Gallivanting Grandma

August 21, 2007

Potala Palace was the winter home of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is a museum visited by thousands of visitors every year.

It was constructed on a steep hill within the city of Lhasa. There are 13 floors which contain more than a thousand rooms. We slowly walked up the hill and climbed many steps and steep ramps to get to the entrance. This was especially difficult in the thin air of the high altitude of the city.

The view from the top looking across Lhasa and the mountains in the distance was spectacular.

Our guide joined the noisy crowd at the ticket window to buy tickets for us.

There was a lot of pushing, shoving, and yelling, and finally a Chinese police officer appeared and settled things down. Our guide said the ruckus was typical of arrogant Chinese tourists.

Potala Palace had been damaged during the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese in 1959 and local people were concerned about the 10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues contained in the palace.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the palace. The interior chambers were dimly lit but I saw many rooms filled with Buddhist statues and shrines to previous Dalai Lamas. There was active reconstruction and renovation work outside:

View of Lhasa and the mountains from the top:

Walking back down steep ramps to leave the palace:

Prayer flags line the route back down the mountain.

Prayer wheels were located in a square near the bottom of the palace.  Sacred words, are written on the outside of each wheel. A “life tree” made of wood or metal is in the center with many thousands of prayers wrapped around the center “tree.”

Spinning the wheel has the effect of orally reciting the prayers many times.

Later, we went to a carpet factory. The toddler in the photo below accompanied his mother to work.

A Stupa (or Chorten in Tibetan) is an important religious monument which represents the Buddha’s presence.  The top is crowned with a crescent moon and the sun.

August 20, 2007

Our Tibetan guide kept reminding us to move slowly and take rests to avoid altitude sickness. We drove to the center of Lhasa and walked slowly around the bustling city. Potala Palace, the former home of the Dalai Lama, was built on Mount Marpori in the city center and dominates Lhasa.

The city lies in the center of a flat river valley surrounded by mountains which rise to elevations of 18,000 feet.

Lhasa has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. The name translates as “place of gods” in the Tibetan language. The Communist Chinese of the People’s Republic of China invaded the country in 1950. After a massive crackdown by the Chinese government in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled into exile. He currently lives in India.

The weather in August was cool and crisp with bright sunlight. There were many Chinese tourists visiting the city.

We were staying at a Tibetan owned hotel in Lhasa and the guide took us only to Tibetan owned restaurants for lunches and dinners.

The vendor at the fruit stand below was using a home-made scale:

We went to Sera Monastery to watch the daily debate of the monks. The monastery is a complex of structures founded in 1419 by a famous teacher of Tibetan Buddhism and had developed into a renowned place of learning. Sera means “wild roses” which grew at one time on the hills behind the monastery.

Debate has become part of the culture of Buddhist belief and is an essential part of the teaching on the path to enlightenment.  Debates were introduced to Tibetan Buddhism during the 7th century and monks in universities spend years studying the art of debate.

Tourists are welcome to quietly watch the debates which are held in an outdoor courtyard. It was fascinating to watch the animated young men practice their skills.

Prayer wheels near Sera Monastery:

August 19, 2007

The flight from Chengdu, China to Lhasa, Tibet took only two and a half hours and passed over snow-capped mountains. A local guide and driver met us at the airport and our small group of five teachers began to acclimate to an altitude of 12,000 feet.

Our guide gave each of us a long white silk scarf, called a hada. He said they were traditional gifts of welcome to visitors. The hada symbolizes the giver’s sincere heart.

It was about an hour’s drive to the capital city but we stopped on the way to see the Nietang Buddha. The 32 foot high statue was engraved on the side of a cliff by the disciples of the nearby Neitang Tara Buddhist Temple.

People throw their hadas on the cliff to show respect to the Buddha. The higher, the better. Our guide told us it was good luck, but none of us wanted to part with our gift.

After spending many days in the smog-covered cities of mainland China, I enjoyed the crystal clear air and sunshine of one of the highest altitude cities in the world.

We slowly drove to our hotel and checked in:

Lobby of the hotel:

The inner courtyard was filled with potted plants and prayer flags flapped in the breeze.

We were told to rest and relax to get acclimated to the thin air. “Slow and steady” was the name of the game. After a couple of hours, we went out to see Lhasa:

The next morning after breakfast in the hotel, we drove to visit Norbulingka which translates to “Jeweled Park.”  This was the summer residence of every Dalai Lama since 1780 until the current 14th Dalai Lama’s exile in 1959.

Entrance to the palace:

The complex consisted of several buildings and a 3-story palace with rooms for prayer, bedrooms, and reading rooms surrounded by a magnificent garden filled with trees and flowers.

After suffering extensive damage during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government began to restore the complex in 2003 and turned the grounds into a public park. Norbulingka is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.