The end of Ramadam, my Muslim hosts invited me to have brunch with them. Their children came back home from wherever they worked, their youngest son ran an internet shopping site in Shanghai. Earlier in the morning the men had gone to the Masque while women prepared for the biggest meal of the year at home.

It was all great until a phone call came and both of the hosts started crying. Later they told me their oldest daughter just passed away. When her young son called, the festival was cut short.

Most of the shops in Langmusi are run by Muslims. It was obvious when their holiday arrived and the shops were shut and the street were much less busy.

Langmusi is an interesting little town indeed for this reason. Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists seemed to live peacefully together. The hostess told me at her grandmother’s time, they would prepare little gift to the monks when a Buddhist holiday came. The conflicts between the two monasteries and those pilgrims dedicated to a specific branch of Buddhist teaching were, and are still more notable. The appearances of the monks from the two monasteries are very different two. One wears no watches and only black cotton boots, the other would be seen with Adidas and iPhones.