Tibetan Buddhist prays as he crawls from the monestery's entrance to the Buddha statue (not seen in this picture) and kowto, at Champa Ling Monastery. [Photo by Yuan Yong/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Being a monk is not easy

Tsering Dorje is a junior monk at Tashihunpo Monastery, who speaks fluent Mandarin and Tibetan.

Because of his language fluency, he was selected as a tour guide in the summer, "to tell the history of Tashihunpo and Tibetan culture to tourists from all over the country".

Tsering is one of more than 800 monks at Tashihunpo, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama in Xigaze and one of the six most influential Gelukpa monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism.

He is a medium-sized man with tanned skin. When he talks about his daily life, he smiles shyly and shows his white teeth. But when he relates the history of Tashihunpo and Buddhism he speaks in a respectful and ritual manner with a serious tone.

Although enjoying his tourism "work", the 25-year-old loves to study religious scriptures, even using his leisure time to chant.

"I get up at 5:30 am in the summer and go to the assembling hall to chant with others for about three hours," he said, adding that he won't start receiving tourists until 9 am so that he has three hours to chant before work in the morning.

"I also study after work in the afternoon and evening," he said.

During winter, Tsering devotes all his time to practice.

Tsering, a native of Xigaze, started to learn religious scriptures at Tashihunpo at the age of 14 in 2004 and became a monk three years later.

"I memorized religious scriptures at first for three years to prepare for the exam. It (the monastery) only allows whoever passes the exam to become a fully ordained monk," he said.

In Tashihunpo monks take exams twice a year, including written tests and debates.

Results are released a week after the exam, when monks gather at the assembling hall, masters post a ranking list of test scores. Monks enter a more advanced level through exam results.

For Tsering, exams have never ceased since he became a monk.

He is lucky to be surrounded by the best "teachers", senior monks and religious masters at Tashihunpo.

"I study in Tashihunpo and never went to another monastery to practice. Some monks from smaller temples or monasteries would come to Tashihunpo to learn religious scriptures because Tashihunpo has many good teachers,” he said, adding that in Tashihunpo a monk master usually has a dozen of junior monk apprentices.

Although working so hard, Tsering does not expect the day to come when he passes the numerous exams and becomes a senior monk, he said humbly.

"It would be 20 to 30 years on average to study mantra and then go on to study tantra," he said.