Monastery in Kharym Khiid

As mentioned earlier, Buddhism in Mongolia is very closed to what I've seen in Yunnan and Sichuan's Tibetans before. The monastery and stupas are exactly what I've seen in the past few years. I bet the Man will say the same for Nepal as well.

Praying

Even though the architecture of the monastery is very similar, but the way the people pay respect is slightly different. After praying, we're supposed to touch the cloth with our forehead. As seen in the picture above.

Besides, we're not supposed to exit the temple by showing our back to the god.

The hall displaying stories of different gods

Made of goat bones

Lucky for me, I have a local friend whom brought us around. I was clueless of what the people were doing with the goat bones initially. They kept tossing the 7 bones and seem to be counting something too. According to my friend, each face of the bones represent goat, horse, sheep and cow. We're supposed to toss them 13 times and count how many times the horse appeared. If it appears more than 7 times, you're lucky this year. If it appears more than 13 times, you're very very lucky this year.  I got 10, not bad :)

Wonderful weather when we exit the hall

From far

Weather in desert is as unpredictable as usual. Within a short moment, the weather changed from cloudy to sunny.

After the visit to monastery, we're back to our ger for a few hours to rest and to have some light meals. We ordered some noodles and bao zi from the owner of the gers. After meal, the weather outside the ger was simply too hot to be out. I imagined myself evaporated once I stepped out of the ger!

So, we waited around in the ger, eat, sleep, writing diary, reading etc.... Until the guide came to us when the weather has already changed to slightly more bearable.

属于自己的沙漠

戈壁沙漠是发掘恐龙化石的地方。这一点，更让我觉得戈壁沙漠神秘又浪漫。现在看起来空无一物的沙漠，在史前竟是充满生命的地方。我一直甩不了脑海里想像各式各样恐龙在这宽阔的草原上生活。

没在沙漠看见真正的恐龙化石，确实是一件遗憾的事。可，看见恐龙时代留下来的树木化石，也很好了。（很虚荣的游客）

树木的化石

更多的化石

这一趟沙漠之行，只不过是短短的一天。 我实在不想浪费一分一秒，想把每一寸可以进入眼帘的景色都吞进去。我向同行的朋友们说了一声，便远离大家，到不远处的小沙丘享受片刻的宁静。想像这整个沙漠，就是属于我自己的。

不远处的小沙丘

无边无尽

真的爱上一层一层红黄交叠的沙漠

仍然可以看见远处的那个钟楼

顽强的生命在荒芜一带存活下来

光环

我的宁静片刻，在一群游客抵达的那一刹那破灭了。我只好回到朋友们那里，回头多看几眼，然后继续上路。

A Chance to Reborn

After we've charged our battery at the energy center, we proceeded to meditation caves not too far away. These are the caves where long ago, a Lama meditated here without any food and drink for three months. To be exact, 108 days.

The surroundings of meditation caves

Staircase to the caves

Red rocks

Unexpected sight of kittens outside the caves

I supposed the more important things to be done when people are here are the reborn cave and healing rocks. At the curing rocks, people rub their body parts which were sick against the rock. The rocks are believed to have healing power.

Rubbing against the healing rocks

When you crawled through the reborn cave, all the sins that you've done in the past will be erased. You're reborn as a new person.

The small cave

I'm reborn!

The only problem with the reborn cave, is the size. It got congested because you have to be small enough to get through. Some bigger sized people got stuck at the exit. So lesson learned, you'll have to be small enough to be able to reborn and erase the sins that you've done!

I didn't fancy this place a lot. It's more like a been there, done that to me.

谁说我是吃大便长大的？

采蜜的苍蝇

采蜜的苍蝇

草原上遍地都是“黄金”，这些苍蝇们实在是吃厌了，改行采蜜去～

Khamryn Khiid, The Energy Centre

Sainshand (pronounced as "Sunshine"), is the capital of Dornogovi Province in Mongolia. It's eastern of Gobi Desert and can be reached by train from Ulaanbaatar. The journey on train will take you approximately 10-12hours one way. First class ticket costs 21,500 Tughrik; Third class ticket costs 7,500 Tughrik.

Our destination in Sainshand is Khamryn Khiid. This place is believed to have very high energy. People come all the way here, to absorb the energy, to cure sickness and make wishes in particular.

We took the evening train, departed from Ulaanbaatar at 4.30pm and reached Sainshand at 1.50am. Our guide picked us up at the train station, I was too tired to notice the station at that time. The journey from train station to Khamryn Khiid was about 1hour and we "checked in" to a ger around 3am. We had a 2 hour rest, before the guide woke us up again at 5am to witness the sunrise.

After the sunrise, we went to bell tower. According to my new Mongolian friend, Oyunbold, we strike the bell three times like we ring a door bell when we visit a friend. It's a form of "hello" to the being in this place.

Stupa surrounding the bell tower

Queueing up to strike the bell

After the greeting, we proceeded to Shambhalla. It's surrounded by 108 stupas, and believed to be having the highest energy in the world. People come here not just to pray, but also absorb energy from the ground.

Entrance

Stupa in the sun light

More stupa

Even more stupa

Stupas in the sun light

Buddhism in Mongolia is very similar to what have been practiced by the Tibetans in Yunnan and Sichuan that I've seen. The stupa and the strong beliefs of the beings in nature.

Even the way they tie the colorful cloth after praying

After we prayed and tied the cloth on the rope, we're supposed to sing, to praise the God. However, I didn't know the song at all, so I just tried to hum the rhythm as much as I can. The lyrics of the song was actually carved onto the stone.

Lyrics on the stone

After all the ceremonies, we picked a nice spot to start energy absorption. Basically we have to lay all our personal belongings on the ground surrounding us, and lie down onto the ground. Just imagine yourself photo-synthesizing.

Our spot

I do not know how much energy I've managed to absorb from the ground. But, it surely is a wonderful time to sun bathe in the middle of desert. The cool breeze and soft morning sun light on my face, woke me up softly. I didn't feel tired at all even though I had so little sleep. So perhaps, the energy is true after all. Believe it or not.

An old lady in her traditional clothing

By this time you should have noticed that my pictures are all having a red tint. To clarify this, I did not correct the saturation of the pictures. The rocks and sands in this part of the desert are naturally red in color. That's what made the desert exceptionally beautiful.

Reddish desert

Sitting here, admiring the beauty of this place. It's not hard to understand why the locals have such a strong beliefs in their God.

Peaceful morning

It's simply too beautiful to be true.

从我爱上戈壁开始⋯⋯

戈壁沙漠，是我蒙古之旅差点被放弃的地方。还好，后来我还是去了。

然后，我爱上了这个苍凉的戈壁沙漠。这个恶劣的环境里，生命很少，很安静。

爱上他，从这一刻开始。


太阳从地平线出现的那一刹那，我是多么希望四下没有人。我是多么希望那一刻是宁静的。然后，眼泪不由自主的在眼里打转。我担心通行的朋友们看见，悄悄地躲在人群后。（现在回想起来多可笑，我其实可以说沙子飞进眼睛。反正沙漠嘛，到处都是沙！）



不知是否心理作用，觉得沙漠的日出特别快。心里的感动尚未结束，太阳已经整个蛋黄似的出来了。



蒙古人的生活，和大自然惺惺相惜。他们相信，在日出的那一刻，把双手举起可以吸取太阳的能量。

我就这样，一面吸取，一面流泪⋯⋯

我就这样爱上戈壁。