Days 5-6 in Lhasa

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Two full days in Lhasa, also know as the "Forbidden City" due until recently its inaccessibility. While now a large city,Lhasa only has a small Tibetan Quarter renowned for its temples & monasteries in and around the ancient Barkhor Street. The street is round with tiny alleyways off to the side and surrounds the Jokhang Temple (sacred to Tibetan Buddhists) and is a place full of religious atmosphere with prostrating pilgrims and a world of exotic trading. The inside of Jokhang is incrediably ornate & inspiring with endless numbers of devotees following rituals that are difficult to understand. No photos allowed.

On a hill overlooking Lhasa & Barkhor Street the skyline is dominated by the Potala Palace (meaning Nirvana), historically the home of all the Dalai Lamas. The palace was built in 2 stages. The red section was built in the7 th century after 300 yrs & the white in the 17 th century after 100 yrs.

Over 1000 steps up & around the Potala palace certainly took our breath away in more ways than one. While Potala is religiously more important than the Jokhand the latter has far more atmosphere as it is still a working temple. In each of these temples a constant stream of devotees clutch a handful of very low value notes and various size jugs with yak fat. The money is placed in front of numerous statues of Buddha's, gods,Lamas as well as to individual monks while the fat is to top up the many light

Next day we toured the Sera and Drepung monasteries as well as the Deli's vast summer palace. All were part of a strong Buddhist culture where monks & nuns survived hundreds of years from the 15th century but were either killed or fled to India after a Tibetan uprising in 1959 was suppressed by China. At the same time the Dalai Lama fled the Potala Palace.

We were all templed out by this stage but enjoyed some light relief watching dozens of monks fervently exchanging views in the Debating Courtyard.

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