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Service Project Review Day The Sights of Beijing

Gandantegchinlen, Heart Sutra and Back to Beijing

  |     |   Three Nations   |   Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar

Now that the Venerable Gankhuyag Lama (Gana) was feeling better, Troll had organised for a small group of to visit the Monastery once again to receive the teaching of the Heart Sutra. We therefore had to get up extra early to get our kit packed and arrive at Gandan Monastery before 0830 (bearing in mind it is an hour’s drive). Once there, we met with Gana who took us to the library to meet the Head Lama, it was he who was due to give the teaching. After the teaching, Dawn and Troll took refuge with the Lama, gaining new refuge names. Gana then showed us his office, which, by the way, is awesome and not at all what we expected for a monks office! We also got a personal tour of the Monastery.

We left the Monastery to meet the rest of the group for lunch, and then headed back to the airport for our flight to Beijing. On arrival back at our hotel (Hua Yu Hotel) we took a stroll to a restaurant that we liked from the first visit and stuffed our faces, much to the delight of the staff. Once we had finished, the heaven’s had opened and the full force of the monsoon season was upon us. Within 5 metres of the restaurant entrance we were all soaked to the skin, and the road with the hotel on was under a 10-15cm torrent of water. It was great fun though :)! We dried off in the hotel, and headed to bed.

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