Grassland monastery

Finally, I made it to Tibet! But I’m not in the depressing, Chinese mess that is the Tibet Autonomous Region, I’m in a little Tibetan town called Tagong, nestled in a beautiful river valley at the edge of the Tagong grasslands.

The town, which is only a couple of streets, has Tibetan style buildings, but not whitewashed like in Tibet. There’s a monastery at one end of town, and hills covered in prayer flags all around.

Yak in the flags

After some spicy Sichuan noodles for lunch, I walked up one of the hills. I think the prayer flags mark sky burial sites, because large clusters of them were blocking something off. Yaks grazed among the flags.

I’m staying in a lovely Tibetan house with a gracious couple, which makes the experience even more special. Part of Tibetan hospitality is offering steaming yak butter tea, which I never had in Tibet. I am very open minded and will try almost anything, but I could not drink it. I had to fight to keep from retching as I forced down half of the bowl. It’s a small price to pay for a wonderful Tibetan experience though.