After breakfast the following morning Frank led the men across the enclave to the revered monastery. As he walked with them, he told them a bit of its history and of its destruction and reconstruction twice over the years; once by an earthquake in 1934 and the other by fire in 1989. Coming to the sanctuary’s broad front gate, they passed under an ornately painted orange pagoda roof with yellow ribs reaching up from the eaves to a raised ridge plate. On the plate were two golden musk deer facing each other in repose and between them, a golden wheel of life. Ahead of Frank lay a walkway and a stair of stone pavers leading to an enclosed courtyard.
The men quietly followed him in and gazed up at the intricate masonry dentils and yellow-trimmed windows stretching around the perimeter of the c
