TIBET MONASTERY

Hokitika Guardian, 18 January 1937, Page 1

TIBET MONASTERY

PASS 12,000 FEET HIGH. LONELY HOME FOR MONKS. LONDON, December 30. Seven monks from the monastery on the Great St. Bernard Pass, Switzerland, are building a hospice 12.0001 t up on the mountain on the'border oi China, and Tibet, Four of them lei: Switzerland in 1233. They were followed in February this year by three others. A monk at the Great St. Bernard Monastery told by telephone of his colleagues’ lonely work. “It is a very distant place they have chosen lor the hospice,” he said. “It takes seven weeks for letters to reach us by mule, rail and boat, or one month by air. The nearest railway to Them is throu weeks away and the nearest town is further still. My comrades do not expect to come back. II they do it will only be for a short stay. Others of us intend to join them out there. “Although it is far from civilisation, such as even we know it on our louely Pass, about. 100 Chinese traverse the mule' track each day. They arc mainly travelling dealers and an occasional priest. In spite* ol the great height at which the monks are building the hospice it is below the eternal snow line.

“The building will take about three years lo complete, and will he of stone. Although it will not ho as large as our own. there will he full accomodation for travellers. r l he natives are being [laid to help the monks and the work is proceeding satisfactorily.

“We receive a. journal from our com rades each month. It contains a di\ to-day account of their work. The monks who arrived there first have now a good eominand ol the Joeal dialect of Chinese. The others are learning it. Most of their time is taken up by building, learning Chinese and by doctoring the natives. The monks are staving at Weisi until the hospice is completed. Their groat difficulty habeen to get food. I here is no milk at Weisi. TTiev are learning to eat rice like the Chinese—with chop-sticks. “One of mv colleagues took out some vine roots from the Ynlaid vanton in Switzerland and planted them at (5000 ft. He told us recently th.nl they had been very successful and produced 18 quarts of wine. The grapes, however, were not like our own, but a small, hard variety. “We would like to start other monasteries in other parts of tic world. The difficulty is that there are too few of us here.”