Potala Palace

I'm finally forcing myself to do the last post from our Tibet trip and probably the last post about our year in China. So here it is: the Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lama (who isn't living there at the moment, obviously). The palace towers over Lhasa; you can see it easily from the heart of the city. No pictures were allowed inside, so I can only show you the outside. I don't really have the heart to go into detail (is our trip really over??), so I'll just say this: If you go to Lhasa, you can't miss the Potala Palace.







Next up: Road trip! We're heading out to New England this week for some house-sitting and hopefully some sightseeing--Boston and Philly are on the short list, and New York is a must (as always). We're still trying to figure out how to maintain a home here in the States while still exploring the world...no extended stays abroad are on the horizon at the moment, but I'm hoping to do a nice big trip to South America in the fall. Stay tuned!

"The Abolishment of the Most Reactionary, Darkness, Brutal, Ruthless Feudal Serfdom"

Obviously it's been awhile...I only have one more post, about the Potala Palace, before I'm out of things to say about our travels the past year, and I think subconsciously I didn't want the trip (and this blog) to end, so I never got around to the last post. Unless you've been living under a rock, though, you can't have missed the demonstrations in Tibet over the past couple of weeks, and I wanted to say something about that, so here I am.

First, let me say that China is an amazing place. It's a vast country (almost the same size as the U.S.) with a rich history that I could spend my entire life studying and still barely scratch the surface. I find the culture of the dominant Han ethnic group to be fascinating even as it's changing at an astonishing rate. China is an exciting place to be, what with the upcoming Olympics and the breakneck speed of development, and I wouldn't trade a minute of our time there. But even with the new economic developments and freedoms of everyday life, there is also a lot of darkness. That darkness, which includes not only the pollution and hassles of living under a pseudocommunist state but abysmal human rights, is a major reason why we left Beijing ahead of schedule--it became too hard to ignore the dark side of the current government.

Let me be frank: That stuff you hear about human rights violations in China? It's all true and then some. It's hard to be in a place where the government is so paranoid that it insists on tracking virtually every move of its citizens and visitors--a daunting task for a country of more than a billion, but they're sure giving it their best shot. In addition, the Han ethnic group is the majority, but there are a lot of minorities, too. China is home to more than 50 minority groups, although it seems they wish this weren't the case. The minority groups that are small enough not to pose a threat are turned into tourist attractions in China's very own version of It's a Small World. Han Chinese have flooded the south of China and Tibet not only as tourists but as settlers of a sort, colonizing towns like Dali and Lijiang with their endless souvenir shops. Needless to say, there's a lot of resentment toward the Han in these places.

No place has it as bad as Tibet, though. When the Communists took over, they stormed Tibet, which had long had ties with China, it's true, but had also been more or less independent for hundreds of years. Hundreds of thousands Tibetans were killed, and eventually the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader, fled to India, where he's now head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala. On top of that, the Chinese have attempted what amounts to cultural genocide, trying to control the religion and culture and encouraging Han Chinese to settle in Tibet in an effort to outnumber ethnic Tibetans.

When we visited the Potala Palace, the former home of the Dalai Lamas past and present, we first stopped at a museum at the base of the palace, where we were stunned by the outright lies of the Chinese propaganda. I've posted a photo of one of the signs (click on it to make it bigger). It reads as follows:

"Tibet has been an important part of China since the ancient times. Tibetan and the people living in the south area of Yellow River had close relations and the central political power is throughout exercising the effective jurisdiction over Tibet. On May 23, 1951, the Central People's Government and the old Tibet Local Government signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. In 1959, Tibet implemented the democratic reform, and completely abolished the most reactionary, darkness, brutal, ruthless, feudal serfdom. In September, 1965, Tibet Autonomous Region was established officially Tibetan history had turned a brand new page."




Tibet certainly turned a brand new page with the Chinese takeover, but not in the way they're implying. Clearly, China wishes it could rewrite history. Their suggestion that Tibet has been part of China is as accurate as saying that Mongolia is part of China. All three have been interconnected for centuries, but that doesn't mean China has the right to take over Mongolia, and it doesn't mean it had the right to take over Tibet.

The Dalai Lama compared the current situation as a young deer in a tiger's hand. I'm not an expert, obviously. There are all kinds of articles in the papers and online that give more details and facts than I ever could; I'm just reporting my point of view as someone who lived in Beijing for a short while and traveled fairly extensively around the country. Tibet was the most vibrant, heartbreaking place we visited; fortunately, the tiger hasn't broken its spirit yet. I just hope that doesn't change.

Jokhang Temple

So I didn't quite get everything Tibet posted before the new year, but there are only a couple more things to write about. They're both pretty awesome--the Jokhang Temple and the Potala Palace.

Front right side of the temple.

Our first day back in Lhasa, we went to the Jokhang. We'd seen it almost every day since it's in the heart of the Old Town, but now we were finally entering the most sacred temple in Tibet. The inner part was built in the seventh century by King Songtsan Gampo, who united Tibet and then some way back when. In addition to his Tibetan wives, he took a Nepali wife and a Chinese wife. Each wife brought a statue and had a temple built to house the statue. The Jokhang was built by the Nepalis, and the inner parts have beautiful carvings in the Nepali style. Somewhere along the way, though, the statues got switched, so the Jokhang is now home to the Chinese wife's statue--the Jawo Buddha.

In front of the temple there are huge incense burners where they burn juniper branches, and there are tons of people performing full-body prostrations. Tibetans make the pilgrimage from all over, so the temple seems to be packed pretty much all the time.

Full-body prostrations along the front right side.

Juniper branches burning. The center of the temple with the black banners is the entrance.

There are lots of small chapels, which all looked the same to us, so after awhile we got out of the slow, long line of pilgrims and tried to find the Jawo Buddha. Of course, once we got out of the line, it was hard to get back in because it was so packed. An old woman who was chanting and spinning her prayer wheel in front of the room with the statue took pity on us and shoved us in the line.

Entrance to the inner sanctum (no pictures allowed past that point).

The Buddha itself isn't very big, especially compared to some of the Buddhas we've seen that are multiple stories high. He sits in a giant throne that takes up almost the whole room, and as people file by, they touch their foreheads to the two sides of the throne. There's a monk on each side to keep things moving along because seeing this Buddha is so overwhelming for some people--it's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. The monks must see a lot of clueless foreigners; they took our heads and touched them to the throne for us!

In a way, we felt like intruders, especially considering how difficult it is for many Tibetans to make the pilgrimage and what a sacred experience it is for them. But I'm not sorry we went...for one thing, huge tour buses come through all the time and it doesn't seem to bother the Tibetans. For another, the energy is just incredible there. You're in this dark, ancient temple with people praying and crying everywhere and the floors are slippery with oil from the yak butter lamps and the walls are black with soot...it was one of the most incredible temples we've ever been to (and believe me, we've seen many!).

After seeing the Buddha, we headed to the temple roof, which has a great view of the Barkhor. It was great to come out of the small, dark, intense interior to the openness and sunlight on the roof. We hung out for awhile, just soaking up Lhasa.

Up on the roof.

For more pictures, check out Wikipedia's entry on the Jokhang. It has a nice picture of the front of the temple so you can see the whole thing, and it even has a picture of the Jawo Buddha.

On the Road Again

By the time we left Gyantse, we were more than ready to be back in Lhasa. Between the lack of running water at Qomolongma and the lack of hot water at our hotel in Gyantse, we were desperate for showers, not to mention a decent meal. We couldn't just get in the car and drive back, though--nothing is ever quite that simple!

First, we had a little car trouble. Here you can see our driver's legs dangling out of the front of the car. (That's me to the left, but I wasn't quite as disgruntled as I look, I swear).






Then we decided to stop by Erhai Lake, which is on the way to Lhasa. We were almost at the top of the pass where you can see the lake when we hit a line of stopped vehicles. A huge truck had gotten stuck at a narrow part of the pass, and it looked like we were going to be awhile. Fortunately, all the people who were standing around got creative, and they decided to push the truck through--and it worked!









We saw the lake and still made it back to Lhasa in good time. After a nice, long, hot shower and some great Indian food, we'd already forgotten about tents and yak blankets and squatter toilets and were ready for all the sightseeing we still had to do in Lhasa.

Gyantse

On our way back to Lhasa, we spent the night in Gyantse. We stayed at the only hotel that had rooms, and it was pretty gross. That evening we went to bed early so we wouldn't have to look at the water stains anymore. We also tried out our unused oxygen canisters, but it was pretty unexciting, especially since we were 1,000 meters lower than Everest and we'd recovered from any altitude sickness we'd had.






The hotel was a low point, but Gyantse wasn't all a bust. There are a lot of monasteries and temples in Tibet, and after awhile you start to get temple fatigue--everything looks the same. But the Palcho Monastery is special.

The monastery has a famous kumbum, which is a three-dimensional mandala, with 75 chapels. Each chapel contains centuries-old murals of Buddhist deities. We got there right when the monastery opened, so we were able to explore the kumbum by ourselves, climbing tier after tier and peeking in different rooms (although we ran out of time and didn't get to see all 75). It's not quite as impressive as Qomolongma, but as far as humanmade things go, it was pretty swell.

The kumbum.



Chapel doors.



Murals inside a chapel.



Artwork above a chapel door.



Palcho Monastery.

Rongphu Monastery

When we left Everest, we stopped by Rongphu monastery, a ramshackle little monastery that's the highest on earth. It may be in need of a few repairs, but it's hard to beat the view!

And Now What You've All Been Waiting For

It's time for Qomolongma! What's that, you ask? You'll just have to read on and see.

We were in for a long, long drive after we left Shigatse. Here we are at the top of a 5,000-meter pass. The colorful banners are prayer flags, which are to help people make it over the pass safely.

We drove for about a half a day before we reached the entry to Qomolongma National Park. Here it is!






Oh wait, you can't read Chinese? Fine, I'll tell you. If you haven't guessed already, Qomolongma (pronounced Cho-mo-long-ma, with all long Os) is the Tibetan (and now Chinese) name for Mt. Everest, which you can almost sort of see behind the clouds in the distance.

We thought we were almost there, since we were finally to the park, but oh no. We had about another 6 hours of driving before we reached base camp. Some of it was really beautiful, like this:




And a lot of it was really boring, like this picture only without the mountains in the background (meaning lots of red sandy hills):





Not to mention all the checkpoints and permit checking we had to go through. It's not that big of a deal because the driver and guide take care of everything, but it still takes a lot of time, and you have to show your passports and permits and sign in when you get really close. (One tourist came in behind us and wanted to know if we were at border control for Nepal, which gives you some idea of how uptight everything is.)

We stopped to eat some really awful Tibetan food at this village that looked like something out of the old West, Tibetan style. The food may have been bad, but we were happy to get out of the car for a little while anyway. But we had to get back on the road right away since we still had a few hours of driving.






We were so excited when Everest finally came into view. The only problem was, this was the view:




It was about 5 p.m., and there wasn't much else to do, so we sat down near a mountain stream and waited around in the hopes that the clouds would clear off in the evening. After all, we'd spent two days on a train and two days in a 4x4 to see this thing! If it didn't clear off, let's just say there were going to be four very unhappy campers the next day.






It was pretty cold, but the sun was still out, so it wasn't awful. Plus we had lots of yaks to keep us company.






Wonder of wonders, the clouds did gradually start to clear off a little, to the point where we would have been OK if they hadn't cleared off any further--we could still see most of the mountain.






Luckily for us, though, they eventually cleared off all the way, and the mountain stayed clear all night and the next morning.





Night time at 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) was a little rough. First off, we were basically sleeping in a tent. We had a stove in the middle and really warm yak blankets, but there wasn't any running water, of course. And the toilets (if you can even call them that) for the camp were...let's just say they're tied with this one bathroom in India that was flooded with urine and feces for worst bathroom I've ever seen! At least they didn't smell too much (too cold, I guess!).






Second, the altitude was just plain hard. None of us slept very well, and we all got headaches. But none of us had to use our oxygen canisters or altitude sickness medicine, so I guess it wasn't too bad. It was just a very long, uncomfortable night.

The night wasn't all bad, though. Everything was incredibly still, and the mountain glowed in the distance, and the stars seemed close enough to touch. So that pretty much made up for the discomfort (although one night was more than enough). The payoff? Qomolongma at sunrise.






The next morning we took pony carts to the actual base camp, which was about 4 kilometers away. There weren't many campers there since climbing season begins in the spring, but we did get as close to the mountain as you can without actually climbing it.





It was unbelievably cold, and we had another long drive ahead of us so we didn't stay long. We took a picture in front of the sign (which says "Mt. Qomolongma Base Camp, 5,200 meters) and waited until our fingers were about to fall off before we left.








It was definitely an adventure, and maybe even the highlight of the year. It was worth the money, altitude sickness, and red tape to experience it. It's hard to explain the feeling that comes with being so close the world's biggest mountain, and so high you're on the roof of the world. Let's just say it was magical and leave it at that.

Still to come: Rongphu monastery and Gyantse, and then back to Lhasa. My goal is to get everything about Tibet posted by the end of the year--promise!

Shigatse

While we were getting used to the altitude in Lhasa, we found a Dutch couple who wanted to do the same 4-day trip. (They had posted a flier on the message board at Snowlands, our hostel.) We went around to different travel agencies to see how much it would cost for a 4-day trip to Everest and back, and the Banok Shol FIT agency gave us the cheapest price and was able to make arrangements the fastest. We were pretty happy with the way things worked out, although our vehicle wasn't exactly awesome, and our Tibetan driver and (required) guide didn't speak any English! Our guide spoke Chinese, though, and she and Joel could actually communicate pretty well.

On the road!

If you meet a herd of sheep hogging the road, guess who has the right of way?

The landscape we drove through on the first day was different from what I'd imagined...it was arid with low mountains, and we even saw some small sand dunes. It was pretty empty, too, which was to be expected. But even the second-largest "city" in Tibet--Shigatse--seemed empty. It was more like a village than a city.

Part of Tashilhunpo monastery.



Putting on sunscreen at the monastery.

Shigatse is home to Tashilhunpo monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lama. We didn't get to take pictures inside, but there were the usual giant Buddhas and elaborate jeweled stupas. It was a nice visit, but there's not a lot to say about it here. Then we ate some mediocre food at our mediocre hotel and went to bed early in preparation for the long drive to Everest the next day.

Acclimatizing in Lhasa

Another factor that makes travel to Tibet somewhat difficult is the altitude. It's difficult to tell who will get sick, but almost everyone feels the effects of being at 3,900 meters (12,800 feet). It's recommended that travelers spend a few days acclimatizing in Lhasa before venturing out to even higher altitudes, so of course that's what we did. We arrived Friday night and spent all of Saturday and Sunday just hanging out and making the arrangements for our trip to Everest. Most people should be pretty well adapted after three nights, and we felt pretty good by then.

There are certain things you can do to help aid your adaptation. The main things are to drink tons of water and to avoid overexerting yourself. We drank 3-4 liters of water a day and didn't do much of anything other than plan our excursion into the countryside and walk around the Barkhor.

Barkhor square (from the roof of the Jokhang).

The Barkhor circuit is the heart of Lhasa (and hence Tibet). Pilgrims come from all over Tibet and China to walk the Barkhor circuit around the Jokhang temple (more on that later). Sellers line the circuit, so it's also the main market. The sheer number of pilgrims is overwhelming, and fortunately they absorb any Han Chinese and non-Chinese tourists, so it's easy to get swept up in the energy. Everyone travels counterclockwise around the circuit, and let me tell you, it's pretty hard to go the other way!

Don't even think about going clockwise!

Most pilgrims carry prayer wheels when they follow the cicuits. Prayer wheels have prayers inside, and as the pilgrims walk, they spin the wheel (counterclockwise, naturally), which sends the prayer to heaven. Some people also pray over mala beads.

The man in the white hat is spinning a prayer wheel
(click on the picture to enlarge it).

Fortunately we didn't have any real problems adjusting to the altitude. We definitely felt a little lightheaded when we first got off the train, although some of that was probably giddiness at arriving! We both had a little insomnia (which was taken care of with Tylenol PM) and mild headaches at night, and we felt pretty tired most of the time, but we had no major symptoms. We did start to get a little bored trying to take it easy, though, so by the time Monday rolled around we were pretty excited to get out of town and head out to Everest.

Taking the Train to Lhasa

If you don't have a Chinese passport, traveling to Tibet isn't exactly a piece of cake. First, you've got to get to China or Nepal, both of which require visas (note: it's easier to travel to Tibet from China). Then you have to get a permit to go to Tibet. Then you have to get to Lhasa. And if you want to travel outside of the Lhasa area, you have to get even more permits.

Since we were already in Beijing, half of our work was done. That doesn't mean it wasn't a huge pain, though! Only a few places do the travel permits, and foreigners have to book train tickets through certain agents. (You can also fly, but it costs twice as much and you miss some amazing scenery.) We had Leo Hostel arrange the permits and the train tickets, and other than the fact that it took us an hour to get there from our apartment and we had to make three different trips, things went pretty smoothly. I can't imagine trying to make travel plans outside of China (or Nepal). I know some people do it, but it often costs more, and accurate information can be hard to come by. The easiest thing is to just go to Beijing (or Chengdu or Shanghai) first and make arrangements from there.

Passing by sheep and endless sky.

The train leaves Beijing at 9:30 p.m. and takes about 48 hours. At some points the train is traveling at 5,000 meters (16,400 feet)--about as high as Everest Base Camp--so the cars are pressurized and oxygen is pumped throughout. The berths are quite cramped, which is the only downside (other than being stuck on a train for 2 days, that is). The scenery on the first day was fairly boring , but we definitely thought the train was worth the extra time simply because of the views of the Tibetan plateau on the second day.

Room with a view.

A note about getting train tickets out of Lhasa--travel agencies in Lhasa can't book train tickets for you, so you've got to go to the train station yourself. It was hard to get a straight answer for anyone, but it seems there was a problem with unscrupulous agents buying up all the tickets and selling them at higher prices, so now they're not allowed to book tickets. Tickets go on sale 10 days in advance at the station and 6 days in advance at the booking office in the city. The station is a little ways out of town, but if you know in advance when you're going to leave, I think it's worth it to go out to the station before the tickets go on sale in town (for peace of mind if nothing else). And one last piece of advice--as I mentioned, the hard-sleeper berths are pretty cramped, so try to get a bottom bunk if at all possible so you'll have somewhere to sit during the day!

If you can, don't fly--take the train!

Autumn

It's a glorious fall afternoon, and there are bright blue skies and blazing trees right out the windows of my mom's house. This is what I've been looking forward to for the past couple of months. I love fall! And it feels really, really good to be home. Maybe a little too good--it's hard to believe it's been a month since I posted last. Don't worry, though, Tibet pictures are coming soon!

The Most Photogenic Place Ever

We're back in Beijing now and running around like crazy people trying to get stuff done before we have to leave in a couple of weeks. I've decided to wait to blog about our trip until after we get back. Certain things are politically sensitive, and I've got plenty to blog about our last days here. For now, here are a few photos to tide you over from The Best Trip Ever in the Most Photogenic Place Ever. Looking at our pictures, I can't believe we were there.

The world's highest freshwater lake, as seen from the train.

Getting closer to Everest...

The world's tallest mountain at sunrise.

Rongbuk monastery.

Gyantse window.