Advertisement
Published: August 19th 2009
Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet
The view from the front side, most of the White Palace can be seen from here...We wake up to our third day in this amazing city, Lhasa. We both got to sleep in from our night of singing and partying at Music Bar, and push ourselves to stumble over for breakfast at 9:30am! The whole group eventually lumbers in, groggy but happy, we laugh about last night’s fun and eat a Chinglish breakfast. There are fruit and snacks stands right outside our hotel so we pick some up, and water, lots of water our guide reminds us. Then all twenty-two of us hop on a bus and drive the fifteen minute drive to the most recognizable landmark in Lhasa, and all of Tibet; the Potala Palace.
Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure on my new Flickr account,
click here.
Potala Palace The incredible Potala Palace is built on Lhasa’s highest point and if you have seen any movie about Tibet you have seen the Potala Palace. Because it was once the home of the Dalai Lama, it is considered still to be the center for both spiritual and political power for Tibetans and the Chinese have focused their wrath on the palace in the past by blowing parts of it up
Some of the hundreds of stairs up...
It took a good ten minutes of walking to get up the hundreds of stairs to the entrance of Potala Palace...hot, lack of oxygen, the views...amazing! with mortars. During the height of the uprisings in 1959, the Dalai Lama was no longer safe in Lhasa and with the help of our CIA, dressed up as a common soldier, and fled over the border to
Dharmasala, India, where he now lives in political exile.
These days the Palace is home to less than twenty Tibetan monks, there used to be several thousand here, and it is rumored to have over 1,500 rooms. Today only a small portion of it is available to the public and it is now a comfortable home for hundreds of Chinese soldiers. Although you can't tell from the outside, it is now sadly more of a reminder of Tibet’s rich and devoutly religious culture, although major political events and religious ceremonies are still held here - supervised by the Chinese of course.
Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure on my new Flickr account,
click here.
Our guide fills us in as we climb the hundreds of steep steps up to the entrance. We are sweating, huffing and puffing madly as we try to catch our breaths and remain together as a group up to the entrance. I
View from Potala Palace
This is really the only view, from the front, that is worthy of a picture...the back view shows what Tibet has to look forward to in future as more and more Chinese development chokes and kills it... take a second to look around and discover the views are spectacular even only half way up - the small traditional Tibetan section of Lhasa can be seen clearly from this view as smoke from the Juniper branches burns in huge incense burners and rises into the sky. Everyone is taking as many pictures as possible but there are armed Chinese guards at every corner the higher up we go. They relax and lounge about arrogantly, then whisper to each other as groups of visitors pass.
The first palace was built by Songsten Gampo in 631, and it was merged into the tri-colored building that exists today. There is a white palace, a red palace, and a yellow palace. I only heard about the white and red sections but I’m sure we saw some of the yellow areas too. There is the White Palace, built in 1645, which is the entrance to the main building. The white area houses the Eastern Sunshine Apartment where the 14th Dalai Lama spent most of his time, the Eastern Courtyard which was nice because of the splendid views but had too many Chinese guards loitering around to be enjoyable. We did find it
One of the four Kings...
No pictures inside the Palace means this is the last shot I can take for an hour... hilarious that 99%!o(MISSING)f the bathrooms in China are squat style but the Dalai Lama himself had a more civilized, western-style toilet.
We go past the four Heavenly King Murals which are sumptuous, and on up and up into the Red Palace, 1693, which includes the Maitreya Chapel, the famous golden roofs (actually copper), and the Chapel of the 5th Dalai Lama and the 13th Dalai Lama. The 5th Dalai Lama’s chapel contains a Stupa gilded with around 6,500 lb of gold. We also get to the see the infamous 3-D Mandala. The mandala is an intricate model of a palace covered in precious metals and jewels and highlights the paths to enlightenment. It is very large and obviously priceless.
Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure on my new Flickr account,
click here.
We were instructed there is to be absolutely no picture taking of the guards, or once we are inside, and we only have 60 minutes exactly inside the palace and then we must be out. Tours are fined up to 2,000rmb per minute if anybody in our group is late and from what I’ve seen of the occupation and suffocation of
At the bottom, Potala Palace...
At the bottom of the palace, so we are on the backside now, pilgrims come from all around to spin the prayer wheels and pay their respects up to the Palace. everything that was once Tibet, I have no doubt the Chinese government loves to enforce this policy. This also means we are practically jogging past the most important features and we pause only to make sure everyone is within sight. It is dark, warm, eerily quite and serene, and I'm surprised to see stacks and stacks of money, mostly small bills given as offerings, at almost every statue, temple, etc. There is money swishing around beneath our feet as we climb steps, stop to admire an image, and move on. My head is spinning by the time our hour is up and I have a chance to grab a quick book of one of kind only for sale in the Potala Palace postcards, and we make it out, literally, with two minutes to spare.
Once you personally see the valuable national treasures in this Palace and throughout what is left in one hundred or so of what used be over 6,000 monasteries, one motivation for the Chinese to invade and subsequently squash what is left of Tibet becomes obviously apparent: greed. China desperately wants to get their hands into Tibet’s coffers which includes countless one of a kind treasures.
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is really spread out, hours of walking, but full of temples and assembly halls among tree-lined pathways and ponds, etc...beautiful. The entire national treasury for Tibet is housed in its monasteries, temples, and palaces. And now, with even further invasion and control of Tibet, all of these are in the hands of the Chinese government.
Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure on my new Flickr account,
click here.
Other than the abundance of rules for the Palace; no drinks, no food, no bags, everyone goes through security metal detectors, no pictures, and exactly sixty minutes for our tour, it was particularly beautiful inside and out. Sadly, even though it is still considered his home, there is not one picture of the 14th Dalai Lama anywhere in the palace and to have one in Tibet is grounds for prison. Room after room after room of everything we’ve seen in temples, just more of it. When we came out in the back of the palace there is a wonderful view except that 2/3 of Lhasa is all Chinese development now. And from high on the palace it looks like one huge industrial park complete with sickening noise, smoke, and traffic. It made me so nauseous I didn’t take one picture leaving the palace.
Summer Palace of King of Beers at the Summer Palace...
We don't know why, or for what event, but at the entrance to the main temple at the Summer Palace we find the King of Beers. This says so much more than I can say about the future of Tibet... the 14th Dalai Lama
Hopped on the bus again and we were whisked over to visit the 14th Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace. The Summer Palace contains numerous temples among well manicured, extensive landscaping complete with fountains, wooded areas, lakes, etc. Fountains, ponds, shade tree areas, lakes, gardens. No pictures inside as usual but I got some great pictures of the grounds.
After the Summer Palace we had an option of going to the Tibet Museum but since none of us got a chance to eat lunch and it was not almost 4pm, we opted to skip the museum and head back to SnowLand for another delicious Tibetan meal. I had the Yak again and Jenny had her most delicious vegetables ever.
As we head back I ask our guide, Don, again to confirm we are taking 4WD up to the base camp of Everest tomorrow and he uses his lack of English skills to evade the question. Several of us try to get him to confirm we are not taking a bus for the two day drive on horrendous roads but he will not give us a straight answer. Maybe, depends on the weather, the tour company decides Lake house, Summer Palace...
Couldn't go inside, just enjoyed the view from across a small pond filled with Koi... how we will get there. I read several complaints about this tour company and personally confirmed with them that we will be in 4WD I tell Jennifer and the entire group. Many of us are visibly anxious now, and thinking about over twelve hours in this bus, on some of the worst roads in the country, has us unhinged. We start griping about still only having one guide for a group this large, several people admit their emails went unanswered by the tour company concerning guides and group size, but there seems to be nothing we can do at the moment.
Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure on my new Flickr account,
click here.
After eating, Jenny headed back to the room to begin packing while I walked around the entire Barkhor Square, clockwise along with the pilgrims, in awe of the amazing souvenirs. I was in a haggling mood and ended up getting shirt from Nepal, a hat, a scarf, a singing bowl, and two more bracelets. Nothing has cost us over 50yuan ($7.00) and the only reason I am not buying more is because I will have to carry it all and I
Rooftop, Cool Yak Hotel, Lhasa
This is the view of the Potala Palace at night, from our rooftop bar at the Cool Yak hotel...my camera doesn't do it justice, but the moon was also full on this night, with bats darting around and a warm breeze spreading the incense-filled streets up to our peaceful group relaxing before our three day trek to Everest in the morning... just don't have the room! Amazingly beautiful stuff!
Getting Ready for Mt. Everest Adventure Once back at the hotel, me and Jenny finish packing up everything in our room and clean the entire room and get ready for the morning where we will check our backpacks with the hotel as we will be gone for the next three days headed to Mt. Everest base camp. We are taking our small backpack but packed up everything else and go to bed fairly early in order to be up tomorrow at 5:30am. I'm worried about the ride, a few of our group have complained about some acute mountain sickness symptoms, but my joy at being here makes those worries fade and I stare out of the thin crack in our hanging curtains up to the midnight sky in Lhasa and remind myself what it took to get here and to just simply be grateful. I'm running through all of the people and experiences in my life, feel myself expand with love for the people I care about and that care about me, and fall asleep.
Peace.
Take a look at all the pics from today's adventure on my new Flickr account,
click here.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.187s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0895s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Dad
non-member comment
plesantly surprised
I enjoyed the subtle intrusion of the one English word (sorta) that I could see in all your excellent photographs. In the midst of Gods and palaces and mountains and ageless wonders lies the fascade of some building with the artistically etched words "Budwiser" marching around the perimeter. Subtle, berry subtle Sean O San.