We found the Tibetan's religious enthusiasm
the most fascinating.
Much of the people's daily life and culture is tied to
Buddhism in one way or another.
Closer to the Indian than the Chinese variant,
Tibetan Buddhism is divided into several orders,
the most dominating of which is Gelugpa, or the yellow order.
Gelugpa was
founded by Tsongkhapa (宗喀巴),
and can be easily recognized by
the pointed yellow hats in many religious paintings.
Three of
the six major monasteries of the Gelugpa order are
in or near Lhasa:
Ganden (甘丹寺),
Dreprung (哲蚌寺), and
Sera (色拉寺).
The Taer monastery (塔爾寺) in Qinghai is
one of the remaining three.
We visited all of the above-mentioned monasteries in our trip.
Each monastery has a main assembly hall
(tsomchen, 措音大殿),
typically with dozens or hundreds of pillars.
Statues of Buddhas abound in the hall.
Draped from the ceiling or decorating the walls
are thangkas (唐卡),
beautiful and delicate paintings with usually religious contents.
In addition to the main assembly hall,
there are many other buildings,
for either religious, teaching, or lodging purposes.
Housing hundreds of lamas (or up to tens of thousands in the heyday),
some of the monasteries are vast in size
and resemble small towns.
It's interesting to notice that
the windows are often surrounded by a thick frame
that is slightly wider in the base than the top.
This trapezoidal shape is typical in Tibetan architecture.
In fact, even the building themselves are wider in the base;
that is, the exterior walls slant inward.
Another common practice is to put pots of flowers outside the windows.
Despite the similarities in architecture and decor,
the monasteries we visited all have different "personalities".
In the Dreprung monastery, we found lamas debating in a courtyard. They were divided into small groups; one of them asked questions while clapping hands, and another had to answer. The debate could get quite heated. (This practice of clapping hands when asking questions is similarly used in Zen Buddhism to inspire enlightenment.)
In the more remote Sera and Ganden monasteries, we saw workers
print prayer scripts using the all-manual method:
Put ink on a plate, roll a piece of paper over it,
and repeat thousands of times a day.
You can buy the scripts as inexpensive souvenirs or for your own meditation.
Pilgrims perform their duty in various ways.
For example, they repeatedly bow their upper bodies
until their heads touch the ground or
their bodies lie flat on the ground.
Another well-known ritual is to spin prayer wheels,
which range from handheld units that are common souvenirs,
to huge ones that stand several meters high.
Another practice is to contribute yak butter,
which is used to light the oil lamps in temples and monasteries.
(Yak is a long-haired ox, common in Tibet.)
Yet another donation pilgrims make is money.
The interesting thing is that they simply put
the money (in notes of small amounts) everywhere,
especially near the Buddha statues,
and the money is not frequently collected.
Silky scarves called katas
are draped on statues for blessings.
The faithful also like to pile
stones carved with prayers, often near
some large religious rock murals.
The wall of stones is called a mani wall.
Many monasteries were severely damaged during the Cultural Revolution in China,
and restoration work is still under way.
Ganden, the first of the six Gelugpa monasteries,
saw the most destruction as well as restoration.
Shown on the near right is a monastery building under construction.
When finished the wall would be painted in a different color.
Near the bottom of the picture,
the woman in silhouette is carrying construction materials
on her back (as in the far right picture).
This is quite a far cry from another dancing performance we saw.
In many monasteries, once a year,
a huge thangka painting of Buddha is unveiled for the public to worship,
an important ritual often followed by a religious dance (cham).
Our stay in the Qinghai province coincided with
this infrequent event, but unfortunately we were too late that
morning to catch the thangka display at the Taer Monastery.
But we did see the dance,
which lasted for three hours in a courtyard.
It was really more a religious ritual than entertainment,
but seeing it was a memorable experience.
Monks were dressed in costumes and masks,
performing often monotonous movements
while accompanied by live, equally monotonous Tibetan music.
The masks usually looked scary and represented devils.
We were told that
the dance symbolized the driving away of devils by the Buddha.
Pilgrims continuously tried to approach the dancers
to receive blessings,
and competing with them were photographers who wanted
to take good shots of the show.
(In case you wonder, I wasn't one of the more aggressive photographers,
which may explain why I'm not a photojournalist.)
Tibetans are generally friendly and honest, although communicating with them could pose a problem. Many locals we met didn't speak Chinese, not to mention English; the exceptions were usually lamas. They were not as hostle to Chinese as I thought.
They were invariably interested in the travel guides we carried (one in Chinese and one in English). They couldn't read English (some could read Chinese), but were intrigued by the photographs, many of which had been taken in places in Tibet that they had never been to. Curiously, maps of Tibet also aroused their immense interests.
Not every one liked to be photographed,
but generally the kids didn't mind.
Some people expected to get the pictures instantly though.
Speaking of kids,
an unpleasant sight in the city is the numerous child beggars,
who are sometimes quite persistent in asking for money.
Some lamas are also panhandlers.
Donating money is considered a way of
accumulating merits for your karma.
But unless you're seriously worried about your afterlife,
giving away money as a tourist is probably a bad idea,
however good your intention is.
Fine, budget lodging in Lhasa is available in the several well-known hotels frequented mainly by foreigners.
Food is not a reason to visit Tibet.
Local entrees are typically noodles with meat or vegetables.
Several restaurants in the Tibetan quarter cater for westerners.
While much of the food they serve is probably not genuinely Tibetan,
it provides a pleasant change from the limited local choice.
Common local beverage includes
tea and beer.
Tea is often mixed with yak butter (酥油茶),
giving it a rather distinctive taste.
The extra fat is supposed to help you ward off the chill
at night or in winter.
The place to buy souvenirs is Barkhor (八廓街), a bazaar-street circulating Jokhang. Usually souvenirs are sold during the day, while at dusk, daily necessities seem to dominate the market. Shown on the right is a stall there that sold devices to mix tea and yak butter. And believe it or not, you can access the Internet in at least one of the cafes in Barkhor.
Transportation inside Lhasa is quite simple,
thanks to the numerous taxis and minibusses,
and the relatively small size of the city.
Long-distance transportation is more troublesome and costly,
and it's worth renting a vehicle with other travelers.
Mind you, vehicles in Tibet tend to be quite beaten up.
During our stay of just five days in the area,
for four times, the vehicles that we were riding broke down.
While getting around within Tibet doesn't seem hard in general, our getting to Tibet was a nightmare. We entered Tibet from Golmud (格爾木) in Qinghai by bus. Repeating what Lonely Planet's editors said, it's tempting to ask travelers to boycott this route. The Qinghai-Tibet highway is claimed to be the highest land-transportation route in the world, averaging 4000 meters (over 13,000 feet) above sea level, with the highest point at 5213 meter (over 17,000 feet). The trip took over 30 hours. Add to that the unbelievably bumpy road conditions, the often chilly temperatures, and the scant restaurants, not to mention the absence of washrooms along the route. And while suffering from all these, your body is still trying to adjust to the high altitude. We actually heard a story in which a tourist in another travel group fell in coma and needed to be evacuated. Fortunately, we only had headaches and nothing serious.
The trip might actually be exciting and adventurous if not for the price they charge you. While Chinese pay about US$20 per head for a ticket, foreigners have to shell out US$170 for exactly the same service, as of summer 1998. And the trend has been to double this fare once every several years. It's possible to get around the surcharge though: The Tibetan bus drivers are willing to accept the regular fare from foreigners, but the Chinese travel agents or the police aren't. If you bypass the travel agent, show up when the bus leaves, and pay the driver, then chances are you'll be through. You'll unlikely see road blocks along the trip. But if you're as unlucky as us, a cop may show up before the bus leaves and kick you out, even after the engine has already started. (Don't worry. If you're discovered, you won't end up in a labor camp or anything.)
To fellow Hong Kong travelers:
Even after the handover,
we are classified as foreigners for this route.
The local Chinese may tell you otherwise;
don't believe them.
Only the police (Public Security Bureau, or PSB)
and the government travel agency
(Chinese International Travel Service, or CITS) have the say.
I shot the pictures shown on this page on
either Fuji Velvia
or Sensia 100
depending on the lighting condition
(pushing them one stop if necessary).
Fill flash was sometimes used to light up the shadow.
The lenses used included a 28-105 zoom and a 200 prime.
I sometimes used a tripod with the tele, and
with either lens
the tripod was crucial when shooting the interiors of the monasteries.
Usually indoor photography was permitted only after we paid
(this is the official policy, not bribery);
the amount charged varied from a couple to dozens of US dollars
depending on the significance of the place.
(The fact that the Potala was the most expensive tells you something.)
Some of the images shown here were burned or dodged digitally.
Most of the sky in the top image on this page is not real;
I created it digitally for fun and
to make the top, washed-out part of the image less distracting.
Other than this, no other significant digital manipulation
was done.
You may go back to my travel page, or
for others photos I took, check out
my photo portfolio.