On the evening of the 11th May we arrived at our first major milestone: Lhasa. For me a dream had come true, as I had wished to visit this place since a long time ago. As usually we drove right into the middle of town, and the police men happily lifted all barriers for our exotic motor bike group, permitting us to ride slowly through the pedestrian zone to our hotel. There we had a warm welcome by Horst’s family – Noon, the kids, grandpa, grandma, niece and nephew – with whom we had planned to meet here.
Lhasa is an interesting place to wander around and explore. Its old Tibetan parts are filled with tourists which includes western travelers and mountaineers as well as masses of Buddhist pilgrims. Most of the pilgrims seemed to come from other parts of Tibet. In fact, we had past many pilgrim groups along the way up to Lhasa starting back more than 700 km and before several high mountain passes. These pilgrim groups very much impressed us on the way. The groups were usually included about 4 to 6 people doing full-body prostrations for the entire length of the journey.
This means they take three steps forward, then get down and stretch out flat on their body with their forehead touching the ground, and then stand up again, clapping their hands and chanting or murmuring. These pilgrims are mostly accompanied by a small hand pulled or motorized cart overfilled with food and basic camping equipment. Really amazing to watch, and when always when we overtake the people get up and laugh and wave at us. Now in Lhasa we could watch the pilgrims spinning their prayer wheels and circumambulating clock wise around the famous temples, monasteries, and other sacred sites, which are so plentiful in the old parts of Lhasa.
Of course we also visited a couple of the cultural “must-do’s” of Lhasa: Together with Horsts family we drove out of town to visit the Drepung monastery, which is the largest of all Tibetan monasteries. Located on the Gambo Utse mountain out of town we had an excellent view of the city with its old parts nested into buzzy swirling new Chinese parts.
Drepung monastery – meaning rice heaps – once the residence of the Dalai Lama and is also sort of a university for Tibetan Buddhism. Apparently it used to host over 7,000 monks in the past, however today it is more of a tourist and worshiping site and the remaining few monks are here to look after the monastery only. Our guide is very knowledgeable as he has been a monk over 8 years before becoming a tour guide. He told us every detail about the history, the meanings of the paintings, and the gestures of the Buddha figures.
We try to understand it and to keep as much as we can, which is not easy considering the poor English pronunciation of our guide combined with the lack of general understanding of the Tibetan culture from our side. Boris and I both like it best to venture around in the court yards inside of the monasteries and look at the buildings. Or we climb a stupa or tower to look down and watch. We can only spend limited time inside the chapels and temples because there are too many other tourists (mostly very pushy Chinese), photo taking is not allowed or there is an extra charge, and finally, the smell of burning Yak butter candles is just too intense for my nose and rather unpleasant. Next we visited the Sera Monastery and watched the debating monks in the court yard. These debating sessions among monks are integral to the learning process in order to facilitate better comprehension of the Buddhist philosophy to attain higher levels of study.
Finally we also when to visit the Potala Palace which towers over Lhasa. It was once the summer (or winter?) residence of the Dalai Lama and is a Monastery now. It is so popular that tickets have to be arranged in advance. Then one gets a time slot for visit of 2 hours – crazy! But it was worthwhile seeing the study rooms of the Daila Lama, reception hall and chapels. And the architecture is just amazing. After visiting Potala Palace Boris said “ok, I am totally over the monasteries now”. And this was the case for me too. There is only so many Buddha statues that you can take…
We try to understand it and to keep as much as we can, which is not easy considering the poor English pronunciation of our guide combined with the lack of general understanding of the Tibetan culture from our side. Boris and I both like it best to venture around in the court yards inside of the monasteries and look at the buildings. Or we climb a stupa or tower to look down and watch. We can only spend limited time inside the chapels and temples because there are too many other tourists (mostly very pushy Chinese), photo taking is not allowed or there is an extra charge, and finally, the smell of burning Yak butter candles is just too intense for my nose and rather unpleasant. Next we visited the Sera Monastery and watched the debating monks in the court yard. These debating sessions among monks are integral to the learning process in order to facilitate better comprehension of the Buddhist philosophy to attain higher levels of study.
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