Arriving, I see teenage monks gathered around three huge metal cauldrons (around the size of three bathtubs), which boil away on open wood fires. The young monks talk and laugh, some sit reading newspapers. If it wasn’t for the silver teapots they all have with them this could look like any group of young adolescents.

The cooks busily prepare the tea, stirring and testing it, adding a bit more butter or salt, others add some wood to the fire. As in Tibetan tradition, lay-people come to offer butter, milk and tea.