Puteri Harbour Marina,

Johor, Malaysia

Hi All,

Continuing our tour of Lhasa……

Tibet # 9 Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple

Potala Palace

Maybe the two most famous sites in Lhasa, they actually weren’t my favorites. No photos allowed at either even for a fee. Appointments are needed to visit the Potala Palace limiting the number of tourists and each tour group is allowed only one hour. Our appointment was for 9am; ours and several other tour groups. But it wasn’t crush packed the way it was at other monasteries so maybe the appointments are a good thing. Lobsang said that guides weren’t even allowed to take time to explain much just to speed groups along. Books and postcards and water were sold at stands in the Palace. (You weren’t allowed to bring in your own water and this was true at the Tibet Museum too though there you were given water for free.) After the Potala Palace we went to visit the Jokhang Temple where hundreds of people were crushed in all at one time. Add to that the smoke from the yak lamps and I was really uncomfortable. And hot!

Photo of the Potala Place taken from the van as we drove by a few days before our visit. It truly is imposing the first time that you see it. Its design wasn’t similar to anything that I’d ever seen.

“The Potala Palace was built at the time of Songtsan Gampo in the 7^th century. In the 17^th century, the 5^th Dalai Lama extended the Palace to its present size. At this time it also succeeded in becoming the Dalai Lama’s residential palace and (?) the main political and religious affair. The main construction is divided into two sections. The Red and White palaces. It is 115.7 meters high with thirteen stories. Including living quarters, temples, funeral stupas and monk dormitories. The countless cultural relics in the palace are images, murals, sutras, etc which of incredible value. These magnificent Tibetan arts and culture are not only classified as national treasures but are also listed by the state council as one unit of the important cultural relics to be specially protected.” Info from the back of the entry ticket.

You can also see yellow walls which we saw at many other monasteries. “Deyangshar is the name given to the central open courtyard of a monastery in Tibet and parts of Myanmar where it is used for ceremonies, burning incense and prayer and to divide the living quarters from the temples of Buddhist prayer and study. One such example is the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa where the great palatial monastery is divided into a white and a red palace with a yellow painted Deyangshar separating to two sectors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deyangshar

http://www.artelino.eu/en/articles/tibet/161-potala-palace.html has a link to a short bit of BBC video done my Michael Palin about the Potala Palace

Starting at street level we walked pretty much all the way to the roof top!

More interesting info….

“It was named after Mount Potala, an important mountain in Buddhist traditions…..Today (with the 14^th Dalai Lama in exile in India since March 1959) the Potala Palace has been converted into a museum by Chinese authorities.

The Palace buildings stand 13 stories high and contain over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues. These tower 117 meters (384 ft) above Marpo Ri, means “Red Hill”, and more than 300 meters (1,000 ft) above the valley floor. Tradition says that the three main hills of Lhasa represent the “Three Protectors of Tibet.”

“ http://www.chinatourguide.com/tibet/potala_palace.html

Randal walking up the stairs.

In the BBC video Michael Palin points out that everything had to be carried up the stairs, water, food, anything needed. But it was a feudal society so there were serfs to do the work and probably the very numerous low class monks who came from serf families.

Red paint indicates the parts of the structure that was used for religious purposes. Areas painted white were administrative or residential. The former Dalai Lamas are buried here and the current Dalai Lama will be also. Zhou Enlai is said to have saved the Portola Palace from destruction during the Cultural Revolution though many other monasteries and nunneries were destroyed.

At the rear of the Potala Palace is a pond. The story Lobsang told me is that when they started excavating for dirt needed for construction, the excavated area filled up with water from a small underground spring. Michael Palin also says in his video that before skyscrapers the Potala Palace was the tallest building in the world. No other construction project is allowed to hinder the view from the Palace so it will remain the tallest building around Lhasa.

Ps: If you plan to visit Tibet, read up about the Potala Palace before you go so you know what you’re looking at. You’ll have no photos to remind you and the postcards really show mostly the outside and you can take your own photos of that.

Jokhang Temple

Jokhang Temple

“Included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2000 as part of the Potala Palace, the Jokhang Temple is located in central Lhasa in Tibet. With an area of 25,100 square meters (about six acres), it is the ultimate pilgrimage destination for Tibetan Pilgrims.

History

The Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), was characterized by economic prosperity and great progress in politics. During this time, China was considered the cultural and political center of the world. King Songtsem Gampo (617 – 650, the 33rd king of Tibet) was the leader of the Tubo (or Tibetan) Kingdom. He actively promoted Buddhism in Tibet and under his reign, Tibet achieved great progress in social innovation and realized the integration of Tibet for the first time. In order to promote friendly relationships with the neighboring countries, he successively married Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty. When the two wives arrived in Tibet, each brought a statue of Jowo Sakyamuni. During this time, most people lived in tents and there were few palaces. To house the Buddha brought by Princess Wen Cheng, King Songtsem Gampo constructed the Little Jokhang. Jealous of her, Princess Burikuti asked Gampo to build a Jokhang for her as well. Therefore, in 647 the giant complex was built.

The original complex included only eight shrines. After multiple renovations, most notably during the Yuan Dynasty (1206 – 1368), the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the complex grew to the scale that exists today.

Legend

The Jokhang Temple was built on the former site of a lake. According to the legend, the lake site was chosen after many failed attempts to build a temple in the region. Prior to this, every time a temple was built, it would collapse. Confused by this phenomenon, Princess Bhrikuti turned to Wen Cheng for help. Being a learned woman, Wen Cheng told the Princess that the geography of Tibet was very much like a hag (demoness), with the lake at the heart. In order to build the temple, Wen Cheng advised they must demolish the hag by filling and leveling the lake using 1,000 goats to carry soil from a mountain far away. When the temple was done, it was called Ra-Sa-Vphrul-Snang (‘ra’ meaning goat and ‘sa’ meaning earth in Tibetan) to commemorate those goats.

Whether the legend is true or not, this temple brought Buddhism into Tibet and became an inseparable part of Tibetan history and culture. The city of Ra-Sa grew around the temple and over time, become known as Lhasa, a holy land.

Layout

The Jokhang Temple is a four-storey timber complex with a golden top. It adopted the architectural styles of the Tang Dynasty, as well as those of Tibet and Nepal.

Standing in the square of the Jokhang Temple, one can view the entire complex. On the square there are two steles, one recording an alliance between the king of Tibet and the emperor of the Tang, the other portraying the teaching of the Tibetan people to prevent and treat smallpox, a once incurable disease in Tibet.

In the eastern section of the yard there are rows of votive lights. These flicking lights provide a path leading all the way to the main hall. The main hall, over 1,300 years old, is the oldest shrine of the complex. Above the major entrance, there is a Dharma Wheel (chakra) flanked by two deer. This represents the unity of all things and symbolizes Sakyamuni himself. On both sides of the passageway, paintings showing the building of the temple, and renderings of the temple from the seventh century are adorned on the wall. The statue of Sakyamuni at age 12 sits in the middle of the hall. It has been gilded many times and decorated elaborately with jewels typical of Tibet. Statues of King Songtsem Gampo, Princess Wen Cheng and Princess Bhrikuti are on the second floor. On the top floor, there are four gilded bronze tile tops crafted in the emblematical Tang style.

About the Statue of Sakyamuni

The statue of Sakyamuni is a rare treasure. When Sakyamuni was alive, he disagreed with the idea of ‘personal worship’ and did not allow likenesses of himself to be created. Only three statues, designed by he himself, were permitted to be sculpted during his lifetime. The first is a likeness of him at age eight; the second shows him at age twelve when he was still a prince of India; and the third is of him as an adult. The statue kept in the Jokhang Temple is the statue of Sakyamuni at age eight. It was presented to the king of the Tang Dynasty and brought to Tibet by Princess Wen Cheng.”

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/tibet/lhasa/jokhang.htm

The Jokhang Temple suffered much damage during the cultural revolution but has been renovated to what one sees today.

The Jokhang Temple is pretty much the center of the Old City of Lhasa. The first time Randal and I saw it we were lost on our first evening walk. When we had asked directions from some Chinese guards how to get back to the Mandala Hotel, they sent us to the old Mandala Hotel across from the Jokhang Temple. We eventually found our way to our Mandala Hotel. The old hotel had a better location but our hotel had consistent hot water and AC. If I had it to do over, I might opt for the Old Mandala Hotel though hot water was essential for my headache cure.

Many people prostrate themselves in front of the temple.

It took me about a second to guess what the skirt ties were for. Pretty clever.

I think the woman in maroon must be a nun. All of the women seem to have one or two large thermoses with them. The thermoses usually carry offering oil for the burning candles in the temple.

I read that the hangings are woven from yak yarn.

You can see a bit of Randal’s hat in the lower right hand corner. The courtyard is about as far as he got. Not only is Jokhang about the holiest spot in Lhasa, if not all of Tibet, but the morning we went was a special lunar holiday so the Temple was more crowded than about any place I’ve ever been. And there was lots of smoke in the air from the butter lamps. Randal immediately turned around and walked out. Ronnie, David and I continued the tour led by Lobsang. We didn’t even attempt the inner chamber if we were even allowed to go in: some places tourists weren’t allowed, only Buddhists. Half way through the tour I noticed a young woman non-western walking along with us listening to Lobsang. I certainly didn’t mind and was impressed that she knew her own language and English which, of course Lobsang was speaking to us. Afterwards, when I mentioned it to Lobsang he said that she was most likely a “guide in training” and that often they walked along listening to what the other guides had to say. I thought that was quite nice.

You walk circuits through the different parts of the temple, always clockwise. Often pilgrims walk a certain number of circuits and count them off on their prayer beads.

The roof of the Jokhang Temple.  The sky was clear and blue almost all day everyday.

“Above the main entrance to the Jokhang is a golden, eight-spoked Dharma Wheel, flanked by two deer. The spokes of the wheel represent the Eight-fold Path (to enlightenment) and the deer serve as a reminder that Buddha gave his first sermon in a deer park. (And supposedly the dear came close to listen.) On any given day, one will be awed by the dozens of pilgrims bodily prostrating themselves before this entrance. “ http://www.imperialtours.net/jokhang.htm

Siddhārtha Gautama , Śākyamuni, Shakyamuni and Buddha are all names for the person who founded Buddhism.

Looking down from the roof at the Barkor, the clockwise walking circuit for pilgrims and across,  back over to the Patola Palace.  The pole in the center has prayer flags and small shops can be seen all along the way.

Ru

DoraMac

Puteri Harbour Marina

Johor, Malaysia

Hi All,

  I have time to catch up with our blog because there’s not so much else to do here.  Hopefully the local bike shop will have the new axle for Randal’s bike soon.  Considering our bikes were just recently overhauled in George Town, they are having lots of wheel issues keeping us from riding.  Not much else to do here other than ride so we really need our bikes.  I’m still missing Tibet!  Writing up our blog, I go back and read about the sites we saw and learn about them after the fact.  I think I’m also catching up on the sleep we lost from the time we got onto the train until we left the Tibet desert area.  The nights were so hard on us that we were both awake several time taking diamox, ibruprofen, and showers to moisten my dried miserable sinuses.  My nose would be totally too stuffed to breathe through my nose and my throat so dry that it hurt to breathe through my mouth so it was a struggle to get enough oxygen and that’s what gave me headaches.   But I would do it all again if we could.  Easy to forget the bad feelings.

Tibet # 8 Sera Monastery

“Sera Monastery was founded by Jamchen Choje Shakya Yesh who was a disciple of Tsongkhapa in 1419. Sera Monastery has an assembly hall, three colleges and thirty three houses. The monastery’s construction covers an area of 114964 square meters. It is the second biggest monastery of Tibet. The monastery has been appointed as the state-level unit of protection of historical relics by the state council of P.R.C. in 1982” from the entry ticket.

It does look a little bit like walking along a university campus: in many respects that’s what it is. It’s a university for monks. I believe Lobsang said that here students are divided by the language they speak so they can learn in their own language. We did walk through parts of the monastery, but our main reason for being there was to witness the debates.

The monastery is about 3 miles from the city of Lhasa. I think I read that monks lived in caves in the mountains before the monastery was built.

Prior to 1959 between 8 to 10 thousand monks lived at the Sera Monastery. In 2002 there were about 500 officially allowed to live there. http://www.thlib.org/index.php

B. The Physicality of Tibetan Debates

One of the striking features of Tibetan debates is that they are quite physical. They are marked by emphatic gestures, such as the clapping used by the questioner to punctuate each question. The questioner holds his right hand above his right shoulder—a little over the head—and stretches his left hand forward, its palm turned upward. Then he strikes the palm of the left hand with the palm of his right and immediately crosses his arms before starting the movement all over again for the next question.

Tibetan Monastic Education

By Georges Dreyfus

January 1, 2001Section 4 of 7

Copyright © 2001

By Georges Dreyfus and THL.

http://www.thlib.org/places/monasteries/sera/essays/#essay=/dreyfus/drepung/monasticed/s/b42#ixzz0tF3qNgP1

Questioner about to strike his palm.

I followed this monk and his young student. He was quite theatrical and his student looked so young. Even though they are putting on a show, learning from the debates is quite important because there are examinations at some point. The better a monk does on the exams, the higher he rises in the monastery hierarchy.

Randal, David, Ronnie and I along with lots of other tourists filed into an open courtyard and took our seat around the outside wall. It almost looks like the ground is covered with snow, but it is dirt and stone.

A “yellow hat.”

Some Buddhists followed a “red hat” tradition. The yellow hats are the largest group and I believe all of the Dalai Lamas have been members of the yellow hats.

Teacher standing and student.

So here’s the question….

Does he know the answer?

Maybe not. His arms are so thin.

Yellow hat, maroon robe, prayer beads, and sneakers peaking out underneath.

In 10 or 20 years where will he be?

Outside the monasteries there are usually small stalls with locals selling souvenirs. I am guessing that these women are Tibetan with a different traditional dress because it seemed that people coming from outside Tibet wore traditional western clothing even if they were from other parts of China.

As we were walking through the monastery, Lobsang asked one of the monks to put some of the soot from a butter lamp on our noses. It was supposed to be kind of a blessing and help us rest during the night. Maybe if I hadn’t washed it off it would have worked; but I did,  so it didn’t. Actually, it wasn’t until we were back in our hotel room that I remembered that I still had it on my nose. Randal had wiped his off early on so looking at him didn’t remind me. 

Editorial Comment:

There are a great deal of political issues involved in any discussion of Tibet. I am as ignorant of them as I am of everything else about Tibet (and Nepal too for that matter.) When you read about the monasteries, most were destroyed in 1959 and the numbers of monks and nuns decreased by thousands. Now those that are tourist attraction sites are being rebuilt. Our guide Lobsang was reluctant to speak about the politics other than to tell us not to take photos of the Chinese soldiers. And though we had encountered Chinese soldiers other places in China, in Tibet it felt different, more like occupation troops. Years ago, on my first trip to China we went to Beijing. At the Great Wall I had made the Chinese soldier who followed us up to the top stand next to me for a photo. I certainly wouldn’t have done that to a Chinese soldier in Tibet. Maybe Zhuhai where our boat was built, a special economic zone, is different than the rest of China. We have so many friends there and always feel welcome and free to do as we wish. I guess it is truly only the Tibetans who still live in Tibet who get to say if things are better or not and not anyone else. If literacy goes up and child mortality goes down, that’s an indication. I honestly haven’t paid attention until now, but I will. Sometimes travel forces you to think about hard things too.

Ru

DoraMac

Tibet # 7 Ani tsang kung nunnery and Women of Lhasa  Part 2

http://kekexili.typepad.com/life_on_the_tibetan_plate/2008/02/tibetan-women.html is a pretty interesting website and this specific link talks about Tibetan women and their lives and clothing.

Each morning and evening hundreds of people walk several circuits around the Barkhor market area that surrounds the Jokhang Temple and the nunnery. They carry prayer wheel which is what this lady has in her hands. She has probably done her circuits and is no resting. She is wearing traditional Tibetan dress that you see on many Tibetan women regardless of age. The apron is worn to indicate she is married. Only married women wear them. If a woman becomes a widow or divorced, she no longer wears an apron. Lobsang said that men wear no rings or article of clothing to indicate their marital status. Hmmmm

This woman is carrying a thermos of either hot oil or water, both used as offerings and also a handful of Tibetan money of small denominations to leave as donations. She is walking past the prayer wheels at the nunnery.

David, video camera in hand, waits patiently while this Tibetan granny climbs the stairs to pray.  So many layers of clothing which are probably needed in the winter.

A young woman in cut-offs and tights helps an older woman in traditional dress. You never saw a Tibetan woman’s legs though the Chinese women often wore typical western dress. I wore a skirt that fell about 3 inches below my knee and socks over my ankles and heavy shoes but I noticed people noticing that my skirt didn’t reach to my ankles. Or maybe they were noticing my clunky shoes? O wore a skirt because it needs less washing than pants, is better for squat toilets, and is cooler than long pants.

I love her face and bright blue head wrap.

Lots of hats and aprons. Lobsang said that in the cities women tend not to marry until their mid-20s though nomadic women marry much earlier. I read on one website that Chinese women in Tibet are allowed one child but Tibetan women are allowed two. Nomadic women probably fall under less regulation.

Many women wore long braids with colored ribbon wound through them. The nuns wore big blue aprons while performing chores.

This woman also has ribbon in her braids. Almost all carried some sort of cloth bag worn as we would a backpack.

Everywhere we went I focused on the women more than on the religious aspects of the places we were visiting. So throughout our tour you’ll see lots of photos of Tibetan women.  The costume did change as we traveled across Tibet especially as we encountered much colder weather.

Ru

DoraMac

Puteri Harbour Marina

Johor, Malaysia

Hi All,

  I decided to jump ahead and write about our visit to the Ani tsang kung nunnery in the center of the old part of Lhasa.  It was my favorite of the religious sites we visited.  It was the smallest and the least opulent, but I was just charmed by the entire experience.  I have so many photos from our short visit that I have to send it in 2 parts.  The first email are photos of the nuns.  The second part are photos of the Tibetan women who came to pray and interact with the nuns. 

Ru

DoraMac

Tibet # 7 Ani tsang kung nunnery and Women of Lhasa  Part 1

I was totally intrigued by the clothing of the Tibetan women and the beauty and character of their faces. And I was totally charmed by the Ani tsang kung nunnery. It was bright and lively and the nuns radiated intelligence, humor, friendliness and happiness. I had to be almost dragged away. Somehow, I thought there would be time to revisit but we didn’t. I’m quite sorry about that. We walked from our hotel to the nunnery located in the center of Old Lhasa. We turned into a small alleyway which opened into the courtyard of the nunnery.

The entry ticket spells the name of the nunnery Tsamkhung.

“Tsamkhung, located in the southeast of Jokhang temple is the only nunnery established in the old city of Lhasa. During the 7^th century, Tibetan King Songtsan Gampa had been meditate in a natural cave at this site reciting prayers to pacify the dangers from the flood of Lhasa River. Thus the nunnery was named Tsamkhung which means the meditation cave. During the 12^th century, Doctor Gewahum took meditation at this site. In the 15^th century, Kujor Tokden, a Tsongkhapa’s close disciple started to establish the nunnery here. During the beginning of the 20^th century, the venerable Lama Pabongka and Tampa Dhoedrak the ninetieth throne holder of Ganden Monastery enlarged the nunnery to the present site. It is one of the nunneries in Tibet that has gained certain prestige within and outside Tibet Autonomous Region.” Info from the entry ticket.

It was incredibly colorful in the clear morning light. There were several building in the compound which included housing for the nuns, a small tea restaurant, a small shop (where I wish I’d bought at least something) this kitchen and the main building housing the prayer rooms and initial “meditation cave.”

This room looked to be a small kitchen area.

I like the golden ladles hung over the picture of a table of food. At the nunnery we were allowed to take photos almost everywhere and there was no charge. At the Summer and Winter Palaces and monasteries either photos were forbidden or you had to pay to take them. From what I’ve read, Tibetan nuns aren’t treated as equals with the Tibetan monks and are often prohibited from higher levels of learning. Many of the nuns are now trying to change that and finding ways to higher levels of study.

A nun tends the profusion of flowers that enlivened the nunnery.

Inside the nunnery was dark and small and had many of the same Buddhist images we saw in the monasteries.

Here a woman looks to be adding a “butter offering” to one of the butter lamps in the prayer room.

Chanting nuns

This photo is a bit fuzzy but I like it because it captures the nuns’ curiosity and friendliness in their faces. Though allowed to take photos, we were advised against using a flash and the area where the nuns were sitting was actually quite dark with most of the light coming from the doorway. At the monasteries the monks just really seemed to ignore us so the warmth of the nuns was a lovely change.  Also, we didn’t have to pay to take photos as we do in the monasteries.

Suddenly the chanting stopped and clashing symbols and horns and discordant music filled the small room.

A nun collects the small offerings left near the original “meditation cave.”

A nun’s story.

The room has so little. The covering over the door is to help keep out winter drafts.

A nun sweeps herself off.

The nuns often live in the simplest conditions. Hopefully this outside water tub isn’t the only source for washing.

Burning herbs in the large white stone oven at the nunnery.

I want to know these women!

I feel almost totally ignorant about the lives of Tibetan nuns though I have been doing some reading since we returned to the boat.  It certainly makes me want to learn more and I will when I visit my local library in the fall.  I’m especially glad to be learning about Ani, the nun in Last Seen In Lhasa. 

Puteri Harbour Marina

Johor, Malaysia

  Randal and I visited lots of monasteries in Tibet and Nepal.  Each was interesting in its own way.  I think my favorite was actually the Tsamkhung Nunnery in the center of Lhasa because the nuns were so sweet and open and active; much more so than most of the monks we saw.  Because we stayed mostly around Lhasa, that’s why we saw so many monasteries which I guess were located near the big city.  And I’m writing about things in the order that we did them so it will be a bit before you get to see me patting the yak or the photos of us at Mount Everest. 

Ru

DoraMac

Tibet # 6 Ganden Monastery

Randal and I visited several monasteries. To me, they were all pretty similar on the inside with similar images of Buddhist characters and Lamas. I hardly know how to write about it because I really know too little and everything would probably need follow up corrections. Ganden was our first monastery and the drive along the river and up into the mountain was wonderful. I’ve sent some of those photos earlier. Again, in hind sight it would have been nice to have spent more time just sitting somewhere on the mountain and reading or maybe painting or attempting the hike to the very top of the mountain.

“Ganden Monastery, a holy land which Buddha once predicted, is the central monastery of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It was built in 1409 under the supervision of Zongkapa (Tsongkhapa.) Major constructions in the monastery, which cover an area of 150,000 square meters, include the Tsokchen Hall, Yangbachen Hall, Zhacang’s Buddhist College, dozens of Kangtsens. Garden also includes a statue of Sakyamuni, the gold throne, Chitokang (the bed chamber of Zongkapa,) and the cave where Zongkapa cultivated himself according to his religious doctrine. A large number of pilgrims are attracted by many naturally formed manifestations of Buddha, the lush shrubbery and the beautiful sceneries surrounding Ganden Monastery. In 1961, Ganden Monastery became a national cultural relic protection unit.” Info from the back of the entry ticket to Ganden Monastery.

Have your eyes glazed over? It’s a lot to take in. On the back of the ticket I’d written this information.

About 30 miles from Lhasa.

Located on top of Wangbur Mountain at an altitude of 12, 467 feet above sea level.

One of the great three university monasteries.

Connected to the Yellow Hat Sect, the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

At one time housed up to 6,000 monks. Now there are about 300.

1959 bombed and ransacked by the Chinese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganden_monastery gives what I think might be fairly accurate information and tells the sad tale of the destruction of the monastery though it has been rebuilt since that time.

Looking back down the valley from the monastery.

If we’d had all day it would have been nice to hike part way.

I believe this is called a stupa and they were visible at all of the monasteries and even at small clusters of houses through the Tibet countryside.

We weren’t sure if this is water or milk, but it’s an offering, not an attack. People had offerings of money and butter for the candles which is used instead of wax.

The Main Prayer Hall where the Monks pray. The robes are there to wear when it’s cold.

There were some pretty colorful visitors with long braids and wraps and prayer beads.

Money is inserted as offerings.

There’s my folded up small bill in the center that gave the Sox a few good days……

This mural tells a story of Buddhist history and the image of the “Yellow Hats.”

Gods, Buddhas, Lamas, Abbots…. Possibly Tsongkhapa the founder of the Yellow Hats.

Butter candles and sunlight often were the only light sources.

My pilgrim ladies again…I was more intrigued by them than by the monks or the religious symbols.

The buildings painted red are buildings that house the more religious aspects of the monastery.

Those dedicated enough hiked the path to the top of the mountain where you can see prayer flags. Not far from the red roof on the left you can see some tiny people walking up the mountain.

Lobsang pointed out a plant and Randal misunderstood and touched it. It was a nettle plant and it took days for the sting to go away. Tibetans boil the nettle plant to make tea.

On our drive home we passed a bridge covered with prayer flags

The flags stretched from the top of the mountain across the road over to the bridge on the river.

A tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River runs through Lhasa. Near Lhasa it’s called the Lhasa River but changes its name as it passes through other parts of Tibet. It is a holy location.

On auspicious days people hang prayer flags for special occasions and for requesting all of those things people tend to ask for in their prayers. Each color, Red, white, green, yellow and blue represents a different meaning in the Tibet culture. http://www.tibetanprayerflag.com/history.html tells a bit about the flags.

I don’t think I have felt more ignorant writing up our blog. I spent all of my time looking rather than listening or learning. And each God, Buddha, Lama or Abbot seemed to have three names depending on whether it was the Indian or Tibetan. I couldn’t keep any of it straight. But it was all quite interesting. Randal wasn’t quite so intrigued by it all as I was. But I was looking at it for all of you too so that kept me more interested perhaps.

Puteri Harbour Marina

Johor, Malaysia

Hi All,

  Some of you may have missed our emails from China and Tibet.  Our notebook computer didn’t have my Outlook email address book and my web address book apparently is out of date.  Sorry.  You can read them at www.mydoramac.com and find out about our time in China, the train trip from Guangzhou, China to Lhasa, Tibet and our early adventures in Lhasa.  Now things are back to “our normal” and I have my big computer making email easier.  It was great to have the notebook though the keyboard is small making it too easy to hit the wrong keys.  Sometimes that made everything GO AWAY!  We did have Internet access in our room at the Mandala Hotel in Lhasa and in the hallway of our hotel in Kathmandu and the small restaurant just next door where we ate most of our meals.  Along the way we used other access when it was available.  It was hard to check up on the Sox at times….they were doing great.  Now I follow the games daily and they lose.  Hmmmm. 

  I wish I could click my heels and be back in Tibet to ride horses, go trekking and do some painting.  I never even took out my paint brush once. 

Randal and I bought many books while in Kathmandu which has what seems like 3 or 4 book shops on every street in the Thamel area where our hotel was located.  It’s the “tourist” area of Kathmandu packed with small shops, eating places, and book stores.  I am currently reading Last Seen In Lhasa by Claire Scobie. She is a journalist who has made several trips to Tibet and during one made friends with Ani, a Tibetan nun.  This book talks about their meeting and friendship and seems to capture the image of Lhasa that we saw. 

Now it’s catch up time.  Catch up email, laundry, boat cleaning, following the Red Sox, reading and hopefully painting. 

Ru

DoraMac

Tibet # 5 Norbulingka (Summer Palace)

“ Norbulingka means Jewel Park in Tibetan. It is the summer palace of the successive Dalailamas. Now it is listed as World Cultural Heritage, State class protected unit of culture relics and appointed four class tourist site. It is a shady place with very rich plants and very important place where every year Tibetan traditional opera and folk song and dancing are performing.

The palace inside is great and luxurious, all the murals are very delicate, among them some of the mural unique to Tibet. Norbulingka is an huge ancient royal garden with natural scenery and cultural landscape.” This information is written on the back of the entry ticket for Norbulingka

Norbulingka is a huge park where the 7^th Dalai Lama built his summer home in the 1750s. The New Summer Palace, completed in 1956 was built by the 14^th (current) Dalai Lama. The main meeting room contains a huge throne and according to AA Keyguide China, the only photo of the Dalai Lama on public display in Lhasa. Also, the clock at the top of the stairs is stopped at 9 o’clock, the time the DL fled to India on March 19, 1959. As we walked through the grounds our guide Lobsang explained much about the DL and Buddhism. But I was busy taking photos so didn’t listen hard enough. It is really difficult to take photos and listen at the same time. Also, prior to our trip to Tibet and Nepal, I didn’t even know where they were. I also, really didn’t know anything about Buddhism. Now I know a little bit about everything. According to a BBC news story (see below) much of the Summer Palace was destroyed by Chinese artillery: I’m not sure what building were part of the original construction and what was rebuilt after the destruction. Honestly, what was confusing to me was how modern the religion is and following the events around all of the different DL.

Lobsang and the map of Norbulingka.

We just walked through the small zoo (really needs lots of upgrading!) and the palace of the 7^th DL and the 14^th DL. We couldn’t go into the small building that is the library and houses hundreds of scrolls.

“In the worst single incident, four days ago, the Chinese army fired about 800 artillery shells into the Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace, razing the ancient building to the ground.” (March 28^th, 1959) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2788000/2788343.stm

Home of one of the earlier DL. Maybe the 7^th, maybe the 13^th. I just don’t remember.

Lobsang and Randal in front of the Palace of the 14^th DL.

Drive up to the Palace

A small lake near the “library.”

The building houses hundreds of scrolls but we weren’t allowed to go inside. Also, must buildings prohibited photos. We found that to be the case many places, or, alternatively, you had to pay a small fee to take photos. Sometimes I paid; sometimes I didn’t.  I would have liked to have gone into this little “library.” 

Rebuilding.

Walking along through the park.

It would have been nice to stay at the park longer and many people apparently do that; take a picnic and spend the day. It was interesting to visit the Palace of the 14^th Dalai Lama though not being allowed to take photos was really disappointing. The other buildings were very dark so hard to see the decorations. Also, many of the building burn yak butter or other oil lamps and the smoke made it hard for Randal and me to breathe. Anyone who goes should bring a flashlight if it would be allowed. It couldn’t hurt more than the residue from the smoke.

We left the Summer Palace to go to the Tibet Museum, but it was closed…so we went another day.

July 6, 2010

Puteri Harbour Marina

Johor, Malaysia

Hi All,

  We’re back on DoraMac and Randal is happy as a clam.  He has his own bed, TV remote, a guaranteed hot shower and ice cold Tiger Beer.  I still feel the pull of the Himalayas which surprises me being such an ocean person.  But the open space was as immense as an ocean and the geology was just amazing. (Wish I had paid more attention when I had the chance to learn it freshman year at UMass.)  And Tibet and Nepal truly were more exotic than most places I’ve been.  The weather was perfect, too, even when we were really, really cold at Everest. (It was just for a short time and again it was the altitude that was more problematic.)   If I were 20 years younger I’d want to go back and do some real trekking.  But this probably our only trip ever to Tibet and Nepal.  I’ll just have to find some desert in lower altitudes…like the Middle East where hopefully we will be next year at this time.

  I want to share the web site of our Tibet tour buddies, Frenchman David Agnolon and Swede Ronnie Lindberg.  They have both taken 6 month sabbaticals from their work as aeronautical engineers in The Netherlands to visit all 7 continents.  They have wonderful photos and interesting stories to share.  http://www.project-7.se/ is their website. 

Our trip ended on the 4th when we flew Silk Air from Kathmandu to Singapore where we rested overnight.  On the 5th Randal collected boat supplies he had ordered at the beginning of our trip and I made a too short visit to Kinukushya book store. Mid-afternoon we took the Causeway bus from Singapore back to Malaysia.  Once on the boat we left all of our stuff where it dropped and I spent all afternoon napping and slept soundly all night too!  Today it’s loads of laundry and taking the photos from our travel computer and saving them to my big computer.  Tonight we’ll go to the Tuesday night market and start stocking up on fruit and veggies again.  While we were away cruising friends Bill and Judy Rouse (of Houston, Texas) on the sailboat BeBe kept an eye on DoraMac.  That was very reassuring!  What isn’t reassuring are the number of Red Sox players on the Disabled List!  Good Grief!

So that’s it.

Ru

Doramac

David, Ronnie, Ru and Randal at the Sera Monastery

  The evening after we visited the Monastery Randal and I were eating dinner at our favorite Lhasa noodle place across from our hotel when Tanya, a woman we’d met on the Monastery tour walked in.  We invited her to join us and she asked “where our sons were!”  We told her that they were only ours for the Tibet tour.  Tanya, an Australian,  taught school around the world and was on vacation from her teaching job in Vietnam.  It is definitely amazing the folks one meets. 

Tibet # 4 Mountain and River Scenery

Our tour guide Lobsang posed for a photo on our bike trip along the Lhasa River.

Randal and I posing in front of the new Newu Bridge linking the train station to Lhasa City.

We continued riding along the river and across the bridge (no photos allowed on the bridge) and then along the other side of the river until I got tired. Notice what we have on our heads; no helmets! It is the first and hopefully last time we bike without them but the bike rental shops don’t provide them. My seat was too low and none of the up hill or down hill gears worked. So after about an hour when I got tired and we were about to begin what looked like a climb, I said I needed to stop. Randal said he needed to stop too but he wouldn’t have said so! Lobsang could have ridden for the rest of the day. But we turned around and rode back to town. I guess we rode about 10 miles or so because we rode about an hour and a half but stopped for photos and a phone call from our friends Stella and Bill.

Stopping for a rest, water and to let a giant truck go by.

There was no shoulder on the road and though there wasn’t so much traffic, there were big trucks and people often seem to drive crazy. Anything coming up in back would blast its horn.

Looking across to the Potala Palace, the Winter Palace of the Dali Lama.

We did a tour of the Potala Palace the day I am writing this. Nothing is allowed to obstruct the view from the Palace so there are no tall buildings in the city of Lhasa anywhere near the Palace; and none that we’ve seen so far anywhere. Even the Newu Bridge had to meet the height regulations. More about the Palace in another email.

The road up to the Ganden Monastery. It was a beautiful drive and the Monastery was quite interesting to visit. More about that in another email too.

Driving back from the Monastery along the Lhasa River.

The sky was so incredibly blue.

The view of Lhasa from the Potala Palace.

Images of Lhasa City

Our first few days in Lhasa, Randal and I would tour with our guide Lobsang in the morning, rest in the afternoon, and then go out walking about 6pm. It felt more like the middle of the afternoon because of the warmth and bright sunlight. It stays light until almost 9pm. We would leave the hotel, cross the road and turn left at the first big intersection. After a short walk we would come to a pedestrian area that led into the small, old neighborhoods.

In the evening, Chinese soldiers guard the entrance to this pedestrian area. Randal and I walked through it our first night’s stroll but in these photos we kept to the main road and then cut back into the heart of the old city. I took a photo of the Yak dung stoves beyond the last pillar but some soldiers were sitting there so I was waved away. When I pointed to the stove, I was allowed to take the photo. Obviously I took this photo with the soldiers. You just can’t directly point a camera at them. When we get lost they are helpful at giving us directions.

Chinese jump rope.

I’m guessing that the red scarves indicate these children go to a Chinese school. The school day ends about 6:30 pm There is a long mid-afternoon break which ends about 3:30 pm when the students return for the afternoon session,

An apartment complex. Black in painted around the window to retain heat. Many locals actually use the bicycle rickshaws.

Leave the main road and enter the warren of lanes lined with small shops and courtyard neighborhoods.

In the center of the old section of Lhasa is the Jokhang Temple. Every morning and evening people walk a circuit clockwise around the streets surrounding the temple. It is a market area and there are lots of shops selling souvenirs lining the streets. Randal and I get all turned around in these interweaving streets and always have to ask directions. These women are Buddhist nuns. We will visit a nunnery on one of our tours.

A prayer tower with cloth prayer sheets wrapped around it.

I sneak photos of the women whose, faces, hair and clothes are all so full of character and colorful.

Yuppie Tibet

This café with several floors with ladder-like stairs had the best yogurt cake. It was just like cheese cake but made with yogurt and tangy rather than sweet.

First email from Tibet

There is so much to write, it’s hard to start. Actually the problem is more the zillions of photos I’ve taken and which ones to send?

We took a bus from Doumen to the bus station in Guangzhou. Then we took the train from Guangzhou to Lhasa, Tibet. The bus trip took about 2 hours. The train trip took about 56 hours. It was an experience. The scenery was amazing, the soft-sleeper too small for 4 adults, the “bathrooms” went from ok to bad, and the dining car is a whole story of its own. We slept really well the first night and badly the second night. The couple sharing the soft-sleeper cabin was really very nice and we all were on our most polite behavior. They were actually coming to Lhasa for a medical conference. She was a nurse and we’re not exactly sure what he did but it had to do with the non-medical side of medicine. Like most people taking the train, they brought all of their own food. The train had a hot-water dispenser so you could make instant noodles and tea which most people ate. We brought tea, coffee, crackers, peanut butter, a few oranges, and some cookies. . We had to rely on the dining car. We also brought our own mugs and utensils and any necessary bathroom supplies like toilet paper, soap, towels, etc

Randal and I were on the left side of the small cabin and our companions were on the right side. Randal had the bottom bunk and I had the top bunk. We all shared the table in the middle. Very close quarters.

Our cabin mates.

The storage space over the top bunk. The bunks were definitely long enough and wide enough for us to sleep comfortably and there were wonderful down comforters. Sometimes the train would be really warm and sometimes it would be really cold. That is a TV screen and each bunk had one but no one ever turned it on. Randal and I packed in duffle bags and had two extra bags, one with food and one with my odds and ends. They fit in the space allotted but if we wanted anything from it was a pain to go digging around in them and then repack. So like everyone else we spent the train trip in the same set of clothes.

Train travel….. I got on the bus in Doumen with my funny tie-dyed dress and finally took it off when we got to our hotel in Lhasa! I pulled on some flannel pants early on and they stayed there the whole trip too. I looked incredibly odd, but I was quite comfortable since everyone slept in his clothes. You can see Randal’s knee so there was room for both of us on the bottom bunk during the day while we watched the scenery go by, read or snoozed. We shared the tiny table and each bunk had netting where you stored stuff too. The yellow bag holds our food stuff. I am reading Jane Eyre which I’d never “had” to do in school. I had brought 3 books to China but finished them so needed to go to the Doumen bookstore where I knew they sold some classics in English. I am actually enjoying it.

The wash area for our car of soft sleepers. Each soft sleeper car had two toilets too, one Asian and one Western. By the middle of the second day both were out of order so we used the ones in the next car. By the end of the trip you didn’t want to go into the Western toilet unless you were wearing knee high rubber boots. Randal and I were the only Westerners on the train so maybe only we noticed. We were in cabin number 8 so there were at least 32 people in our car, or could have been if they were all full, though we have no way of knowing. It felt very full and some of the children hit the emergency beeper button making us crazy since it beeped just outside our door and it took forever for a train attendant to turn it off.

There were fold down seats in the narrow hall way which made walking through the car slow going. But it was nice to sit out there too if no one was smoking. Lots of smoking on the train.

The dining car misadventures……

Nothing in English and the picture menu in Randal’s right hand disappeared before we were able to use it and it never reappeared again. Waitresses would eventually hand us a menu in written in Chinese and look at us exasperated with our inability to order from it. The dining times listed were nowhere connected to reality. Lunch was hours after the time listed and we were only finally served because lovely young women who spoke a bit of English helped us order eggs with tomato, a small whole cooled fish, and some rice. The first night we walked to the dining car about 6pm though it supposedly opened at 5pm. We were told the dining car opened at 6:30pm so we returned at 6:30. Then we sat till about 7:30 though others seemed to be getting food…I finally made enough “noise” that they took me back to point to what we wanted since none of our English speaking friends were there at the time. Randal and I were the only Westerners on the train.

Dining car friends Echo and Echo’s Auntie Chen.

Echo is studying to be a dentist and believes that English is an essential language so speaks it quite well. That was lucky for us because none of the dining car staff ever acted as if they wanted to find any way to communicate with us. Echo helped us with dinner one night and lunch on our last day. We had our other dinner meal because one train staff finally came over to our table and then took me to the kitchen to point at the food. Not sure why the waitresses couldn’t have thought to do that but they just didn’t seem to want to make any effort to interact with us at all. Any help we ever received was from the other passengers or the train staff, never the dining car staff. The food was relatively expensive and not bad except for the last lunch which was bad. Randal and I had never experienced this type of bad service anywhere in China so were very disappointed.

The scenery was amazing as we climbed higher and got closer to Tibet.

We traveled 5,000 kilometers 3,100 miles and climbed from sea level to 12,000 feet above sea level. The train cars aren’t pressurized as airplanes are, but the gradual climb allows you to adapt to 40% less oxygen in the air. Along the way we saw, yak, sheep, antelope, small burros and small horses. The trip itself was not at all boring; it was more the cramped compartment and dining car that made us want it to end.

More scenery photos next email.