Lhasa Tour

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Lhasa Tour day 1 & 2

Could not sleep well at all with breathing problem, a hint of a headache and the noise from adjascent road. I had already been advised not to take a shower. Next morning a new guide picked me and walked to our base hotel (New Mandala Hotel). This definitely was a better hotel. The room was on the quite side and you got a breakfast in the morning. I was to await the tour mate who was sharing my room. As it turned out Mark Ayoub was a Californian 4th generation Syrian belonging to the Syrian Orthodox Church. At 20 years old he was 6' 8" tall basketball player and was easy to get on with. He had been to Bali etc. and is going to Kerala after Bhutan, Delhi, Mumbai and Goa.

In the afternoon took a walk to the Jokong Temple Square where the heart of the city was. In the city itself there were new buildings mostly for the Chinese and the people who came from airport said they had also seen a lot of buildings on both side of the road designated to the Chinese Army. The Jokong temple area is always full of people. It was very sunny and sun' rays would burn you. Only good thing is that you don't sweat. I had small vegetarian dish (as advised by the guide) of spinach, some baboo shoots and some scallions. With another bottle of water retired to the room. Here writing the blog was not the problem, it just working with internet and uploading the photos I must have spent at least 2-3 hours just trying to upload one blog on Xi'an

First day of the tour

By 0900hrs all of the tour party assembled at the hotel foyer. After a small briefing we were in a mini bus heading northwest of Lhasa. Drak Yerba Monastery which was 40km away was at 5, 000meters which would make it probably the highest monastery in world. On the way we stopped at a “pass” where there were a lot of flags strewn across the road and the mountain side. It is a good luck norm for Tibetans to adorn these 5 colour flags indicating earth, fire, wind,…..There were a lot of hair pin bends before we got there which was after 45 minutes on the bus. From the motor parking space we had to climb nearly 200m and I was not sure if I wanted to risk that. But everybody was moving slowly and I joined in. After 150m there was a shrine, then another and another. According to guide the kings and monks came to meditate there before Potala Palace and Jokong Temple was built. There were statues of different hermits from India in every shrine. Soon we got down to the motor park where there were two large white stupas with Buddha statues inside them. Here we also met another tour party which had an Irish girl from Donegal currently staying in Canada.

We returned to the city. Thankfully it had turned cloudy. We went to a restaurant which served Tibetan, Nepali, Indian and Chinese meals. The food ordered was too much, and I had leave some behind, which I normally would not do. Some in the party had stomach troubles the next day. It could also be due to altitude.

After this sumptuous meal we got tickets for the Jokong Temple. The guides were Tibetan and when inside talked candidly about the plight of Tibet. One said there were a lot more soldiers before but it has reduced a bit. There was a lot of Chinese coming to live in Tibet to make it a true part of China.

Jokong temple is at the heart of the city. Around the temple there are excellent restaurants, shops etc.. The temple itself is a practicing temple. There were shrines everywhere with different statues of Sakya Muni (Buddha) and his disciples and later followers of Buddhism. The temple itself is built around a courtyard with golden roofs and was magnificent. Later on we walked back to the hotel which was barely a kilometer away.

2nd day of tour.

After breakfast there was again a gathering in the hotel foyer. All in the tour cleared the dues with the guide including the entrance fees. We had tickets to the Potala Palace only at 1300hrs. Around 1100 hrs we started off in the minibus and parked some distance away from the palace. From the base of the palace there were more than 300 steps to get to gates. The steps were often more than 1 meter wide with a steep incline but each step was not very high may be 125mm. I took it very easy often resting on a stone bench which were placed on the sides of the steps.

Before the palace itself there was a large building called a treasure house. Here all sort of valuable items were displayed and copies of some statue or relic. This was to help those who could not climb the steps. China has taken every opportunity to show the historic ties it had with Tibet sometimes including Manchuria. One place never mentioned anywhere was India. As proof of the ties they were showing a greeting page to a Chinese emperor in Manchurian, Tibetan and mandarin languages.

Even though the palace was built in the 7th century by the then Tibetan king only a couple of rooms remain intact from that era. Until the time of the 5th Dalai Lama the political and religious hierarchy remained separate. Following an invasion by a Manchurian king the Tibetan king was vanquished and the ultimate political and political and religious power was vested in one person, the 5th Dalai Lama. There was extensive re construction in the 17th century by the 10th Dalai Lama.. As the religious and political center, the areas were demarcated for political and religious use. As the seat of the current Dalai Lama it is an impressive building. His throne and rooms in which he taught are left as they were. Tibetans believe his spirit is still there. This is also a Buddhist university, a place of worship and a tomb for many of the Dalai Lamas who were gone by. Some of the tombs are so ornate, they are worth in billions.

More touching is the devotion of pilgrims who throng the stairs. There are collection boxes in front of every statue, deity and tomb with people after rituals were putting money in all of them. They come with small change to do this. They also seem to be not offended by the tourists as respecting others seem to be a tradition with Tibetans.

After nearly two hours of walking the different temples, a thousand statues and murals and tombs we finally got down from the Potala Palace got back into the minibus and headed for Sakya Monastery. The debating time there for the monks were from 1500 to 1600 hrs. Fortunately there were no climbs here just a stiff slope going up to the monastery. There were about 200 monks in debate in pairs. In the pair, one was asking questions the other answering. Depending on the answer the partner was making all sorts of gesticulations sometimes very vociferous and sometimes even comical.

Sakya monastery houses more than 600 monks. There was a huge hall, a temple with huge ornate statues of Buddha and others where they all meditated or prayed.



Again we drove back to the center of the city went to another international restaurant, had a delicious shared meal. One of the girls from Hong Kong, Marianne presently living in Australia had serious problem with altitude and just stuck to only soup. She left earlier to buy oxygen (for $3, a great thing if you can get this anywhere else). Ali, aphysician, who was in his late 30s now living in LA also had problems with stomach and stuck to yoghurt. The rest walked to the hotel after the meal. Later in night we got a message that we don't have to vacate the rooms in the morning as there was a change in schedules. No further info was given.

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