In July 2002 I got stuck in Litang waiting for a bus when I was traveling from Chengdu to Kunming. The third day there was a small one-day horse-festival where I was the only Western tourist. A wonderful experience. The atmosphere was fantastic and the people were very hospitable, inviting me in their tents for food and drinks.

The Wild West

When I first came to Litang it was the modern Tibetan version of a Wild West town. A dusty main road and people looking a bit like Indians but with cowboy hats, riding boots, cool sunglasses and red wool in their long hair. A place where red-robed monks with sun cap–styled hats ride Harley Davidson look-alike motorbikes adorned with plastic flowers.

In a restaurant every now and then some red cheeked local peasants entered in and just stared for some time, while talking among each other, laughing at whatever strange things I did, like eating and drinking a beer.

Buses go irregularly, even today and little English is spoken. However, it is one of my favorite places in China. The rough ride getting there, with fantastic views of the special palette of greens that seems to characterize the Sichuan landscape, the rolling green slopes surrounding the town, the the always interesting street scenes. The people you see are mostly Khampas from the fiercest of all Tibetan tribes, whose warriors where the last to resist the Chinese. The combination of cowboys, monks and bikes never seizes to amaze.

Ganden Thubchen Choekhorling

This monastery, also called the Litang Chode Monastery is recently partly rebuild after the main prayer hall burned down in 2013. The new prayer hall is quite large and contains a multistory Buddha statue. You can go up and look at the statue from various heights. And there are some nice decorations on the various levels. But the real gems are on the higher floors on the side of the building Huge and detailed colored statues of all kinds of deities, like Hevajra, one of the main enlightened beings in Tantric Buddhism and Avalokitesvara, the 100 armed Buddha of great compassion. Notice their feet that both trample and are worshiped.