Lhasa:

March 27th, 2005 - March 29th, 2005

Greetings from the "rooftop of the world" also know as Tibet.

We arrived in the capital city, Lhasa, on Sunday morning. Getting here proved to be a bit of a chore as we left Kunming on Saturday night, spent a few hours in a shabby airport hotel in Chengdu, and then continued on to Lhasa in the morning.

Lhasa is located at about 3600m above sea level. Many people have trouble with the altitude upon arrival. We had slight headaches and felt a bit fatigued, but no major symptoms of AMS. Others we met were stuck in bed for up to 4 days!

The flight into Lhasa was amazing - for almost the whole way we were treated to beautiful white peaked mountains. As we landed at Gongkar Airport, the beauty of the Tibetan Plateau was realized in the brown tundra and mountains filled with crystal clear streams.

Upon arrival at the airport, I was trying to fight my way through the mob of people to get to the luggage carousel. I grabbed Jess's bag and passed it over the heads of people standing 3-deep behind me. Then I spotted my bag further along on the carousel. All of a sudden some guy grabbed it and looked like he was about to take off with it. I started yelling at him from the other end of the carousel "That's my bag, hey, that's my bag." Most people started laughing and I think he felt a bit embarrassed as he placed it back on the belt!

After a 95km drive from Gongkar Airport we rolled into Lhasa.

Lhasa was not quite how I expected it to be. Unfortunately, the Chinese have "modernized" this place as well as the rest of the country. Massive concrete structures stand all over town - out of place compared to the traditional Tibetan ways of life. Only 4% of the total area of Lhasa is truly Tibetan and many of Lhasa's inhabitants are now Han Chinese, creating a serious decline in Tibetan culture.

After checking into our hotel, we decided to wander around town a bit since we had the energy. We are staying in the Tibetan quarter, quite near to the Jokhang Temple - one of the most sacred places in Lhasa.

Many monks wander the street and while we were trying to look something up in our Lonely Planet Tibet guide, a monk came and grabbed the book from me. We were warned about "Book Jacking" but we didn't really expect to get Book Jacked on the street.

Anyway, the monk started flipping through the book trying to find photos of the D'Lama (which are banned here) and other sights that were pictured in Tibet. He tried to walk away with the book but I stopped him. He kept looking at photos and again tried to walk away with the book. Both times I smiled and stood in front of him. Finally, after 5 minutes, he gave the book back, patted me on the shoulder, and walked away!

Following that experience, we ventured down some alleys and joined up along the Barkhor Kora which is a religious route that pilgrims take around the Jokhang Temple. We followed in the mass of people until we reached the front of the Jokhang. We were awestruck by the pilgrims who stood in front of the temple. They would stand with their hands over their head, kneel down, and then lie flat out on the ground with their arms extended in front of them. They would repeat this process over and over again. All the time you could hear the sliding sound of the plastic supports under their hands gliding along the stone ground.

We decided to walk along the kora a second time (it is only 800m around) and we were swept away by two old Tibetan women with wrinkled and worn faces and bright smiles. They were holding prayer wheels and murmuring prayers.

We were dragged us off the kora part way and we circled two small temples (always clockwise). The women spun each and every prayer wheel while we followed closely behind in amazement by their devotion.

After our second turn around the Jokhang Temple, we decided to enter. We followed some monks in the side entrance which involved passing two massive prayer wheels that were continuously turning. We stepped through a large doorway and into a dark room with giant statues on either side acting as guards.

We proceeded through the main courtyard and joined the Nangkhor, which is the kora the circles the inside of the Jokhang Temple. It is a dark circuit featuring thousands of prayer wheels that get spun by each and every pilgrim.

The smell of yak butter permeates the air as candles burn all around. Our shoes even felt stick from all the yak butter that spilled from the candles to the floor.

At the end of the kora we made our way to the roof of the Jokhang temple. The views were stunning. You could see the dry brown mountains surrounding Lhasa, the odd one with a sprinkle of snow on the peak. In the distance, past Barkhor Square you could see the Potala Palace, the former residence of the D'Lama.

It was nearly time for sunset so we descended from the roof of the Jokhang and back out into Barkhor Square to soak up the last bit of the day. We found a small room that was partially underground right in front of the temple. It was filled with candles. We went in, nearly slipping on the floor due to all the yak butter that had melted away. The temperature was so hot because of all the candles in one tiny room, thus we could only stay inside about one minute.

We made it back to our room by dark - which is about 9pm here because China has one time zone and every city runs on Beijing time - and we went to bed, satisfied and overwhelmed by our first day in Lhasa.

Our second day was less busy. We set out in search of people to share a Land Cruiser with us to drive across Western Tibet for a week taking in several small villages and concluding with a stop at Everest Base Camp.

When wandering the streets of Lhasa, something eventful always seems to occur. We happened upon some butchers slicing up some fresh yak meat on the side of the road - yak meat is the main staple of the Tibetan diet. We have yet to have a Yak Burger or Yak Momos (dumplings), but I did try some Yak Jerky today and it was great.

We also came across some monks who were chanting and playing music and we chatted with them for a brief while. Tibetans are always smiling and it becomes infectious. You can't help but walk around with a big smile on your face all day long.

Today we headed for the western side of town, which is Chinese dominated. It really doesn't look any different from the other Chinese towns we have visited. However, the sight of the Potala Palace was amazing. It is perched high upon a hill and it stares down upon you like no other structure I have seen. It is the former home of the D'Lama but now it sits empty for obvious reasons.

We walked the length of the Potala from the street. We were stopped by a friendly Tibetan man who saw me standing along for a photo so he jumped in.

At the far end of the base of the Potala we crossed the street and climbed a small hill to get a better photo. All around the hill were prayer flags hanging in their beautiful colours and several pilgrims murmuring as they spun their prayer wheels.

Sadly, we had to leave and head back towards our part of town as we needed to pick up some supplies for our trip to Everest Base Camp.

We are leaving in the morning and will be taking two Land Cruisers (5 people each) on a 7-day trip. We have quite a diverse group: 3 Americans, 2 Brits, 2 Belgians, 2 Canadians (us), and 1 Israeli. We will be going from 3600m in Lhasa to a climax of 5200m above sea level at Everest Base Camp.

We will be gradually rising in altitude but have pills and bottled oxygen just in case someone has trouble with the altitude.

Due to the remoteness of where we will be going, it will be unlikely that you will hear from us again until April 7th or so.

So, before I end the update, I thought I would share some newspaper clippings from the local China Daily Newspaper, the main English paper in the country. I have taken interest in the various styles of newspapers in the different countries we have visited, but I think the Chinese take the cake in what they have to say.

Here are two excerpts from the China Daily Newspaper:

HERO WORK HELPS CHANGE ATTITUDES
At the same time, Li's story has also revealed the kind of moral strength that has kept the Chinese people together throughout history, during long ordeals and great changes. It reminds us of a quite different China, not a society fascinated by Western chic and fast food. Nor is it a society where the only measure of a person's success or failure is money, and a region's fame is based on its GDP.

FILTERING INTERNET FOR CHINA'S ADOLESCENTS
A youthful curiosity can lead minors into some of the darker corners of the world wide web. The country has therefore introduced a real-name registration system and prevented minors from entering public Internet cafes. But they cannot be kept out of those wicked cafes run by the less-well-intentioned where profits beat down any vestige of conscience. In these places, minors cannot be controlled and inevitably end up logging into negative websites.

The first one is an editorial and thus has a point of view, jingoistic as it seems. The second one is an actual article where the writer seems to stray a bit too far towards the government's line. You see, the news is not always the news here. When we can get BBC World News, it always goes to black when news about Taiwan comes on and other stories that would be "harmful" to the local people.

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