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Define “west chengdu.” I am at the intersection of Rennan and Linjiang, so could conceivably be considered kind of close to West Chengdu, depending how far West you are!
Also, a bike helps cut the travel time down IMMENSELY.
I have had a very slow connection too! (Using ExpressVPN) I thought it might be something to do with Ramadan and increased sensitivity. I haven’t tested with my other devices, however.
Thanks! Somehow I missed that thread–didn’t search for the right terms, I guess.
I’ll check through these torrents.
Miro–let me know when and where! I would love to grab a beer. I am trying to make friends to keep my sanity while I am here!
Goatboy – Is Seda the Chinese name for Serta Monastery? I have always really wanted to go out there as the founder has deep connections to the epic literature I am studying!
I’m not entirely sure how to respond to your comments, so have been silent on them. It seems that you were looking for something in Buddhism, which is fine–many people are doing the same thing and some people find what they were looking for and some do not. In my work, I do not proceed like that. I am a historian who is interested in how cultures, societies, and individuals use ideas to construct their realities, enact/create social power, and form personal identities. My research looks at the buddhicization of oral epic literature in Tibet and its relationship to social and cultural identities. I am also interested in hell realms within Buddhism (which feature prominently in particular episode of the Tibetan epic I am currently translating). These things have very little to do with any historical founder of Buddhism and what he may or may not have said (based on records recorded centuries after his death). What they do have to do with is how people construct significance and make their own lives meaningful.
Hey! I actually got the bike and put a hardcore looking metal basket on the front, but am considering selling it (+lock) again in 5 months when I leave Chengdu. I have invested roughly 3600 yuan in it (2800 for bike + 800 yuan for basket), so am thinking of selling the bike and the lock together for 2000 – 2400 yuan or so in November. I haven’t quite figured out the details yet, but if you’re interested, we could arrange something!
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I ended up going with the Somerset apartment mostly because of the convenience of arranging it all before I came here. If I were staying longer than 5-6 months, I would look for an apartment, but I needed to hit the ground running–maybe not the best decision, but the decision I needed to make when my other housing fell through 5 days before my arrival.
I would love to talk about the path that led me to studying Tibetan Buddhism, Miro–it’s a long and complicated story, but we all just sort of end up doing what we do, often without realizing it. Don’t worry, I have paid my living “unluxuriously” in China dues on my previous research / study trips!
The teachings of Buddhism as it is practiced now is often quite different from the teachings of the historical Buddha. Siddhartha Guatama is actually not really the most important “buddha” for most strands of Tibetan Buddhism! Merely one of millions! I would love to discuss more over beers or noodles or some such.
Thanks, Kim and Muell!
I decided to just go ahead and go with the Somerset apartment simply for ease of figuring my housing out and being able to just hit the ground running on my research! I was able to negotiate them to 6,000 yuan a month, which is significantly more than most other places, but will include use of their fitness facilities, etc. At this point, I valued ease of moving in and getting started over preserving research funds–I was supposed to be in Chengdu for a year, but as a graduate student in Tibetan religion, the only visa I could get was a 180-day visa.
