Day 10

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Day 10.

Today we headed off for the highest fresh water lake in the world at over 5000m! It is a sacred site in Tibet. Beautiful winding valley road getting ever higher, so Oxygen at the ready!

The lake is beautiful, still and surrounded by mountains. At 5,000m climbing a few short steps is unbelieveably tiring for me!

Back down 1,000m for lunch stopping off to take photos of a small Tibetan village street and houses. The houses have ornate gateways and doors, the rest of the building being thick brick whitewashed walls. Along the walls were stacked Yak dung, which is dried and used for burning in the winter months.

On to another temple called Sera Monastery, where the monks debate Buddhist scripture in a courtyard. Some are standing, others are sitting. The ones standing ask questions by posing like they're going to hit a home run then clapping their hands together and bringing one hand close to the head of the sitting monk they are aiming the question at. They can shout the questions at each other. I was really pleased to see this in action as I'd read about it. Also we were very lucky to see some Mandala coloured sand paintings in the monastery.

After watching for a while we had some more Yak's milk tea. I prefer the salty tea to the sweet version and can see how it would be a great energy drink so high up.

Tse Wang, our guide, explained that the name Lhasa comes from the Tibetan for Ram and Land, as the Indians brought construction materials in by ram to build the city.

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