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Published: February 24th 2011
At 5.30am our trip to Tibet started… We were picked up in a little minivan to get from Kathmandu to the border. In total 7people (4 French, 1 Slovakian and us). All really quiet cause we didn’t know each other and it was to early… After breakfast we knew our group would grow to a total of 13 persons at the border.
The drive to the border was pretty interesting....big cliffs and a dirt road, bouncing around in the minivan, dust, dust and once more dust! But we made it..At the border they kept warning us not to take the Lonely Planet of China or anything that had to do with the DL cause it’s not allowed inTibet/China..So there we walk over the friendship bridge between Nepal and Tibet a bit worried about what we were going to do! Hiding the Lonely Planet of China in our backpack…Not really knowing that the scanners they have are well up to date… our luck was that we had 2 more books in my backpack and showed those ones to the soldiers! And that twice cause they scan everything twice. So we made it through the border without any problems! Even got a stamp
in our passports… you had to ask but yeah!
That’s where we meet the rest of our group (3 English, 1 Korean, 1 Argentinean and 1 Mexican) and changed our bus to a Chinese one! We didn’t go far after that and stopped in the border town Zhangmu instead of Nyalam, cause of the Tibetan NY a lot of places are closed and this place had some restaurants that were open! Strolling around a abandoned town with pretty much nothing to do we decided to hit the sack early (especially after our last night in Kathmandu with Kurt).
The next day (2nd) it was an early wake up!!!! Because of the ridiculous time zone Tibet is in. It was still dark dark dark like 3 in the morning, but it was already 7.30am! China does only have 1 time zone that is the most convenient for Beijing. After a beautiful ride through the mountains we reach Lalungla Pass (5140m). This is where we’ve got the real Tibet feeling. We were on the roof of the world!!! Surrounded by mountains higher then 8000m… Yeah!
We followed the Friendship Highway all the way to Xigatse. On our way we past a
viewingpoint for the Mt Everest and the highest pass Gyatchu La (5220m). It was a full day of driving but worth it! The views and surrounding was just as we expected!
Day 3 we stayed in Xigatse and started of with the Panchen Lama's Tashilhumpu Monastery! Which is one of the four "Yellowhat Sect" monasteries of Tibetan Buddhist. It was founded by Gedun Drupa (the first Dalai Lama) in 1447. After the tour we had the hole afternoon for ourselves.. And we decided to do the Kora around the monastery. Imagine all the way prayerwheels and an awesome view over Xigatse! Just at the end of the Kora we got invited by two lovely Tibetan ladies. So there we went inside a little house and drinking the real Tibetan tea!! Also know as Yak butter tea! It's realy hard to swollow... disgusting!!!! But hey we've got invited so we can't say no! The old city still had a feeling of Tibet, but the newer part was just all the way China! Concrete buildings, big shopping malls and so on!
Day 4 was our last travelling day! From Xigatse we went on to Gyantse to visit the Kumbum stupa
& Phalkor monastery. The Kumbum stupa is 32.4m high and said to have 108 cells containing sculptures, paintings and holy images amounting to 100.000!!! The Phalkor monastery was build in 1418 by the first Panchen Lama. A lot of it has been destroyed by the Chinese and then rebuild later... It's a shame but we still got the vibe!
At noon we kept going direction Lhasa... Again passes to cross, this time it was the Karola (5010m) and Kambala (4794m) to get to the most beatifull lake in Tibet. Yamdrok Lake. This time of the year you couldn't see all the colours, cause it was all frozen!
Just before Lhasa we had our last stop at the Tibetan lifeline river Brahma Putra. It's the most holy river for the Tibetan and even the Hindu's from India.... cause this river conects with the Ganges!
Day 5, 6, and 7 we stayed in Lhasa... We where not allowed to get out of Lhasa. The rules are really strict nowadays. On or first full day we had a day off.. But not so much choice to do things! The only option for us was to visit the Summer Palace also called Norbulingka!
Summer Palace (36)
Is the same place as Norbulingka... Norbulingka is the Tibetan name!Norbulingka means "Jewel Park" in Tibetan. It is the summer palace of the Dalai Lama's. A bit ababonded in winter and a lot of buildings closed for tourism it was still impressive! Just by walking around in the Palace and seeing the Dalai Lama's rooms and thrones it gives you a warm feeling!
In the afternoon we went to do the Kora around the Jokhang Temple. We were in the right season, cause all Tibetans go to Lhasa to do a pelgrimage around the Temple... They have to do an amazing amount of praying (standing up and lying down) and many rounds around the temple! We think they don't even do it in one pelgrimage but many more! It was amazing to walk along with the Tibetan people hearing their prayers and seeing there smiles! Yes we didn't see any Tibetan without a smile!
Day 6 it was time to visit the Potala Palace. The Palace was built at the time of Songtsan Gampo in the 7th century. In the 17th century the 5th Dalai Lama extended the Palace to it's present size. At this time it also became the Dalai Lama's residing palace and truned the main political
and religious affairs. The main construction is divided into two sections..The red and the white palaces. It's a 115.7 m high with 13 stories. Including living quarters, temples, funeral stupas and monk dorms.
All the funeral stupa's are built out of gold. But because the 5th Dalai Lama was the most popular one his stupa was made out of 3000kg of gold!! We can say this is impressive!!!
After lunch we went to the Sera Monastery. It was the less impressive one for us! Just 3km's north of the city against the surrounding mountains! But it's a bit harsh.. after like 2 monasteries you know the feeling and the smell of melted butter!
Late afternoon we couldn't resist and went back to the Barkhor Bazaar and Jokhang Temple to do another kora with the locals!
On our last day we still had one monastery to go! Not really motivated for the Drepung Monastery. Drepung monastery is on of the 6th biggest monasteries of the Gelupa Sect. It's located at the foot of the west valley mountain (Gyephel-ou-Tse) about 10km away from Lhasa. It was built in 1416. Over 10.000 monks were living here before the invation of China! Nowadays
there are only 700 monks left!
Just as we thought another monastery!!! We walked into a group of monks debating on the square. It was amazing to see all monks together.. And we even got to see them pray all together in the monastery!
In the afternoon it was our last sightseeing to do. The Jokhang Temple from the inside.. The inside we've seen before, but the roof was amazing! We could now see all the pelgrims walk around the temple and the hundreds of them praying infront of the temple!
Also we could see all the snipers on top of the roofs surrounding... Lhasa is being watched really carefully. Not only on the roofs but also on every corner of the street!
It was a shame to say goodbye to the group! Our last night was really funny drinking in the restaurant of the hotel.. Unfortunatly we had to bail earlier cause our train was leaving early the next morning!
But cheers to everybody for making our Tibet expierence so amazing!
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Anita
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Wauwwwwww
Aris, er staan wel verdacht veel kindjes op de foto... het begint toch niet te kriebelen hahahaha!! Maar oke, ik vind ze ook best schattig, op de foto dan ;) Maar wat een mooie foto's weer man! Jullie genieten er volop van!! En na Tibet volgt de chinese muur denk ik?! Ik ben al aan het aftellen hoor :) Nog 3 maandjes???? Niet tussen 28 mei en 3 juni terug komen he... dan zit ik op het strand in Turkie :) Have fun!! XXX