After a cold night at Nam Tso we got up early to find a good spot for the sunrise. Even the short climb up the nearby hill was exhausting in the thin mountain air, but it was worth it. After sunrise and a meagre breakfast we went on to Reting Monastery (Radreng).
The sprawling Reting Monastery
The monastery complex impressed us with its sheer extent, as did the forest around it, which is unrivalled in Tibet. The night in the monastery was cold again, only our room next to the kitchen stayed warm – in return, all our clothes smelled of food the next day. Nam Tso lies around 112 kilometres north-north-west of Lhasa at 4,718 metres and, at about 1,900 square kilometres, is the largest lake in the region. Reting was founded in 1057 by Dromtön, a disciple of the Indian teacher Atiśa, as the seat of the Kadam school.
A broad snowy range under a pale sky at Nam Tso, the foreground still dark.The sky runs from blue to orange over the snowy range at Nam Tso.Some peaks of the snowy range at Nam Tso catch the first light.Colourful prayer flags against the light, the shore of Nam Tso and the sun beyond.Rusty green front of an old lorry on the way to Reting Monastery.Tents on the brown plain, the snowy range at Nam Tso behind them.On the gravel shore of Nam Tso stands a pale yak with a colourful saddle.A yak by the river between bare slopes, on the way to Reting Monastery.With a backpack and a child at the roadside, on the way to Reting Monastery.A blue lake in a dry valley on the way to Reting Monastery.A wheel and two deer on the black door hanging of Reting Monastery.A wide courtyard and red walls at Reting Monastery, the mountain in the background.A yellow building and white houses in the grounds of Reting Monastery.Beside the stupa a figure stands on the wall at Reting, in black and white.A white house with a long row of windows before the forest at Reting Monastery.White scarves hang on the figures in the temple hall of Reting Monastery.Conifers fill the valley, with mountains rising behind them at Reting Monastery.Two people on the slope beside a tall conifer at Reting Monastery.Wide conifer forest on the dry plain around Reting Monastery.Prayer flags hang between trees and stones at Reting Monastery.Prayer flags along the sandy path that leads through the forest of Reting.A gilded statue with a tall hat, behind glass in Reting Monastery.An oil lamp and banknotes lie on a yellow cloth in Reting Monastery.A stone ruin and a small house in front of the rock at Reting Monastery.The golden spire of a stupa stands against the light at Reting Monastery.Between the trees the valley opens out behind Reting Monastery.A bell and orange fibres hang on a wooden post in Reting Monastery.A monk in a dark robe stands by the wall of Reting Monastery.A stone pillar with a metal tip in front of the mountains at Reting Monastery.Stupa spires rise among dark trees at Reting Monastery.Golden spires on three white stupas at Reting Monastery.Two white stupas side by side before pale mountains at Reting Monastery.Two stupas and a tree stand before the sunny slope at Reting Monastery.The mountain is in sunlight, with white stupas and trees in front at Reting Monastery.
