Another Temple Building at the Songzanlin Temple 松赞林寺
The Songzanlin Temple is a delightful Tibetan monastery located in Shangrila in Yunnan province. Being here is one where I could consider to be a true Shangrila experience since the place is so peaceful and idyllic. You can put in your definition of Shangrila here and this place would probably still fit. Okay, it doesn’t have snow capped mountains, not yet. The snow will come in November and it would be downright impossible to get here unless you fly. At that point you might be cursing and swearing at the cold that it might not be Shangrila anymore. At least the official name will still be Shangrila. For a lamasery, there seems to be a very glaring lack of monks here, I probably only saw a few of them in my entire visit. Maybe they were on leave?
Window of a Tibetan Monastery Building at Songzanlin Temple 松赞林寺
There were some of what appears to be residences below the main temple buildings, it is possible that these are the places where they stay. I didn’t dare venture into these places lest I be acused of tresspassing. The main points of interest for me were the main lamasery buildings which seemed to be under a bit of construction. This building was built in the 1600s, I guess it is not surprising to see a little bit to fixing up being done here. I don’t know how well it holds up in the harsh winter weather here though.
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