Been to Nepal or Tibet? Ever lived in a Monastary? Gap Year companies? Plus Other ?'s?

Question

I want to go to a monastary and stay there for a while. But live like them.

Ever been on a gap year?

1.What is Nepal or Tibet like?

2. Ever been to a monastary

3. What are any good gap year travel companies to go with?

4. How do you" temporarily" join a monastary?

If you can answer any of these please do!

Answer 1

ah........... i live in Nepal

nepal is a mountainous country. even if it is small, it's got 3 geographical diversities. it is divided into 3 geographical regions-Terai(plains), Mountainous(hilly) and Himalayan. monasteries r called gumbas in Nepal. Nepal was a hardcore country over past 10 years but now Maoists have concluded treaty with the government and have formed a 7-party alliance for the development of the country.

monasteries r mostly situated in the Himalayan region as ppl of Mongol tribe do live there. ppl of Mongol tribe r Buddhists.

yes you can temporarily join a monastery in da form of aani. but be sure u have to satisfy with vegeterian food, monk clothings and should bald the head. to temporarily join the monasteries, the heads (Lama) should be consulted.

it will be fine to come here with any company which u feel reliable.

hope i could satisfy you...

Answer 2

Ignoring answer #1, which takes much of its info from the Chinese embassy (just search on it)....

1) I've been to Nepal.  It was around 1990, when the original split took place.  I was up in the mountains when they declared martial law in Kathmandu.  Right now, the political situation is much more tense.  That part worries me.

2) It's a lovely, otherwordly, place.  I don't know where you live, but all I can say is that it's nothing like where I currently live.

3) I've been to a monastary. They're beautiful.  You're usually expected to have a few rupees to offer them, but that's not a problem.

4) I know some travel companies, but I don't know what you mean by a "gap year" travel company.

5) I have no idea how to "temporarily" join a monestary, but I guess if I wanted to, the first thing I would do is contact the local Nepalese embassy and see if THEY could point me in the right direction.

Good luck!  It's a beautiful place.

Answer 3

This may answer your question：

First, a correction is long overdue: the word “China” or “Chinese”  cannot be found in “China’s” language or in the “Chinese” rich history records. What? Are you kidding? NO, I AM NOT KIDDING!

1) “China” and “Chinese” were imposed /used by the Europeans, a reference to the place where a bowl of porcelain was made.  But, before the Europeans first laid their eyes on china, be it a rice bowl or a tea cup, the peoples living in that place already had a name for their country. It is called Zhong Guo. Its literal translation is the “Middle Kingdom.”

2) What about its peoples? How do they address each other? There are over fifty ethnicities living in Zhong Guo. The Tibetan people are one of them. The word “Tibet” or “Tibetan” was also imposed by the Europeans. But long before the Europeans (the English) landed on Tibet, Tibetans called themselves “bod” or “po.” This word is still in use, referring to both the place and the people.

3) So, a question like, “When did the Chinese first invade Tibet?” is an oxymoron. The fallacy is comparable to a hypothetical question: “When did Native Americans invade Navajo or Apache tribal lands? “ In America, you have Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache, etc. In Zhong Guo, they have Han, h*i, Mian, Zang, Zhuang, .. … about 50 plus ethnicities in all living on the land called the Middle Kingdom.

4) So, just like the Navajo people, who are ethnic Native Americans, the Tibetan people are ethnic Chinese. What? How could you say that Tibetan people are ethnic Chinese? Their culture, clothing, and food are so different than that of Chinese! Be calm, my friend. There are at least a dozen of other ethnic Chinese minorities whose culture, language, clothing, and ways of religious worshiping are as exotic as, if not more than, those of Tibetans!

Then, what makes the Tibetan issue come to a head? A short answer is because of the English and the CIA’ s never-ending meddling. A long answer is, well, let’s explain the long one:

5) As early as the seventh century, the ethnic Tibetan and ethnic Han Chinese established close ties through royal inter-marriages; the Han Emperor’s daughter married the head of the Tibetan tribe. The alliance was cemented further into a military and political bond by a mutual agreement or a bilateral practice: Han (or other ethnic Chinese, depending on which dynasty took control) officials came to the Tibetan tribal court to assist in administration and defense matters, while the Tibetan court sent its officials to the Han Chinese court. For a very long time, the Central Chinese court subsidized the Tibetan court.

6) To be specific in one period: In the middle of the thirteenth century ( about 100 years after William the Conqueror invaded England), Tibet was formally incorporated into the Chinese territory of the Yuan Dynasty. Yuan Emperor Kublai entrusted the power of administering the Tibet region to the Sakya Sect, setting up the General Council (renamed Political Council in 1288) which was a central government organ exercising administrative power over the country's Buddhist affairs and Tibetan affairs. The Yuan government instituted the system of imperial preceptor, whose job was to confer titles on political and religious leaders; to delimit administrative divisions; to appoint local officials; to took census, to collate and stipulate revenue and taxes;  to divide the Tibet region into thirteen Wan Hu (ten thousand households).  The heads of Wan Hu were conferred upon and appointed directly by the Yuan Court. There were three Chief Military Commands of the Pacification Commissioners' Offices, which took charge of garrison troops and the administrative affairs of the various Wan Hu Offices in Tibet proper  and other Tibetan areas. (The above was from historical records at authoritative China websites)

7) This type of integrity has kept its steadfastness until the 19th century, when China’s Qing dynasty was vitally crippled by the opium trade imposed by the English. In 1888, The English invaded Bhutan and from there launched its first attack on Tibet. The invasion met Tibetan’s fierce resistance (see http://scholar.ilib.cn/A-xzdxxb200403002... In 1904 the English army, headed by Francis Younghusband, launched its second invasion on Tibet. “Younghusband slaughtered 1,300 Tibetans in Gyangzê. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_You... In the Chinese records, the British had slaughtered 5000 plus Tibetans at the end of the invasion. The Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904 was forced upon the Tibetans. This was at a time when the Tibetans’ usual protector, China’s Emperor, could not protect himself from the uprisings inside; neither could he keep the European powers from outside at bay. (The Qing Dynasty ended in 1911.)

8) But In 1906 the English made the Anglo-Chinese Convention with Qing Emperor. It confirmed the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904; Britain agreed "not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet" while China engaged "not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet". In the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, drafted by the British, Britain also recognized the "suzerainty of China over Tibet" and, in conformity with such admitted principle, engaged "not to enter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese Government” (The above was from Wikipedia. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet#Sven_...

9) In 1914, China was in chaos. The English seized the chance to shovel “the Simla Convention” down Tibetan and China’s throats. By this treaty the English would partition Tibet into two, Inner Tibet and Outer Tibet. But in the end, Tibetans signed the treaty under the English pressure, whereas  the China government refused to sign. Soon after  the World War I, the Invasion of China by Japan, World War II and China’s Civil War ensued. Tibet was in neglect.

10) In 1949, the Peoples’ Republic of China was established. Mao Zedong declared that the new China shall “abolish all unequal treaties forced upon the peoples of China by foreign powers.” This certainly includes treaties coerced upon the ethnic Tibetans by the English.

11) In 1957, the CIA got involved. It transported Dalai Lama’s followers to Saipan Island in the Pacific for five months of training “in modern weapons and guerrilla tactics.” They were also trained in espionage and codes and in the operation of the hand-cranked radio transmitter/receiver. "We only lived to kill Chinese," recalled one Tibetan veteran. "Our hopes were high." One of the trainees, Gyato Wangdu (who would later become the last commander of the Chushi Candrug), asked CIA operations officer Roger McCarthy for "a portable nuclear weapon of some kind...that the trainees might employ to destroy Chinese by the hundreds." The CIA declined, but McCarthy noted that Wangdu "did take to demolition training with renewed enthusiasm" and became quite taken with bazookas and mortars. (The above was from WAR at the TOP of the WORLD. By: Bageant, Joe, Military History, 08897328, Feb2004, Vol. 20, Issue 6)

12) In 1959, the Tibetan armed insurgents accelerated their attacks on ethnic Han and the Peoples Liberation Army. They were supplied with arms and ammunitions air dropped by the CIA. Mao ordered more troops entering Tibet to quash. On about March 10, 1959, Dalai Lama made the decision to flee. On March 17, schemed by CIA, he was smuggled out of Potala palace. On March 30 he entered India, starting his exile.

13) In 1972, Kissinger came to Beijing. China broke away from the USSR and shifted to the US side. (China attended the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles while the USSR was boycotting it.) It was then that under Nixon’s order, the CIA stopped training Tibetan guerrillas on its Colorado military base. But the UK did not stop supporting the exiled Tibetans. In 1987, “Free Tibet” was founded in UK. Now it branches out all over the world, with 30 branches in UK alone. It was probably then that Dalai Lama made a decision,  under the guidance of MI 6, to go for secession without armed rebellions. It is likely that the end of military support might be interpreted by the CIA as the start of political support. And that requires an image platform for Dalai Lama to leapfrog.  

14) 1989 is the year that affords him one. Chinese student movements broke out in Tiananmen Square. The China political structure was shaken. The Tibetans in exile seized this chance to instigate demonstrations inside Tibet. Had the China government lost its control, Tibetan secession might have been occurred. Anyway, the CIA and MI 6 secret campaign guaranteed him a Nobel Prize.

15) In the years that ensued, Dalai Lama was elevated to the peak of a praise mountain piled up by Hollywood celebrities. Nobody in the west gave a dame to the Tibetan woman neglected at the very bottom of the Tibetan theocratic hierarchy. Invitations, speeches, the spotlight made by western politicians are made to wash away peoples’ memories that Dalai Lama was once an armed rebellion schemer, the responsible participant in the mass killings in Tibet. It doesn’t matter; as long as he can be used to embarrass China or to stir up a riot against other ethnic Chinese, he serves the West well.