China - Tibet
Part of the appeal of the particular trip I chose to join was that it included a trip to Tibet. Specifically, we flew to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. It’s a very different place from Beijing or Chengdu, and not without some challenges.
UPDATE: Photos from Tibet!
The most obvious difference between Lhasa and the other cities we’ve visited is one of elevation - around 3,650 meters or 12,000 feet. We’re talking something like two and a half times as high as Denver. At this elevation, a few challenges arise: lack of oxygen, and intense sunlight. The lack of oxygen is the one that’s the biggest pain, as we animals really need it to live. Your muscles get tired faster, your head swims when you move quickly, headaches are common, and it can be very difficult to sleep. The intense sun basically means you burn much faster than you do at sea level. This can be addressed with liberal use of sunscreen.
I had a bit of each, but was still able to do most of the activities on the trip. Much of this involved visiting various Buddhist temples and palaces in and around Lhasa, which is the historical center for Indo-Tibetian Buddhism (though the religious community is now largely in Dharamsala, India).
Internet access is slow, and I’m not going to be able to upload pictures of the various sites we visited until I find a quicker connection. We visited the Drepung Monastery the first day, Jokhang Temple and the Barkhor neighborhood on the second day, and Potala Palace, the Dalai Lama’s (former) residence. The usual rules for holy places applies here: no pictures, modest dress, respectful behavior.
Drepung Monastery is built onto a hill outside Lhasa. There’s a mild hike up into the complex, followed by the various rooms. The Ganden Palace (residence of the 2nd Dalai Lama) and the Tsogchen are the most striking elements. Pilgrims are everywhere in the complex, making circuits through the rooms, prostrating themselves before major buildings, statues, or locations, burning candles and incense, and leaving paper money in every crevice.
Jokhang Temple is in the middle of Lhasa. Pilgrims are everywhere, as is the overwhelming smell of incense. The inner sanctum houses a number of chapels, with monks doing their best to keep the throngs from overwhelming the small building. The area around the temple, called the Barkhor, is a busy market crammed with pilgrims, tourists, and the most annoyingly aggressive vendors we’ve encountered.
Potala Palace is built on a hill in Lhasa called Marpo Hill. The gleaming white ramps and walls were once home to the Dalai Lama. The place itself is huge - thirteen stories high, with a thousand rooms - although we were only able to visit a few dozen of them. The walk up to the top looks fearsome, especially for someone missing oxygen, but wasn’t nearly as hard as it looked. Once inside the palace, the views down into the city were amazing.
Inside the buildings, every room was full of Buddhist artifacts. Room after room were full of remains of the various Dalai Lamas. Other rooms contained guilded models of some of the buildings seem in mandalas. Other rooms had beautiful murals of figures from Buddhist lore.
On the whole, Lhasa was an amazing place to visit. The conditions made it hard to be there, but the experience was worth it. It was also very interesting to meet Tibetian people, and hear about their experience and their lives. I’ll write about that a bit later, once I can get the pictures up. Onwards to Lijiang and Guilin!
August 2nd, 2006 at 1:37 am
Jacob, sounds like my year I did in Korea…tons of temples to visit.