Ever since I knew I was coming to China I wanted to visit Tibet, even before that really. But, ever since I knew I was coming to China, people have been telling me how impossible it was going to be. My co teachers told me it was impossible for foreigners to get a permit to be allowed in. Other foreigners told me that you need to have to be in a special tour group that leaves with a certain number of people, all from the same country, all leaving the same day, all returning the same day, blah blah blah. Basically, you can't go to Tibet. Give it up. This of course just fueled me to make it happen! First, I had to request the time off of work, which, basically means you have to sacrifice a lamb, promise your first born son, and then promise to work every Saturday from here until the end of time. But finally, Anokhi and I got three days off! Then I found a hostel that helps coordinate tours to Tibet, they required every piece of paper you could think of! Copies of our passports, copies of our visas, copies of our work permits, proof from our school that we actually work there, down payments on permits into Tibet, and we had to sign a bunch of contracts. I probably exchanged 40 emails in four days! It was crazy, but I was determined! The hostel also had to buy our flights because as American passport holders, we aren't permitted to buy ticket into Tibet...it kind of seemed like hassle after hassle for a while there. Then it was waiting time...They were sending our permits to my school and should arrive the day before we were to leave. Stress city. I don't know if you know about the mail system here, but it sucks. Big time. Of course I waited all day and could barely focus on the kids, "yeah, yeah you're super cute, whatever," and it didn't come. I was having a panic attack by 5:30 and it was time to go home! The hostel assured us it was coming that night and we would have our permits before our flights the next morning...
Well they did arrive that night, 10:07 that night, to be exact! Woohoo! Now we could finally pack and get excited, we were going to Tibet!
All of that stress and worry for this piece of paper!
We left the next morning and had to go through a TON of security! They took us through a special line and checked over every letter of our documents before letting us through. When we arrived, our guide was waiting for us! (Foreigners have to have a guide throughout their time in Tibet) Another kinda crazy thing is this permit was only for the city of Lhasa, if we wanted to go anywhere else, we would have to get additional permits and pay more...goodness gracious.
Our guide's name was Dadon, she was Tibetan and greeted us with traditional welcome scarves to "show respect and sincerity." It was so cool. We drove an hour to Lhasa City, through mountains and beautiful scenery, it was a great introduction.
We had the rest of the day to get used to the altitude and walk around a bit. I did have some altitude sickness. Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world at 11, 450 feet! It kinda felt like I was breathing through a straw, not ever able to get enough oxygen. The altitude also made us naseous and gave us head aches. It was so weird, we felt hung over but hadn't drank anything. We wanted to explore the city though so we just walked around and took in the different sites.
Anokhi and I decided to have dinner and try some traditional Tibetan food! We had barley beer, which the farmers drink like water, Dadon told us. It was pretty good, too!
We tried the Tibetan Sweet Tea, soooo gooood! It was very chai-y.
Another day we tried butter milk, literally tasted like butter. I thought it was pretty good but Anokhi didn't really like it, kinda salty. And our last day we tried yak milk, it was served hot, like just boiled, and tasted like really thick milk, but not too bad!
And we tried yak! It was a lot better than we expected!
Another time we tried yak noodles, super yummy! Lots 'o yak!
We also tried the local Lhasa beer! I love the slogan,
"Beer from the Roof of the World"
The next day, Dadon picked us up and we went straight to Potala Palace. We needed to get our tickets to this for the next day because it is so popular. Along the way we saw the pilgrims who come every day and walk around the Palace. They pray, turn the prayer wheels, and chant all day. It was so interesting and cool to walk with them and hear them singing and praying. Some come and walk once around and come walk five times around, mind you it takes at least 20-30 minutes to walk around the palace, that's dedication!
The man closest in this picture is holding a prayer wheel that many people had and would constantly be spinning. There are scriptures on the inside of the wheel so they believe that while they are turning the wheel the scripture is being said. They were so beautiful.
After we got our tickets for the next day, we headed over to Drepung Monastery, the largest monastery in Tibet. It was once the largest monastery in the world with 7,700 monks and sometimes up to 10, 000 monks at a time! It was founded in 1416 by the second Dalai Lama. It was the residence of the Dalai Lamas until the Great Fifth Dalai Lama built Potala Palace. Today there are around 500 monks at Drepung Monastery, drastically lowered after the cultural revolution in the 1950s.
Paintings of the founders of the monastery and his disciples.
No pictures were allowed in the rooms but here is Anokhi going into one! The rooms were filled with ancient Buddhas, paintings, thrones that Dalai Lamas sat on, and countless other priceless items. People were praying, offering money and offering food in the various rooms. We did a little of each in some of the rooms also, it was really beautiful and amazing to witness and we even got some prayer beads blessed by one of the monks, priceless!
Dalai Lamas 1-5 lived here!
Situated in the hills of Lhasa City, it was simply breathtaking.
I couldn't get enough of the blue sky!!
Or the ornate doors and door knockers!
I mean, come on! I wouldn't mind being a monk here...
We ate lunch at the monastery and had yak momos, tibetan dumplings. They are breadier and fluffier than Chinese dumplings but super delicious! We were sitting next to these three really nice ladies who all happened to be from Dadon's village! One of the ladies was the mom of one of her classmates! Dadon happened to recognize the dialect they were speaking in and started talking to them, small world, eh??
Next, we headed over to the second largest monastery, Sera Monastery, which has 300 monks currently. This monastery is extremely famous for the "Monk Debates." They happen every Monday through Saturday from 3-5 pm and serve as a way for young monks to learn from and teach each other. The monk debates were in a courtyard with white rocks in the center and a rock wall surrounding it. We all sat along the rock wall and waited for the monks to arrive. Around 3 a drum started sounding in the distance and they started trickling in. Some went over and grabbed mats to sit on. Others stood in front of the mats and they started debating. Apparently they switch off sitting and standing every day. The person standing asks the person sitting a question on the teachings of Buddha or the philosophy of Buddhism. If the monk sitting gets the question right the standing monk claps his hands together, if he gets is wrong, he smacks the tops of his hand. When they are in bigger groups, the other monks are sitting and listening and learning from the others. It was like a huge study session! When they are ready they will go in front of the masters and take an exam to become a master or teacher. It was really exciting to watch and there was so much going on!
The next day we went to Potala Palace bright and early! Our ticket time said 9am so we were there at 8:30. If you are even a minute late they won't let you in. They only let a certain amount in per day and only for an hour each so we kind of had to rush! There are over 1,000 rooms but only 30 are open to the public right now. We even had to check in saying, ok we are entering the Palace officially at 9:14 and then we needed to be out by 10:14 or security would come find us and escort us out! Cray.
Anywho, this is Potala Palace, the palace the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (named because he did so many wonderful things for Tibet) had built in 1645 and the residence of the Dalai Lamas 5-14! It was extremely beautiful and very intimidating sitting high on this hill!
We had to climb a ton of stairs to get to the top, which I usually would be fine with, but because I was currently breathing through a straw, it was extremely hard and had everyone huffing and puffing!
We were excited to be there though!
This is where the Dalai Lamas lived at Potala Palace! Again, we couldn't take pictures inside but there were two sides to the palace, the white side where the Lamas lived, had guests and worked and the red side, where Buddhism was practiced. There are also tombs of eight Dalai Lamas including the Great Fifth held here! It was all so amazing. I can't believe I walked around where eight Dalai Lamas lived, worked, studied, and prayed. Unbelievable.
View from the Palace, not too shabby!
Next, we went to Norbulingka, the summer palace of the Lamas. It was built in 1755 by the seventh Dalai Lama, but added onto and used up until the 14th Dalai Lama.
The thing that stood out to me the most about this palace was the 14th Dalai Lama's personal residence here. There were so many modern appliances (old radio), gifts from European dignitaries (a European style bed and bath), a painting of a cat from an American friend, etc. It all just seemed so normal and like he had just left. It was really sad. There was also the only painting of him here from when he was younger, there aren't any other paintings or pictures of him anywhere else.
Dadon and us!
It was really so beautiful with many flowers and many acres to walk around.
Our last stop was the Jokhang Temple, "home of the most venerated statue in Tibet." It was built in 642 (yeah, you read that right!) by King Songtsan Gampo for his Nepalese princess and Chinese princess. They both brought Buddhist statues with them as their dowries and they were put in this temple for safekeeping.
All of the gold it is gilded with is real!
The Jowo Shakyamuni Buddha statue is housed here and is said to be the most important object in Tibetan Buddhism. When we saw it, there was a huge crowd surrounding it. A large group of nuns who had traveled far to see it were singing a beautiful song that many bystanders were joining in on. Anokhi and I joined in on the praying and prayed for our families happiness and health. It was a really cool moment.
I love this picture, famous temple on the left, beautiful mountains on the right, and blue sky. Tibet in a nutshell!
These two golden deer that flank the Dharma wheel on the roof is iconic and visited by many Buddhists from around the world.
Dadon taught us the meaning of the prayer flag colors!
Red= Fire Yellow=Earth Blue=Sky White=Clouds Green= Water
(That's Dadon on the left)
As you can tell, I had so much fun and learned a ton during my short time in Tibet! It was very hard to leave, if I didn't have work to get back to and if I didn't have a permit saying exactly when I had to leave, I would have stayed longer. The people were all so nice and reminded me a lot of Thai people! Always smiling and saying hello to us! The weather was amazing! I haven't seen a blue sky in MONTHS. LITERALLY. I actually got sunburned and it was the best thing ever! You really never know how important that sun is until you never see it! Vitamin D is important, you guys...
I loved learning more about Buddhism! It was interesting how different it is from Thai Buddhism but with all the same underlying beliefs, it made me miss Thailand for sure! I know for sure that I will come back to this amazing place, I only saw a tiny corner of it and can't wait to see and explore more of it! I am so glad I got the opportunity to see what I did though. Every place we went I felt so lucky and really took in what we were seeing. I kept reminding myself, not many people get to come here, this is big. I definitely felt it and teared up multiple times! Such a sap, but I can't help it, this is what I live for! Until next time...
"She had proved to me that it was worth it to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes."
John Green
