Ren'ai Monastery in the Ganjia Grasslands

One afternoon, our school took a trip and hour north of Xiahe to visit another smaller monastery (Ren'ai) on the grasslands near Ganjia.  This meta-photo happened often for our African-American students!

The Ren'ai Monastery houses 70 monks out in the middle of these grasslands.  The monks told us that it is MUCH more beautiful in the summer when it isn't so brown.  I was pretty impressed with what I saw.

Some younger monks saw us out in the grasslands in front of the monastery and checked us out.

We engaged them in a match of Tug-of-War.

And then frisbee.  This hour watching these boy/monks have such a blast with something as simple as a frisbee was a trip highlight.

I sat down and chatted with these monks for a while using my Chinese and one of the teenage monks who spoke some Chinese.  The rest read Tibetan. Most of these boys are from the local area and chose to join the monastery. Just like it seems natural for us to go to college, the monastery is the same for them.

This was FASCINATING during a walk around the area.  These government slogans.  This one says, "If you have less than 1 kid, the government will pay your 3000-5000 RMB"

"Today's education, bring tomorrow's technology and the next days economic virtue"

"A stable population raises the character of the population"

"Fewer children, more happiness"

"In the countryside, if you have a first girl and then a second girl, the government will insure medical insurance"

"The number of people in home provides harmony and the government provides monetary support"

We had to shuttle from a place where the buses couldn't cross through in vans, but the vans were also blocked by a hay harvest.  Therefore, we had to walk down the road a way.

I was put to work.