lhasa secrets

A morning prowling around led me through non-touristed alleys of shops selling daily goods like yak butter, and on to the University of Tantric studies. There, various growling chants, in chorus or solo, kept me interested for quite a while. As well, the yak butter sculptures, a highlight of T traditions, were being formed by a couple of young monks. The butter was kept in balls in a pool of cool water, then moulded by the monk's right hand and stuck onto the pyramidal base.

Later, I met Tamdin, my T contact for the Tibtn Village Project. He left his rural area maybe 15 years ago, and ended up in the States. Successfully integrating, learning English, finding a good job, and leading a decent life, he decided to start a project for people back in the rural areas of T. His project works to provide health care and education for poor areas. They have a roving medical clinic and are working on more permanent facilities in small towns. They offer clothing, medicine and medical supplies, as well as school supplies... and some hope.

Unfortunately, I missed the action a week ago. The TVP visited many of these small villages to dole out their needed supplies; i arrived a couple of days too late. Nonetheless, Tamdin will pass on some of his photos from the days, which i will share on this site. And hopefully there will still be opportunities to visit some areas in the future.

Tamdin invited me to his family picnic, where i met his siblings (who still live here), as well as his wife and mother and relatives. His mother, Ama-la (title for motherly type person) was pleasant, continually spinning her prayer wheel (as most elders do, every day, all day) and making circuits around the holy pond near where we picnicked. Kids ran around playing with plastic bottles (inventive little squirts) and we older folks sat on mats and drank huge amounts of sweet tea (nice, actually) and snacked and talked. Yes, i talked and talked. No, i watched and listened, trying to atune my ear to the new language sounds (each language has its own flair: Chinese being a swirls of "shhhhs" and "rrrrrrrrrrr"; Korean full of "imnidas" and "ayos"; Thai soothingly "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", and on and on).

Later still, I met Lhobsang, who a decade or more ago began a small language school which has blossomed into a larger one, teaching Chinese, Japanese, and English to Ts, for minimal fees. Tamdin suggested I volunteer there and i said "yay".

Finally, we visited the Artisan shop, another of Tamdin's projects. It is for local women and men to weave and stitch their traditional designs into bags and clothing, for sale to benefit the TVP. It is fairly recent and still developing but has good potential.

And eager to see the highlight of Lhasa, the next day i stood in queue for the Potala Palace, a stupifying construction indeed.

[Stupifying entrance fee also!]

Since the time for visiting is very restricted, I was told to return in the afternoon. So i headed to the T museum for some C propaganda. Very amusing! I'll have to scan some of the information onto this site later! But the exhibit about T customs and daily items (like various tea urns, knives, costumes, boats...) was great!

The palace has long been residence and political office to the Dalai Lamas and T government. Nowadays its purpose is as revenue to C. However, that doesn't fully detract from its elegance. It stands 13 layered stories, earthen red and white. The palace actually comprises palaces, the red and white ones. The white included the DL's living quarters, as well as study and entertaining rooms and the offices of the former government. The red houses many chapels and tombs for the DLs and other significant figures.

Nowadays, it is pretty heavily guarded, as are most world heritage sites, i suppose, with security cameras to discourage photo-taking inside, and guards to give you the evil eye every now and then. Elaborate murals on walls everywhere; incredible Thankas (those T wall hangings, stitched or painted, in scenes about Buddhism or about daily life or history); golden statues; bronze statues; jewelled stautes; tombs; jewelled tombs.... and so on. Overall, a lot of wealth and artistry there. All the same, for me it was most impressive from the outside, with the grandeur of the building riding atop a small hill. Verrrry nice.

The pilgrim circuit of prayer wheels circling the Palace is now also a merchants' circuit, full of traditional clothing and traditional modern plastics and traditional C dance videos.

Before my appointed entrance time, i stopped in a small tea house for some sugary tea. The owner was fine with me taking a few shots of his shop (i'll post these soon!), and the old man having a smoke was okay with me shooting him, and posing with him (which i actually only did to make him feel less a zoo specimen). Tea, by the way, is brewed in some detailed way i haven't seen yet, but then stored in large thermoses, with wooden corks... The kind of thermos one finds in hotels and on trains all over C, a very clever tradition indeed.

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