34: We were not sorry to see the end of the plain of the Weeping Elephant. We started down a long sloping valley that eventually would lead us to the lower end of the Gyangtse valley. Here we passed many abandoned farmhouses. It was not hard to see why they had been abandoned. The large size of the walled animal pens suggested that he valley and mountainsides had been seriously overgrazed. Now there was nothing left. The grass and even the top soil that must have been here was gone with the wind. But further down we came to an imposing Monastery. This was the seventeenth of June when the whole country celebrates Buddha’s birthday. We were treated most hospitably and were able to photograph their celebration.