Lhasa. Beautiful place, beautiful people.

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We ended our big China adventure on a high, both literally and figuratively! Lhasa is at an altitude of 3700 metres, but luckily we had been on a long train journey from Chengdu to acclimatise.


After a slight communication error, we rushed out of our room at 08.20, having thought we were meeting our guide at 08.30, he had been knocking at our door at 08.20 wondering where we were! No time for a shower (bearing in mind we' been on a train for two days and arrived so late we went straight to bed!) we had an appointment with the potala palace! Tickets are allocated by time, and if you miss your spot, that's it. Upon arrival, I was overwhelmed at the size of it, having no preconceptions of what it would look like. Having arrived in Lhasa late at night, we had seen nothing of the city and it was fantastic to wake up and realise that we were surrounded by mountains on every side. What a stunning location for a city! The bright blue skies contrasted with the white walls of the potala palace and it stood out magnificently over the city.


We had to show our passports to get in, and our guide had to carry our Tibet travel permit at all times and show that to the guards as well. I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside unfortunately, but this 7th century building's interior was very ornate, full of gold, hundreds of Buddhas, Dalai Lama tombs, yak butter candles, incense, steep staircases and people worshiping carrying prayer wheels. It was enormous and we only saw a small part of it. There is a time limit on the ticket and visitors are only allowed one hour inside and our tour guide would be fined if we overran this time limit.


After visiting the magnificent palace, we stopped for some breakfast in the Barkhor area before exploring. Our guide did not have to be by our side the whole time which was quite nice, he only had to accompany us when we were visiting tourist sites. In the afternoon we were free to explore by ourselves. We had visions of being escorted everywhere in Tibet because of the rules and regulations, but it turned out to be fine, and we could walk freely, explore and discover!


Police and Army were everywhere on all the street corners and marching round the Barkhor area with riot shields and a gun. Their presence was definitely felt. I was not allowed to take any photographs of police or the army. At one restaurant on the first floor, we spotted two army soldiers up on a roof observing the main square - turns out they weren't too serious when they began to wave at the people by the window in the restaurant!


Around the Jokhang temple, there were hundreds of people walking around, both locals and tourists, many of whom wielded a prayer wheel which is a hand held spinning device that people spin as they go. This tended to be used mostly by the older population. It was unbelievable the amount of active geriatrics who looked like they were almost a hundred years old, yet they were all walking around and up temple stairs, kneeling and prostrating. In front of the Jokhang temple, a temple of particular religious significance, there was a constant crowd of young and old, monks and plebs, all prostrating contiunously in the sunshine. It looked like hard work, on the paved floor, but some smart ones had bought along knee pads! It was a very impressive sight just to see how devoted these people are and how much their religion is part of their daily life. It was fascinating to watch.


Intrepid as we were trying to be, we decided we had to eat the food source of the population....yak. David had a yak burger and I tried momos (dumplings) so I had green peppers stuffed with yak. It was a tough meat, not too far from beef. Yak goes a long way it seems - yak butter, yak milk, yak meat, yak skin, yak skulls were for decoration, yak butter candles, and the list probably goes on.


On our second day in Lhasa we went inside the Jokhang temple which was on a par with the Potala palace in terms of it's ornateness, but it was a lot smaller. It was very crowded, but the crowds were for people waiting to do their worshiping so as tourists, we skipped the queues and got a running commentary of what was where and who all the Buddhas were. My favourite part of the Jokhang was actually the roof...hear me out. It was just a standard roof, but happened to be overlooking the main Barkhor square with a view of the Potala palace and the surrounding mountains. I was able to people-watch the worshipers below me, and those in the main square whilst looking out across fantastic mountains and the impressive Potala palace - one hot spot to visit.


There are a few monasteries in and around Lhasa, so we visited two of the big ones - the Drepung monastery and the Sera monastery. The Drepung monastery was in a spectacular location, overlooking mountains, in a nice peaceful area outside of Lhasa. The Sera monastery was fascinating for a different reason. Every afternoon the monks debate in the garden and visitors are allowed to watch. They debate very trivial things and "deep" arguments apparently in order to keep their minds sharp. There were a lot of monks, and it was quite a noise once everyone got debating and shouting. Monks would clap their hands and fire another argument at their fellow monk, most of them debating in pairs, so with a hundred or so monks debating it was quite a sight and very interesting to watch.


Lhasa and Tibet in general really blew me away. I was impressed by it's beauty and the constant reminder of our altitude by all the mountains at every angle I looked. Just walking down a standard street, I would get caught out as I looked up and saw an impressive peak in front of me. It never got boring, or normal! The people were so friendly and kind, and the skies were the bluest I have seen, dotted with bright white clouds. The air felt cleaner up there. I did notice the altitude in that I found myself taking a fractionally longer breath every now and then, especially if I had just climbed some stairs or talked a lot! It was strange to physically feel that there was less oxygen in the air. Thankfully neither my brother nor I had any major problems, just some cold like symptoms for a day. The train journey had helped us to acclimatise (see previous blog).

We also took a trip to Namtso lake, which was so good it is getting it's own blog entry...see next blog soon!

Final words....visit Tibet! It's beautiful!

J x

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Comments

[nanu6230]

awesome pics.pl post mooore.

[JHG]

thanks!! I thought there were too many photos, but glad you like them! There is another Tibet blog coming soon!

[prajwal tuladhar]

beautiful
this is my first site where i had viewed beautiful pictures

[JHG]

Thanks
Thank you for your compliment - photography is a passion of mine :)