Day 322 - Monks counting their cash

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Tibet claims to be the most religious country in the world, and we’ve got no reason at all to dispute that. It’s hard to imagine but at one point over a fifth of the country’s males were monks, which must contribute to the economic poverty that is all too apparent. We read somewhere that the average farmer makes just over GBP100 a year, and although this doesn’t tell the whole story - they can buy things cheaply and so survive okay - it does illustrate that Tibet is desperate for the extra income that tourism brings. Religion is such an important element of Tibetan life that it’s hardly surprising most of the attractions are monasteries and such like. We went to see the main temple, the Jokhand Temple, in the city centre this morning and it was pretty impressive. It was absolutely packed with little old ladies barging past trying to get from one statue to another, and dropping off a little money at each one. There is money everywhere, which does look a little strange, and you sort of wonder where all the money ends up. By far the most memorable part of our visit to the temple was seeing half a dozen monks sitting in a room counting an enormous pile of cash. We have been kicking ourselves ever since for obeying the ‘no photos’ signs, because a picture of that would have been priceless. It just doesn’t look right seeing monks, who voluntarily go without much by way of material things, in a ‘loadsamoney’ pose surrounded by mountains of banknotes.

Lhasa’s number one attraction is called the Potala Palace, built on a hill in the city by the 5th Dalai Lama (the best one) in the 1600s. The 5th Dalai Lama died before it was completed, but this fact was kept hidden until the building was completed 12 years later. The story put out was that he’d gone in for some serious religious contemplation and being Tibet everyone believed it. Most of Tibet’s monasteries were destroyed during the Chinese cultural revolution, but this one was so important that the Chinese army actually defended it from the Red Guards, the ones who went around wrecking everything. Visitors to the Potala are allowed to stay inside for only an hour and you are not allowed to take any photos, so it’s quite a pace walking around as there’s so much to see. The highlight is the 5th Dalai Lama’s tomb, 14m high and containing over 3 tonnes of gold, but every one of the 21 rooms we visited had a fascinating story behind it.

We went souvenir shopping in the afternoon and if we do say so ourselves we have become quite adept at bartering during our year away. It’s really funny seeing someone pay full price for something when you know full well they could have had it for a quarter of the amount. Ed bought a Chairman Mao watch, perhaps the tackiest thing ever invented but which has to be seen to be believed, and Gemma bought a replacement bracelet. Then we went for a sunset curry on a rooftop, admiring the mountains that surround the very flat city of Lhasa, but Ed wasn’t feeling too good so we headed home after that.

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Comments

[fk82]

Potala
Not sure who told you that you could only be at the Potala for an hour. When I went I was there for ages.