Lhasa
Tibet has been our #1 must-see while we’re in China but it
can be quite difficult and expensive to get to.
It’s also bloody cold a lot of the time so you pick your month
carefully.
There’s only 1 direct flight a day from Beijing but you
can’t book a ticket until you’ve got a valid Tibet Permit. And you can only
apply for those 2 weeks before you go.
We’ve got friends who’ve been refused permits for no given reason, and
if there is any sense of political upheaval permits will be cancelled with no
notice so it’s a bit of a gamble. We got
ours delivered (admin gets done in Tibet but if you fly in you have to have the
original not a copy) on Wednesday afternoon and flew out Friday morning.
Foreigners aren’t allowed to visit Tibet without said permit
(and there’s different permits for different parts of Tibet – we needed 3 for
our route), or without a guide lest we take pictures of things that might show
China is a bad light (imagine that).
We’re not allowed to travel with Chinese nationals either – not a
problem for us but we met a couple (she Taiwanese which China considers
Chinese, he USA) who had spent their first 7 hours in Lhasa police station
negotiating how her US permit is the valid document not her expired Taiwanese
one. As it went they had to buy 2
separate private tours then persuade the guides to work in tandem. A very expensive way of getting around the
rules but it worked.
Foreigners aren’t allowed to take local bus or trains either
– we only remembered this as we got off the bus from the airport to Lhasa city
but no-one arrested us so no harm done.
In addition to this there’s a list of rules you sign – thou
shall not take pictures of military stuff, talk about the current Lama’s, wear
skirts in temples, point at things with your pointy finger… Its almost like the People’s Republic want to
dissuade foreigners from going…
Lhasa is a strange mix of Tibet (v similar to Nepal) and
China. The greater city is a sprawl of empty high-rises and party slogans like
any other soulless Tier 3 city but the old city is still very much Tibetan. The
architecture is ornate, people dress traditionally and Buddhism is everywhere.
Our digs were right on Barkhor Street which is a kora (a
route around a temple/palace/holy mountain) for Jokhang temple. The street itself is decorated with prayer
flags, prayer wheels and people completing their kora chanting mantra’s. Depending on your level of devotion you
complete the kora in a clockwise direction spinning your prayer wheel (created
for illiterate worshippers who chant a simple mantra while spinning the
scriptures in their hand-held wheel thus being equal with more educated types)
an odd number of times. The most devoted
take 9 turns prostrating themselves as they go. Some wear knee pads and wooden
sandals on their hands, others go bare foot with cotton gloves on. Either way
the routine goes 3 steps forward then fall to the ground arms outstretched,
gently bang forehead on the floor, get up, repeat. All while repeating the
compassion mantra. The Barkhor kora is
only about 10 mins on (upright) foot so people of all ages do a lot of
prostrating around it. Some of other
koras are 1hr on foot so you see prostrating kora’s less, but it’s still a
common occurrence.
At 3680m altitude it doesn’t take much moving to feel
flakey, and having had altitude sickness in Ecuador we weren’t up for risking
it again so it was a very gentle evening of momos (dumplings) ginger tea and
bed.
The first 2 days in Lhasa were spent visiting 2 of Tibet’s
biggest monasteries: Drepung and Sera, both built in the 1440’s, and both now
with a much diminished population thanks to the cultural revolution.
Drepeng is huge (was home to 7k monks at its height) and
overlooks Lhasa like a fortress would in other parts of the world. Room upon room of scriptures, Buddha’s, stupas
(large vase like things that sometimes act as tombs, sometimes just for
decoration) and assembly rooms for debating.
The Dalai Lama was based here before he fled in 1959, and
the 13 Dalai Lama’s before him considered this their monastery of choice too so
it’s held in high esteem with the locals.
Sera is much smaller but holds debating sessions that
foreigners are welcome to attend. 6 days a week the monks gather in the
debating courtyard and test each other’s theories of Buddhism. One sits on the floor while his partner asks
his opinion of a scripture or philosophy. If the answer is pleasing the
standing monk claps his palms together but if not he claps with one palm turned
inward and the rebuttal begins. Some seemed to enjoy the theatre of the event
and performed elaborate claps, others seemed genuinely devastated if they got a
wrong answer.
Next the Potala Palace– the Tibetan seat that ruled a
significant chunk of its neighbouring land at one time, before China decided
Tibet was Chinese, and nothing can be higher than the Communist Party so the
Tibetan rule was disbanded.
Now 500+ rooms are shut and only around 20 rooms are open
museum-style to the public. Visitors
are allocated 1 hour inside, no photos and no talk of the Dalai Lama
allowed. A bit rushed but still very
interesting to see the Dalai Lama’s study room, bed room and meeting chambers
where visiting dignitaries were entertained.
The main one is all cushions and embroidered mats, then there’s a
smaller one with some chairs in used for westerners because we’re not able to
sit cross legged for hours at a time. I liked the idea of stuffy UK PMs being
forced into the lotus position but apparently it wasn’t so.
It’s around 500 steps up to the palace so we were feeling
the lack of oxygen keenly. It’s
incredible how debilitating the altitude is but there’s nothing you can do but
move slowly and treat it with respect.
Chinese believe that you shouldn’t shower at altitude but they’ve got
some strange ideas about water/cold/health so we ignored that one but ate small
meals and avoided booze.
Lamas
Like China, the most interesting aspect of Tibets history
(in our opinion) is the recent part. In China it’s unwise to try and engage
anyone in discussion about Mao, the Great Leap Forward, the cultural revolution
etc. In Tibet it’s forbidden. As such a
lot of googling was done each evening to try and fill in our knowledge gaps but
like all ongoing political unrest, who knows how reliable the sources are.
As non-believers of any faith system we soon got lost as to
which Buddha was born out of a women’s armpit, which one from a Lotus flower,
which one has 1000 arms (sometimes), which 2 women have 7 eyes… We were more
interested in the current stuff and pieced together this:
There are 3 Lamas who form the leadership team – Dalai,
Penchen and Karmapa. There are
currently 2 Karmapa Lamas as the wider community can’t decide on which is the
true incarnation of the 16th . As this is a bit embarrassing no-one
mentions them!
The current (14th) Dalai Lama is exiled in India
and it’s illegal to acknowledge his existence. Although things are pretty quiet
at the moment trigger-happy Chinese soldiers and self-immolating monks have
made this a very high profile issue in recent years so people tread carefully
around it. The Dalai Lama (top bod) is
82 and most people believe China are not so much hunting him down as much as
waiting for him to die. When he does a
new Dalai Lama has to be appointed but it will be a baby and it’s hard to take
a toddler as a serious political opponent. Unless you’re Herod.
The way the new one is found is fascinating. It’s up to the
Panchen Lama to lead a team of head-hunters to find a selection of possible
contenders. The handful of infants are
then shown relics of the recently deceased Lama and (on the basis that the soul
reincarnates) the infant housing the soul of the last Dalai Lama will
immediately identify which items belong to the last lama/himself.
If you wanted to find and stop the next Lama being appointed
the obvious thing to do is follow the Panchen Lama around, particularly as the
14th Dalai starts to look frail.
As such there’s a $33k bounty on his head. In reality $33k is not enough for a bounty
hunter to bother, and while it’s a huge amount to an average Tibetan the shame
attached would surely outweigh the monetary reward. Buddhism isn’t about material wealth so it’s
not much of an incentive unless you’re lapsed and have no moral compass. Either way – there’s been no takers yet.
The current Panchen Lama (11th) is only 29 and
believed to be in Beijing but that’s unconfirmed. Interesting the 10th Panchen Lama
died at 52 leaving behind a Chinese wife and daughter who both live in New
York. Unlike monks or the Dalai, Panchen
Lamas are allowed to marry but the association with China didn’t go down well
with Tibet or China so his last few years were pretty miserable and mainly in
hiding too. Tough gig being a Lama.
Yamdroktso Lake
Day 3 we spent 13 hours in a minibus travelling through
Gyantse (4040m) to see the Yamdroktso Lake – one of the holy lakes, and the
Karola glacier before hitting the sack in Shigatse.
Terrain means that Tibet is bloody hard to move around. Add
to the that the speed restrictions put on foreign tourist vehicles, the
multiple military check points, random road works and military blockades that
happened to us on every journey and what should be a painful 7 hour journey
easily turns into a 13 hour ordeal.
Plenty of stops for photo’s though and the time spent at the
Yandroktso Lake was stunning. Being holy you can do a kora round it but it
takes days so we gave it a swerve.
Burials
On the way to the lake we passed a river burial site and
that unveiled a heap of information about life and death (mostly death) in
Tibet.
When you die the undertaker (a generational trade passed
from father to son(s)) employs a monk who will sit with your body for 24 hours chanting
mantra’s and deciding whether you should have a river or sky burial. The family or deceased can have no say in
this but the important thing is to make sure the soul properly leaves it’s
current body so it can continue to reincarnation.
If you get a sky burial the undertakers carry you up a
mountain to a designated burial point. Here they disembowel the body and leave
it for the vultures to eat. When there
is little but bones left they grind them up into a powder with some blood
(collected as disemboweling stage) and leave that out for the vulture too. Once that all’s gone the final stage is to
collect all your belongings (your family holding on to material things might
stop you moving on to the next life) and sell them in the temple. The money then gets shared between the
Undertaker and the temple.
If you get a river burial it’s a less convoluted affair –
you’re taken to a designated point again, gutted and chucked in for the
fishes. We asked what happens to the
bones, what if the body gets stuck in reeds/snagged on rocks/fished out by
curious children but didn’t get any satisfactory answers. I’m guessing either Tibet has some massively
aggressive fish, or the vultures play their part here too. Either way, not so keen on Tibetan Mineral Water
now.
Marriage:
Increasingly people marry for love and stick to a 1:1 ration
of husbands:wives however the tradition is that that eldest sons get an
arranged marriage (normally a woman around 20 yrs old) who then becomes the
wife of all the brothers.
Any children (traditionally around 15 p/woman – now reduced
to 5) are considered to be the eldest brothers but will refer to all the
brothers as father (1st father, 2nd father, 3rd father
and so on, based on age). It’s not
really seen as important who the biological father is (again, Buddhism rejects
the notion of possessions being important) providing you exist as one big happy
family. I’m fairly sure ‘happy’ isn’t the right word
for the wife, not least for being reduced to the family sexbot and baby
carrier, but also because they die pretty young. Fortunately, this system means there’s plenty
of other women to replace her.
More fortunately this pattern of arranged marriage happens
less and less frequently these days.
Mount Everest
Another long day via Tingri (partly rebuilt after the huge
earthquake in 2015) to Everest Base Camp.
Whether you get to see the mountain very much depends on the weather and
my fears that this might be another Northern Lights saga (we’ve had 3 very
expensive trips now – seen nada) were unwarranted as we got very good views
from afar, but by the time we got to basecamp it was perfectly clear. We
watched sunset in awe. At 5200m your body clings on to any moisture it can so
tears aren’t really possible but it was deserving of them. I had a nosebleed and one of our group turned
quite blue but not sure where that counts in the appreciation stakes.
That night we slept in a dormitory that excelled in
discomfort and dirt. The loo’s were a communal long drop (3 holes, no
doors/dividers) that hadn’t been cleaned for years and had no air vents. Basically
a concrete block overflowing in crap and maggots. I’ve seen some rotten toilets around the world
but these are in number 1 position. The
rock terrain outside meant that the au natural option wasn’t feasible so there
was no avoiding it. The beds were felt
damp, the blankets filthy and no running water in or outside. Altitude kept all but one of us awake – not
just the limited breath (although turning over was only done after much
consideration as the palpitations that followed were horrible) but unlike
previous altitude trips, this time we were in real pain. Perhaps it’s something
to do with the temperature differences but we all complained of killer
headaches and whiplash like pain in necks and shoulders. Chris said it felt
like someone had put his head in a clamp which summed it up well.
Tibet is on Beijing Time despite being 3.5k west of it, so
sunrise took an age to come but after the longest night it was another clear
sky and we got to see the mountain in all its glory again. It’s almost the start of the rainy season so
there were no climbers at base camp but come April it’ll be packed with people
far braver and with better lung capacity than us ready to climb the full 8844m.
A few cups of hot water, a leg stretch around the tiny
monastery next to base camp and we felt a lot more human. Apart from the guy
who had to be given oxygen but we saw him a few hours later and he’d
rallied.
Back in the mini-van for another 10 hours to Shigatse, this
time arriving in time to see some of it.
However sight-seeing wasn’t top of the list so we ate, showered, and
climbed into clean beds enjoying the benefits of 3800m air quality.
Our final stop before heading back to Lhasa was Tashilhunpo
monastery. We thought we were
monasteried out but this one had real stand out. Other than monks we saw no-one else, and
unlike other chapels that were chockfull of people these were quiet, save for
the chanting monks. Unlike most
monasteries, this one withstood the destruction/vandalism of the cultural revolution
by painting pro-Mao slogans on the exterior walls and were passed over. The
result was some of the oldest, darkest Buddhist art we’d seen in a serene
setting. Perfect end to the philosophy
bit of the trip.
Back to Lhasa for a final night where we toasted our trip
with some weak lager and a tiny glass of red wine before starting the trip home
along the world’s highest rail route.
I suppose after a wonderful trip something had to give and
the route home was it! It’s 40 hours
back to Beijing so we decided we’d only go as far as Xining (22 hours) then fly
the rest.
The first 5 hours were fine – we had the 4 berth sleeper
carriage to ourselves and the views were beautiful. At the first stop however we were joined by a
heavily sweating Tibetan youth, smelling like he was made of woodbines and
sucking on a dried tendon. The first of
many he produced from his suitcase.
Chris is nicer than me and suggested it might be his first
trip away, and being housed with 2 foreigners was not his idea of fun
either. After a few hours of being
stared at, and listening to him doing massive snook-sniffs I didn’t really care
about his back-story. Tibetans speak
Tibetan not mandarin (unless they’re forced to for work in the cities) so we
had no way of communicating and the journey suddenly felt a lot longer.
Then the rain started, followed by snow, followed by night
fall.
At around 3am we got to the 2nd stop where our 4th
passenger joined us. He was pretty efficient as climbing to his bunk quietly
unlike the random woman who then came in demanding my bed. I faked sleep while
she clutched at my covers and made a lot of noise until passenger #4 read her
ticket for her and pointed her in the direction of her actual bed.
At 6am the conductor put on all the lights and insisted we get
up. Hoping we were arriving early we obliged and then sat bleary eyed for 3
hours until we reached the next station.
After a long wait in a very low-tech airport, by 17:00 we were descending through the layer of filth
Beijingers call sky and almost home.
Tibet was a tough physical endurance test despite it being a
very sedentary trip but for all the headaches, blurred vision, shallow
breathing, lack of sleep and nightmare loo’s it’s an incredible place to see.
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