Oct 14, 2014, Tuesday - Lhasa

This is our first full day of sightseeing in Lhasa.  A lot of westerners in Lhasa, not so many in Tsedang.  Lots of use of the horns when driving, mostly "watch out" to other cars or pedrestrians when passing.  

The first stop was the Norbulinka Palace, summer home of the Dalai Llamas, and several associated buildings.  The Palace is a World Heritage Site.

Lake Central Palace at the Norbulinka Palace Complex

From there we walked across to the Tibetan History Museum that had displays from the Paleolithic era to today.

Tibetan History Museum

 

Paul sitting on a rock ball.  Waiting for our ride.

After lunch we went to the Sera Monastery.  At its peak it housed over 2000 monks.  Today there are about 400.  During the tour we saw a couple of Mandalas, beautiful sand paintings (yes, this picture is made with carefully placed colored sand).

Potala from Sera

 
The highlight of the visit was watching and listening to the monks “debate”.  As it was described it appears to be a method for reinforcing teaching.  Generally it was one monk discussing a topic with one to three other monks.  It was very noisy and very animated. 

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This evening we walked down to the plaza in front of Potala Palace.  There was a music, light and fountain show going on in the plaza with the palace in the background.  It made for some very interesting picture taking. 

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Oct 15, 2014, Wednesday - Lhasa

Today is the long awaited tour of Potala Palace.  There were hundreds (or maybe thousands) of pilgrims circling the palace (always clockwise) for good luck and good health. 

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There were lots and lots of stairs but well worth it to see the inside.  At that altitude the stairs were exhausting. 

The palace has 1000 rooms; we maybe saw 50 of them.  Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside any of the rooms so had to content ourselves with pictures of the exterior.  However, the exterior was pretty amazing.

After lunch we went to the Jokhang Temple very near our hotel.  It was build in 647 AD. 

It appears that there are thousands of Buddhas in Buddhism and we met most of them today.  Our guide, Yishi, studied Buddhism for 20 years and is on a first name basis with all of the Buddhas.  We walked clockwise around the Jokhang Temple but not Potala.  The Bharkhar bazaar that used to surround the Jokhang temple is no more.  There are now shops.  Not the same feeling as a bazaar.

From the roof of the temple you could see Potala through the smoke from the incense ovens in the square below.

Potala Palace from Jokhlang Temple

Odds and Ends

Odds and Ends

• The police presence in Lhasa is huge with checkpoint/security checks at many major attractions.
• It is fall and the trees are dropping their leaves.  Yet in Lhasa every day there were ladies out with small brooms sweeping up leaves from the streets.  In the US we would use mechanical street sweepers.  Hear, the manual sweeping creates jobs.
• Outside of our hotel room western style toilets are few and far between. 
•  Passenger power windows on Dien Ba’s Landrover don’t work so well.  Usually required pulling them up…sometimes required two people to pull them up.
• Police control speeds in some areas by speed stops (provided with a time stamped paper that you present at the next speed stop.  If you travel at the proper speed then you arrive at the next time point at the appropriate time.  If we go too fast there can be consequences so the driver would just pull over for a tea break or a bathroom break until time to move on.

Oct 16, 2014, Thursday – Lhasa to Gyantse

Today we drive to Gyantse, a six hour drive covering 160 miles.  The elevation is 12,959 feet, 1000 feet higher then Lhasa.  On the way we saw Yan Dok Lake, a spectacularly beautiful lake that was such an incredibly deep turquoise blue that it almost seemed artificial.  And it was hard to get a good picture because of the intense blue.

 

Yan Dok Lake with Prayer Flags

Photo Op...get your picture taken on a yak.

While there we used the toilets with a view (and a view of):

On the way we stopped for lunch and met a nice young couple from Boston, Adam and Erin.  We ended up meeting them several times over the next few days.

On the drive to Gyantse:

Arriving at our hotel, this was the dining room:

Oct 17, 2014, Friday – Gyantse to Shigatse

Pelkhor Stupa

First sight today was the Pelkhor Choda Monastery and Stupa.  We did a quickie tour of the monastery since we have seen several and walked around and up through the stupa.  While there we ran into some of the monks that we had met at the Xining airport.  Small world.

Prayer Wheels

 

We also requested to see a copper factory that we had read about.  After many wrong turns and several requests for directions we ended up at a carpet factory.  Apparently “copper” is not on Yishi’s vocabulary. 

In the afternoon we drove to Shigatse, about a 2 ½ hours away.  The scenery was unremarkable but there was a lot of activities in the fields.  It is barley harvest season. 

After lunch and checking into the hotel Paul headed out to Ta Shi Lhun Po monastery, home of a 17 meter (55 feet) bronze Buddha.  It is a 300,000 square meter (74 acre) compound, built in 1447. 

He also saw monks cooking their meal on a large griddle about 2 feet wide and 6 feet long.  










He then went to the market but it was all tourist items (but very colorful).  Mary stayed in the room and took a nap and nursed a minor cold.