Tibet Diary by Zhou Yun

Monday, May 30

To the south of Bayi town, in Bujiu village, there is a famous Ningma sect temple called Samdumbari Temple (which means either "Bronze Mountain Temple" or "Holy Lotus Temple with Coppered Roof").

The temple is over 500 years old. Its main hall is a three-story tower. What's striking is the architecture of the roofs on each story. Rather than flat expanses, the roofs buckle outward and inward like the uneven shell of a star tortoise. I count 20 bends in the first story roof, and 8 in the roofs of the second and third stories. And strung from the bends of each story, connecting to the bends of the story below, are strings of beads. It's the first time I've seen such decoration.

Tuesday, May 31

Local residents tell me of a wonderful tea farm about an hour's drive from Bayi. The name of the farm is Yigong, which means "beauty"  in Tibetan, and it is located in the special Bomi area of Nyingchi. The Bomi area is perhaps the lowest land in Tibet, where the elevation dips to 1900 meters. Despite selling its tea for 125 USD per kilogram and being located down a poor farm road, I'm told Yigong still gets plenty of customers – I think the tea must be good. What a pity it is that it's too late in the day for me to visit. If I go now, it'll be impossible to be back home before nightfall – and no one wants to navigate the poor farm road at night.

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