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Published: October 30th 2005
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Yak horns, mane rocks, lake, snow mountains... what else can you ask for? Hi all,
After a few days in Lhasa I decided that it is time to visit some more of Tibet. One important consideration when doing that is the altitude. Lhasa is already 3600-3700m high, and the effects of the altitude sickness can be felt from the first day in the city. High heart rate and headaches are common, and it's hard to sleep as well. Some people feel really bad, and have to be treated with oxygen or to fly out to lower altitudes. After a few days the body should acclimatise, mainly by creating more red blood cells for better oxygen transport. Then it is possible to go higher in altitude, when again the symptoms return, until the body acclimatises again...
I wanted to go on a trek from Ganden monastery to Samye monastery, a famous trek that takes about five days, starts at 4500m, and has passes as high as 5200m. It is not too wise to go that high too quick, so we decided to spend some time for acclimatising at high altitude before going to the trek itself.
Nam Tso is a Lake just a few hours from Lhasa, at the altitude of 4718m. Climbing up 1000m
The pass on the way
The Chinese love to state the altitude everywhere they can... at once is hard (usually you shouldn't spend the night more than 500m higher than the previous night). But since it's a lake and you mainly go there for resting, and everybody is going there, and we had a jeep with us in case we had to descent - we decided to go. The way was long, with some landslides blocking parts of the road, but soon enough we arrived to the high pass from which we could see the lake. The lake is huge (70 km long, 30 km wide), salty, and situated in an amazing scenery with some 7000m peaks behind it.
We arrived and started to build our tents for the night. We could feel the altitude at once. Trying to stand up after sticking a peg in the ground caused sudden dizziness. We all had headaches, and we took it all slowly. We had dinner, and rested near the tents. Many locals arrived for a visit. Some of them pilgrims, some of them just living in the area. One guy was a real model, and you could see that he had many tourists taking his picture. He was posing, directed the picture with the direction of
the sun, etc. Was really funny. We went to sleep early that night.
In the morning we felt better, and dared to explore the area.
The lake is holy, and there is a temple next to it, with some more temple caves and other holy spots. There is kora around the temple, but because the temple is right on the side of the hill, the kora climbs the hill in order to circle the temple. I can tell you that it wasn't easy climbing a small hill at 4700m.
In that area there are many Tibetan nomads, called Drokpas. Their tents are made of yak leather and wool, and they live their traditional lives. I visited one of these tents for a cup of yak butter tea. I must say that after visiting this tent I realized how luxurious the Mongolian Gers are.
That afternoon we drove on to Ganden Monastery, the beginning point of the trek, and an interesting monastery on its own. The monastery is at 4500m, and it was the second night at high altitude, which is supposed to be enough for the body to acclimatise (even though it would still be hard to trek with this
The model
He really told us to turn around so that his face will be in the sun and not in the shade! amount of oxygen).
The monastery is situated high up on a hill above a beautiful valley. We arrived right before sunset and it was all colored in orange.
We found a guy who offered us yaks for carrying our heavy bags on the trek, which was our plan to begin with. We settled for a price and told him to come the next morning to start the trek.
In the morning the guy arrived with another guy, and that other guy had donkeys instead of yaks. We really didn't care what animal carries our stuff, and we just wanted to get going. Then we discovered that they are not going to take us all the way, and that they plan to leave us after the 4th day. They told us that from there we can take a tractor. We didn't really want to do that, and we started arguing with them about it. Then we decided that we will take them for the four days, and we will find something for the last day, but we didn't agree to pay the whole price. We bargained for the price again, and the whole thing blew up when they said they wanted
all the money in advance. We knew that it means trouble (later I heard about a yak man who left some trekkers in the middle of the trek and went home). Then they made sure that no other yak man in the area will talk to us, and we saw our trek fading in the distance.
At first we said we would wait a day and try to find something for starting the trek one day later. But as the day went by I felt more and more down. This disappointment, along with all the troubles I had before reaching Tibet, along with the fact that some areas in Tibet that I really wanted to visit are impossible to reach because they don't issue permits anymore, along with some other things that really bothered me - just broke me down. I didn't even go to visit the monastery itself because I felt bad.
I was lucky to catch a bus from the monastery back to Lhasa, with many monks that went for a day in the city. I spent the next few days considering my actions, really thinking about leaving it all behind and going home. I can't explain what
A strange monk
What exactly is he wearing? exactly I was going through, it was too many things pressuring me for too long, and a little trek that didn't work out just brought it all out.
I had a few days to think things over.
Luckily - I found the strength to gather myself together and I stayed and traveled. I still don't know exactly how I did it.
Until next time,
R.
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Ranee
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Tashi Dor Monastery
Is Tashi Dor monastery a part of Ganden Monastery or which tradftion does it follow? I couldn't get much info about this Monastery .. how many monks are there... etc. Tashi Dor looks much smaller... Have you been there? How many monks are living there and which monastic tradition do they follow? As I said connected with the lake I found hints to this monastery but nothing of much value. Hope you can help me some infos.