Hadhi Nunnery

Located 15 km from Rongbatsa (two hours' hike from the hotsprings), Hadhi Nunnery is home to fifty-six Buddhist nuns. Their leader is a male incarnate lama who divides his time between Hadhi and nearby Dargye Monastery. All the nuns at Hadhi are called "Losang," for example the director is named Losang Chentsok, one of their more accomplished scholars is Losang Khamo, and so forth.

Hadhi Nunnery, situated on a steep slope above the Yalong River.

To reach the nunnery from the Dargye Monastery Deshi Hotspring Guest House, go first to the hotspring pool across the river, then walk east along a jeep track that takes you to the shore of the Yalong River. This river emerges from the mountains in a sizeable valley that now has a motorable road along both shores. The nunnery is on the west short, so don't cross the Yalong, just walk along the jeep track, which was built by the nuns themselves (with the help of locals). In wet weather this road may well be impassable to vehicular traffic but it should be possible for pedestrians and horses to negotiate.

Nuns walk the path to their nunnery.

Walk along the river for about two hours (some 12 km) until you reach a village and a very small tributary pouring into the Yalong. Up on the steep slope, facing the tributary, is Hadhi Nunnery. The nunnery welcomes overnight visitors. Their buildings are rather cleaner than is usual for a monastery inhabited by males. They operate a small shop which, at the time of our visit, had candy, sunflower seeds, and five bottles of beer among other items.

Here is a map of the area.

From this nunnery, one can continue trekking northwest along the Yalong River. (You should inquire very carefully whether it's advisable to cross the river to the east side at Hadhi for your trek, or to stay on the west side. There are reputed to be boats in the neighborhood available for the crossing, but perhaps not further upstream.) After perhaps three days on this riverside trail you will reach Wenduo where there is a road going southwest to the Sichuan-Qinghai highway. If you don't take the road, but continue along the Yalong River, you can reach the district headquarters of Ashu and the Gesar Monument.