Tibetan Lama Temple

The transition from Marxism to a planned market-based economy opened up a hole for faith. There is a growing number of Christians in China, but Buddhism remains an important aspect of Chinese faith. With the materialism of the hyper-commercialism that has come with China’s rise to success, a return to spiritual roots has come as a way to escape the money worship. We were just a handful of Westerners visiting the temples. The rest were Chinese coming to light incense, spin prayer wheels and perform genuflections in front of the massive Buddha statues, one of which stood more than 80 feet tall, supposedly made from one gigantic sandalwood tree. Tibetan monks recited prayers from scrolls and Tibetan women paid homage in their colorful braids looking a lot like the Quechua and Aymara cholas of the Peruvian and Bolivian altiplano.