Lhasa, Tibet

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We arrived at Lhasa airport without a hitch at 1030 this morning. The skies were clear, and the views from the airplane window were absolutely incredible the whole flight. For the entire duration of the flight there was nothing but white snowcapped jagged peaks as far as the eye can see. I now can really appreciate why Tibet has been cut off from the entire world up until very recently. It is so inaccessible that before airplane travel, there really wasn’t a way in; the first car did not appear until the 50’s and roads were not built until the mid 80's. If not for mankind's hubris wanting to summit the highest peak, Tibet would still be the Shangri-La, or the Lost Horizon of lore.
Lhasa sits at about 12,000 ft, which makes it the highest city in the world. Denver is know as the "mile high" city, Lhasa I guess is the "2 1/2 mile high" city. This elevation is the lowest we will be at for the next 6 days, and we must acclimatize here for 3 days before moving on, or else get sick. I'm hoping that our AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) won't be as debilitating coming from the high desert of AZ at 5,000 ft. When we reach Everest Base Camp in a few days we will be at 18,000 ft., an elevation where you can easily suffer from pulmonary edema and start vomiting frothy blood, hallucinate a little and die. I'm wondering how this plane full of sickly Chinese will manage when they must already be breathing at lower O2 saturation levels.
Happily our tour guide was waiting for us at the airport, greeting us with white silk scarves. These scarves are a symbol of good luck, and are given to visitors, at weddings, and at births. He informed us that the weather yesterday was snow and extremely high winds, apparently commonplace in April. It is 37 degrees today, a bit chilly coming from AZ. This is considered the very beginning of a pretty short tourist season here in Tibet. Our guide, who I will refer to as Chuck, said that we are his first tourists this season.
Chuck is a native Tibetan in his mid-twenties, who is a Buddhist, likes to play games on his iphone, and is a fan of heavy metal. He told us his favorite music is Slipknot, Linkin Park, and Carrie Underwood. He dreams of visiting Los Angeles one day, but laments that he will never be able to travel outside of Tibet, as the Chinese do not give the Tibetans passports unless they are over 40 years old, and even then it is rare.
We drove from the airport to Lhasa, soaking up the landscape. On all sides were mountain peaks easily 15,000-18,000 feet tall. You could see Tibetan prayer flags fluttering in the wind on these peaks. It is believed that these flags spread luck when they flutter in the wind, and that luck will spread further the higher they are. The flags are comprised of five colors, each corresponding to the elements of fire, wood, earth, water and iron.
The drive took us one hour, in which we drove through three Chinese military checkpoints, stopping each time. Chuck would leave the car with our passports, our permit, and some other paperwork, and return ten minutes later telling us everything was ok and we could continue.
As we approached Lhasa, the iconic Potala palace hovered over the entire city, like a watchguard of its city. Even though I have seen countless photos, to see it in person was truly a sight to behold.
We arrived at our hotel, a quaint courtyard style hotel. There is a elementary school right next to our hotel, so we were swarmed by happy young children yelling “hello” and “what is your name?” They wear school uniforms and attend school six days a week from 0930 to 1730. Class is taught in Chinese, which is a completely different language from Tibetan. All signs in the city are in both languages, but it is evident that there is a clash of the cultures, and Chinese is taking over.
To my delight we have a western style sit down toilet, wifi and clean beds in our room. There is no heat or hot water anywhere here, and they rely upon electric blankets and solar heated water. To get a warm shower you have to wait until the middle of the day for the water to be warmed by the sun.
Our first stop was to a traditional Tibetan teahouse run by a Buddhist nunnery. These monks are women with shaved heads, who wear the same red colored robes as the men. I have read the women are the most active of all free tibet supporters, and have been responsible for most of the protests in recent years.
The teahouse was truly an amazing cultural experience. Needless to say in a room full of about a hundred people, we were the only tourists. In a teahouse you sit on couches with other people, and talk and share your food and delicious sweet milk tea made from yak milk. We sat near a group of traditional Tibetans in their 50’s and 60’s, who could not stop smiling and waving at us. Several times they offered us their food and drink, seemingly thrilled at our presence there. Every person I saw, looked like the most picture perfect model for the cover of National Geographic.
From the teahouse we went to the Sera Monastery, built in 1419. We walked through the gates and felt as though we had entered a medieval village. We were fortunate enough to arrive while the monks were debating in a center courtyard. The debating consists of a question and answer session between sets of monks, with the questioner standing over the answerer, slapping his hands. During this, a dog wandered into the courtyard and made his rounds, nuzzling up to the monks, and receiving many head scratches and tummy rubs. Once the debates finished, they sat down to prayer. I felt as though I shouldn’t have been allowed to bear witness to such a religious experience, but am thankful that they want to share their devotion with anyone.
We visited a temple in the monastery that was in the process of being repaired. Sadly these repairs were not from the normal wear and tear of such an ancient place, but from the damage incurred from the Red Army during the cultural revolution. In 1959 the Chinese Communists began their campaign to destroy anything of any religious significance, and they razed this monastery, along with 6,000 other religious buildings. Throughout all of Tibet, these repairs are still underway.
As we walked through the monastery there were roving Chinese police everywhere, and cameras at the corners of buildings. Just outside the gate there was a military and police station, complete with riot gear laid out and ready to quell any uprising. The more I walked around Lhasa throughout the day, this seemed to be commonplace. You cannot walk more than 500 feet without a police or military station with Chinese armed with automatic weapons. Later in the evening, we were told there are snipers on some of the rooftops. Sure enough we saw Chinese military on the rooftops standing watch.
Our conversation turned towards the current Dalai Lama, and I spoke the words “Dalai Lama.” Chuck hushed me and said we must never speak his name, but instead refer to him as “HH” for “His Holiness” for fear that a Chinese spy may overhear our conversation. I am finding that Tibet is the most memorable and fascinating, yet sobering and saddening travel experience I have ever had.

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Photos

Heading in the right direction this time

Welcome to Tibet

Yak noodle soup at the teahouse

Buddhist dog

Comments

[Kevin]

I LIKE THE ATMOSPHERE
The first time a see that dog,i smiled,i think that the atmosphere there is so warm,i hope i can also have a Tibet Tour!