Ü - Tibet - page 221

Your best option is this hotel on the main highway by the junction to Dranang. The best
rooms come with hot showers, though some have just a toilet (there are no shared hot
showers). You can watch the traffic from the pleasant lawn and pavilions in front of the
rooms.
Zhūzhōu Bīnguǎn HOTEL
( 0893-736 3333; dm ¥50, d ¥150)
A back-up option, this clean modern place has dorms in spacious triples with stinky squat
toilets down the hall. It's 250m south of the main highway.
Mindroling Monastery
A worthwhile detour from the Lhasa-Tsetang road, between the Dranang turn-off and the
Samye ferry crossing, is Mindroling Monastery (, Mǐnzhūlín Sì admission ¥25) . It is the
largest and most important Nyingmapa monastery in Ü.
Although a small monastery was founded at the present site of Mindroling as early as
the 10th century, the date usually given for the founding of Mindroling is the mid-1670s.
The founding lama, Terdak Lingpa (1646-1714), was highly esteemed as a terton (treasure
finder) and scholar, and counted among his students the fifth Dalai Lama. Subsequent
heads of the monastery were given the title Minling Trichen, a title that passed from father
to son. The monastery was razed in the Dzungar Mongol invasion of 1718 and later re-
stored.
Mindroling has cham dancing on the 10th day of the fifth Tibetan lunar month and the
fourth day of the fourth lunar month. The latter festival features the creation of a sand
mandala nine days later.
Nice walks lead off the kora around the Tsuglhakhang, west up the valley through the
village to the ruins of what used to be a nunnery.
Sights
Mindroling Tsuglhakhang BUDDHIST, CHAPEL