Extract 2 - A Buddhist Temple

A couple of miles from the Steppe Inne, at the far end of town, a spot of perestroika was going on. Gandaan Hiid, the largest monastery in Ulaan Baatar, was being stripped and rebuilt to accommodate the resurgence of Buddhism sweeping the country.

The fifteen-foot, solid oak doors to the main temple stood open, and the workmen raised no objection as we stepped tentatively through them. Inside, ornate pillars and scaffolding poles raced each other skywards, ultimately lost in the heights of the roof.

All smelled of fresh paint. It covered the latticework bannisters and intricate honeycomb carvings; it turned the ceiling blue and red; it decorated the four central pillars with images of green earth and mountains, rising through blue sea and sky to reach gaudy dragons levitating among white clouds. High on the walls, stylised paintings imitated fringed hangings. Tibetan characters trailed spiders' footsteps along the beams and down some of the columns, while up others twined ferocious-looking serpents with technicolour scales, mouths open to threaten with pointed fangs.

Beside such brilliance, the workmen's ladders scattered around the building were rough- hewn and clumsy. You felt that if anything as frivolous as a game were allowed here, it should be up the snakes and down the ladders.

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