the Labrang monastery is visited by hundreds of pilgrims. They come from near and far in their finest dress. The women wear dark clothes with a bright ribbon. They have their long black hair in braids tied together at the end. The pilgrims walk the korlam or pilgrim route around the monastery. The route is three kilometers long. They walk this route clockwise like the planets turn around the sun. All along the route are hundreds of manikhorkor or prayer wheels in long galleries. Every now and then is a shrine with Buddha statues around a large prayer wheel. The pilgrims turn around all prayer wheels at least one time. When the wheel turns around it reads the mantras within and thus declares the devotion of a pilgrim. Along the route the pilgrims mumble sutras or prayers in repetitive series. They have a rosary in the hand to keep count of their prayers. Each time they turn around a bead in the rosary they mumble a sutra or the name of Buddha. When they are not praying they wear the rosary as a bracelet around the wrist or as a collar around the neck.

Miao people

The Miao is an ethnic group recognized by the government of China as one of the 55 official minority groups. Miao is a Chinese term and does not reflect the self-designations of the component groups of people, which include Hmong, Hmub, Xong, and A-Hmao.
The Chinese government has grouped these people and other non-Miao peoples together as one group, whose members may not necessarily be either linguistically or culturally related, though the majority are members of Miao-Yao language family, which includes the Hmong, Hmub, Xong, and A-Hmao and the majority do share cultural similarities. Because of the previous given reasons, many Miao peoples cannot communicate with each other in their mother tongues, and have different histories and cultures. A few groups designated as Miao by the PRC do not even agree that they belong to the ethnic group, though most Miao groups, such as the Hmong and Hmub, do agree with the collective grouping as a single ethnic group - Miao.


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