Lhasa, Tibet

August 11-12

Tibet is a strange place to visit. The history and the current political environment make it a country inside a country where people seem to have opinions but speak none of them. I for one, kept my mouth shut on almost everything and didn’t start writing this blog until I was well out of the country. I’ll throw out a few things about Tibet so we can all be on the same page about the situation:

-Tibet is the highest region on Earth with an average elevation fo 4900 meters (16k feet). The highest elevation in Tibet (and the world) is Mount Everest. We’ll talk more about that later.

-Tibetans who are in exile call the area “Greater Tibet” while China calls it “Tibet Autonomous Region”.

-The Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but the region was divided into territories with some portions of the region being under control by Mongol and Chinese overlords throughout the centuries. But even during these times Tibet had reasonable autonomy.

-In 1912 there was a revolution in China, at which point the soldiers were escorted out of Tibet and the region declared its independence in 1913. It maintained true autonomy until 1951 when Tibet was incorporated into the People’s Republic of China. During the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion, the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India and established a rival government-in-exile.

-“The Great Leap Forward”, from 1958 to 1962, was a campaign by Mao Zedong that was aimed to transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization. This created major restrictions on rural people and resulted in tens of millions (possibly 55 million) of deaths by famine, forced labor, and violence. About one of those 55 million deaths were Tibetan. It doesn’t sound like that much (relatively speaking) until you know that the 2014 census had Tibetan population at just 3 million. So maybe that million was 20% of the population? Maybe more? Maybe less?

-The “Cultural Revolution”, from 1966 to 1976, was a sociopolitical movement by Mao Zedong launched to preserve communist ideology of the country by purging capitalist and traditional elements from the Chinese society. This took the form of persecution, public humiliation, imprisonment, torture, hard labor, property seizure, and execution of a large portion of the population. In Tibet, the vast majority of historic Tibetan architecture was destroyed during this time.

-In 1980, Tibet entered a period of social, political, and economic liberalization. However, at the end of the 80’s, monks from the Drepung and Sera monasteries in Lhasa began protesting for independence, so the Chinese government halted reforms and started an anti-separatist campaign that used human rights violations to crack down on the protestors.

-In 2008 there was a series of riots, protests, and demonstrations that started in Lhasa, with about 150 protest “incidents” across Tibet in the span of two weeks. Chinese government claims 23 people were killed, but the Tibet government-in-exile claim 203 were killed. This led to protests in cities around the world with many targeting Chinese embassies. Foreign and Hong Kong media were banned from Tibet during this time and any remaining media personnel were required to leave the area. There were calls for people to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but nothing came of it. According to Amnesty International, over 1000 Tibetan protestors that were detained by Chinese authorities at this time were unaccounted for. It’s not clear to me from the internet what ever happened to these people.

So that’s a bit of info to help set the stage. Since arriving in Shanghai a few days earlier, we were already a bit paranoid about the Chinese government. It’s just not the kind of country that I feel very safe in. We had no real safety threats, but we were thoughtful about what we said in public and we were careful about what we said in private as well. On several occasions one of us said to the other, “look at that – I have something to say about that later”, or “when we’re out fo China I have a thought about this”.

Our guide said very few candid things about the Chinese government and he said nothing while on the bus. Outside of the bus, he was willing to say a few things in hushed tones. He told us that all of the tour buses have gps on them. The party line is that the Chinese government installs it as a way to track speed of the buses to ensure that they are being safe with tourists. However, our guide believes that they also installed microphones in the tour buses. Big brother is listening.

He told a story about a friend of a friend who is a tour guide in Tibet. He saw a government sign that was written in both Chinese and English. The English was poorly worded, so the guide made fun of the government while in the tour bus. Apparently, by the time he arrived at his destination there were two police officers waiting take him in for questioning. Now, the story sounded a bit like an old wives tale. However, even if it is not true, our guide seemed to believe it and I think that speaks to the paranoia in the country.

So now that the stage is set, I’ll tell you about our trip. Our first stop was at a park that overlooked the city and Potala Palace.

After being in super hot cities the past few weeks, it was great to be in some fresh, cool air. There were a few hiking paths that we got to explore. The altitude made it a bit tough to do some of the climbing, but the gasping for air was well worth it.

Here’s our tour group:

Also, look at these flowers!!! They are wildflowers, but growing in the wildflowers are wild roses! How great is that? They grew low to the ground and were beautiful.

Also, we saw pandas!!! Would you look at that!?! Look at them, just hiding out in the tall grass. Silly pandas!

When we had arrived in Lhasa, we found out that our first full day in Lhasa actually is the first day of the Shoton Festival, or Yogurt Festival. It dates back to the 11th century and is called the Yogurt Festival because the local residents offer yogurt to monks finishing their month long meditation retreats. The main event is the “sunning of the Buddha” ceremonies, where huge Thangka silk embroideries are displayed on the hillsides near the Drepung and Sera monasteries. For the festival, the police had many of the roads near these monasteries shut down, which meant that people walked for hours, many before sunrise to see the Thangkas hung around 8am. Also, the city was filled with Chinese from around the country who had poured in to see the Thangkas which is open for only a few hours before it is rolled up again and not seen until the next year.

Our tour guide told us that if you are able to see the Thangkas hanging at the monetary, it means that you will have good luck, good marriage and good fortune for the next year. Sign me up.

In order to get to the monastery, we had to walk in line for about two hours. It was pretty awful. It was crazy crowded and everyone was pushing the entire time. Seriously. People refused to walk in an orderly fashion. Nothing like strangers pushing up against you and trying to cut you off for hours. This picture does not properly depict the situation. Anytime the crowds were really bad I had my camera safely put away. Our tour guide was incessant on the dangers of pickpockets during this time. Usually we exhibit caution whenever we’re in crowds. This was next level.

By by the time we made it to the Thangka, it felt worth the effort.

One of the traditions of the Thangkas is to throw “hada” at the Thangka. A hada or khama is a traditional ceremonial scarf that symbolizes purity and compassion. They are usually made of silk and are white, symbolizing the pure heart of the giver.

We didn’t realize that many people aggressively throw them and try to get them to hit as high as possible on the Thangka as they can, so we followed most people and just politely handed them off to the monks standing there. Huge mistake. Michael was completely bummed that he did not understand the process well enough to toss his hada.

In addition to the Thangka, there were also beautiful paintings on the surrounding rocks.

This little girl was so sweet.

The monastery that we visited was the Sera Monastery on this first day so we could see the Thangka. Sera is one of the great three Gelug university monasteries in Tibet. Sera means “wild roses monastery” because the monetary was built on a site where wild roses bloomed. See!! Roses growing like wildflowers! I love it.

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The original Sera Monastery was a complex with 19 hermitages, which included 4 nunneries, a great assembly hall and three colleges. At its height, there were about 6000 monks and Sera Monastery was considered one of the finest locations in Tibet to witness debates. During the 1959 revolt in Lhasa, Sera suffered severe damage with the colleges destroyed and hundreds of monks killed. During this time, there was also major destruction of ancient texts and works of art in the monastery. After the Dalai Lama took asylum in India, many of the monks of Sera who survived fled to India, under severe winter weather conditions across the Himalayas. Once in India, they established a parallel Sera Monastery similar to the original monastery with help from the Indian government. There are now 3000 monks or more living in Sera, India.

Wikipedia said that there were only about 300 monks living at Sera Monastery in Lhasa in 2011. Our guide told us that the Chinese government makes it very hard to become a monk. You have to do a lot of schooling. He also used the words brain and washing in a strange way in a sentence explaining how hard it is to become a monk. He said something like: before you can study to become a monk, the government wash the brain. He told us that the government doesn’t like monks since they are not married and have no children, so they have no fear when it comes to revolts and protests.

After leaving the monastery, Mike got some potato chips from this woman who was really excited to sell them to him.

We’re definitely still in a place where there are few white people and locals still get excited to see us. That said, we’re now on a tour with a few very blond women, so I get much less attention and we’re on tour with a man from the Netherlands who is about 6’8″ and has red hair, so Michael gets much less attention as well. Relatively speaking at least.

That night, the group went to dinner at a place called Dunya Restaurant and Bar. It was right next to our hotel (the yak hotel). Bizarre coincidence about Dunya: I have a T-shirt from this bar. I found it in my apartment in NYC a very long time ago when I still had roommates and have been wearing it as my own for years.

The next morning we started our day with a visit to a Buddhist temple in town called the Jokhang Temple.

One thing you see EVERYWHERE around this and other temples in Tibet is prostration. People were both walking around the temple and/or standing in front of it. They placed hands together in front of their body as if praying (with palms and fingertips together) and then placed them on the crown of their head, then to their throat, then to their heart. The idea is to purify defilements through your body, enlighten speech, and purify your mind. Then the person drops their body forward and stretches it out full length on the floor, the arms outstretched in front, then touch hands to the top of their head before stretching arms out again and pushing themselves up and starting over again. Most often, when walking around the temple, people would take two or three steps between each prostration. Apparently, some people do this all the way around the temples on a regular basis, which I would expect would take a few hours. But also some people do pilgrimages from their homes to temples, prostrating the entire time for thousands of miles. Our guide told us that some will spend years at a time prostrating from their home town to temple, often to purify themselves of some major event or indiscretion. They bring nothing with them and people give them money and food along their trip to help support.

The Jokhang Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. The temple was built in the 7th century by King Songtsen Gampo for his two brides. One was Chinese and one was Nepalese. Both wives brought important Buddhist statues and images from their homes which were housed here, as part of their dowries.

During the cultural revolution, the temple was attacked by Chinese soldiers and no one was allowed to worship there for about a decade. During this time the Chinese used the temple to house and slaughter pigs. Much of the art and scriptures were burned or destroyed. But apparently, the monks built a fake wall to hide some of the important art and statues until it was safe to bring them out again.

As with many of the places we will visit in Tibet, there are no pictures allowed inside the Jokhang Temple, so I nabbed these off the internet.

Then it was off to the Potala Palace which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The palace was built by the 5th Dalai Lama with construction starting in 1645 and was the home to the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. It is now a museum. Our guide told us that there are actually two parts of the palace, the original part that was built in the 7th century and the portion that was built in the 17th century. As we walked around, he was quick to point out where the old building and the new building met.

Here’s the view as we climbed up to the palace.

The palace houses three distinct sections: the area for the government, the area for religion, and the Dalai Lama’s residence in between the two. Since the Dalai Lama was in charge of both religion and government.

The Dalai Lama is the title given to the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. They are part of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama represents unification of the state of Tibet.

When the Dalai Lama dies, it is believed that he is reincarnated. Traditionally, it has been the responsibility of the high lamas to find this person and they often wait for a sign from a lake in central Tibet for guidance. It can take two or three years for it to happen. This person had usually been found in Tibet, but the fourth Dalai Lama was born in Mongolia. The current Dalai Lama, however, has stated that he will not be reborn in China and he may not be reborn at all. The government of China has stated that it will be the ultimate authority on the selection of the next Dalai Lama. This does not bode well for the government in exile.

Mike asked our guide about this process… what will happen when the 14th Dalai Lama dies. Our guide got upset and said that they do not talk about it. It is not good to talk about his death – only to hope for continued life.

This is a view of the Dalai Lama’s residence. The gold at the top is where he use to live. The stairs into the building have the center partitioned off – the gold carpet means that only the Dalai Lama can walk on that portion of the steps.

Once again, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. We walked through twenty or so rooms that served a variety of functions. Some had statues and scriptures in them. Some were sitting rooms or meeting rooms for the Dalai Lama. Some were rooms that held tombs of former Dalai Lamas. The first rooms that you enter when visiting are those of the 14th Dalai Lama. Both Michael and I were hit with an intense feeling of sadness when we entered. Sadness for the people of Tibet and for their leader who is in exile.

One thing I want to mention is that most of the visitors are not foreigners. They are Tibetan and Chinese. And most of them as they walk through the rooms, both in the palace and at the temples, leave money as offerings. I asked our guide what happens to this cash, assuming it went to the monasteries or the monks. It does not. It goes straight to the Chinese government. All of the cash goes to the government. Per our guide, it doesn’t even go to maintaining the buildings, as devout Tibetans pay for any necessary upkeep and do the work themselves. I have a hard time understanding this. I don’t understand how or why these people would pay money directly to the government that is oppressing them. Perhaps they don’t feel oppressed. Perhaps that is my opinion as an outsider. Or perhaps they don’t know where the funds are going. Or perhaps they are less concerned with where the funds are going and more concerned with ensuring the safety of their spiritual health. I don’t know, but I struggle with this big time.

After the palace we had a free evening, so Michael and I went back to the Jokhang Temple before dinner.

Then we sat down to this ridiculously sized meal – this is what happens when there is an extreme language barrier.

While waiting for our food, we saw this guy across the street pulling noodles. We had seen this on YouTube a long time ago and we were pumped to see someone doing it live.

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Try to get past the dirty screen and see how incredible this guy is. He was also excited that Michael wanted to take video of him.

After dinner we went to the plaza in front of the Potala Palace where people gather at night for views of the palace.

Some female monks above… below? No way of knowing what this said or what it was celebrating.

The next morning we started the road trip portion of the tour. It was time to get out of the city and see some yaks up close.