There is little ceremony attached to visiting Buddhist temples and they are generally open and welcoming places, although entrance fees are now collected from tourists. Most temples are open in the mornings (9am-noon), when pilgrims do the rounds and usually again after lunch (2 or 3-5pm). Smaller places may well be locked but ask for the caretaker and the chances are you'll be let in. There is no need to remove your shoes, but you should walk clockwise both around the entire complex or building and inside the chapels and you shouldn't eat, drink or smoke inside. It is polite to ask before taking photographs, and the policy on this seems to vary. Small offerings on the altars are welcomed - a few fen or one yuan, or butter for the butter lamps.

The range of offerings that devout Tibetans make to their gods is enormous and includes juniper smoke sent skyward in incense burners, prayer flags printed with prayers erected on rooftops and mountains, tiny papers printed with religious images and cast to the wind on bridges and passes ( lungda), white scarves ( katag) presented to statues and lamas, butter to keep lamps burning on altars, repetitious mantras invoking the gods and the spinning of prayer wheels which have printed prayers rolled up inside. The idea of each is to gain merit in this life and hence affect your karma. If you want to take part, watch what other people do and copy them; nobody is at all precious about religion in Tibet.

Giving alms to beggars is another way of gaining merit and most large Tibetan temples have a horde of beggars who survive on charity from pilgrims. Whether or not you give money is up to you, but if you do it's wise to give ¥1 or so, roughly the same amount as Tibetans.

Tibetan Buddhism is divided into several schools which have different philosophical emphases rather than fundamental differences. The Nyingma , the Old Order, traces its origins back to Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet. The Kagyupa , Sakya and Kadampa all developed during the eleventh-century revival of Buddhism while the now dominant Gelugpa (Virtuous School) traces back to Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) and numbers the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama among its adherents. Virtually all monasteries and temples are aligned to one or other of the schools, but, apart from an abundance of statues of revered lamas of that particular school, you'll spot little difference between the temples. Tibetan people are pretty eclectic and will worship in temples which they feel are particularly sacred and seek blessings from lamas they feel are endowed with special powers regardless of the school they belong to.