life in lhasa

yay! i have two full days in lhasa to tell you about. let me preface by saying… this is the craziest place i have ever been. these last 48 hours have been more action-packed than i could have imagined. many ups, a few downs, but altogether just the adventure i signed up for. i'll try to stick to chronological order for sanity's sake!

sunday

woke up from my worst night of sleep in a long, long time. due to a typical case of altitude sickness, my head ached and i felt nauseous all night, plus i woke up constantly thanks to the 3 liters of water that acclimating people are supposed to drink! my roommate in the snowland hostel was really encouraging, she said everyone's first night was that way and not to worry. i was actually thrilled to start my day to the sound of the garbage truck that passes playing "happy birthday" SO loud every morning at 7:30 am.

i met up with dikri, my (required) guide at 9:30. we first wandered over to the barkhor, the streets that form a circle around the jokhang temple, lhasa's most sacred destination. all day, every day (but especially in the early morning), hundreds of traditionally-dressed tibetan pilgrims walk clockwise around the temple in a kora. they sing, chant scriptures, spin prayer wheels, shake beads, and push their children along with them. pilgrims also gather to prostrate in front of the temple for their wrong-doings.


standing from a distance or joining the current both make for one amazing people-watching experience. we then spent some time inside the temple. the main level is dark, incense heavy, and lit by yak butter offering lamps. the top two levels have amazing views of lhasa and the potala palace.


from there we walked across town to norbulinka, the dalai lama's summer palace, via the potala winter palace. at potala, lhasa's most famous site, we had to reserve tickets to visit the next day. entrance is highly regulated… more on that later. norbulinka was more like a huge park with a few pavilions, temples, and the dalai lama's living quarters. it was a special day to visit because it was the last day of the yogurt festival, so tons of tibetan families were out visiting, picnicking, eating yogurt, drinking barley beer, and playing music with their families.


by lunch time, i was feeling record-awful but trying not to show it. the altitude made me completely lose my appetite, but dikri said i would feel better once we had eaten. of course she was right. we had yak-meat and vegetables wrapped in flat bread with tibetan butter tea. after, i felt well enough to visit old lhasa's only nunnery, and peek through the muslim quarter. when i got back to my hostel i promptly passed out for an hour.

in the evening i made it out for a simple dinner and then to the summit coffee shop- the unofficial gathering place of foreigners in lhasa. i met some really nice french, american, and polish people who i have had a few meals with since. always a comfort to spend some time with fellow travelers.

monday

i had paid my dues and the 48 hours of altitude sickness had passed. i cannot describe how happy i felt to wake up in such a state. a few tricks from fellow travelers had helped: no showering, grinding aspirin into expresso (1 in the morning and 1 and lunch), and continuing to drink at least 2 liters of water a day.

i didn't have to meet up with dikri until 10:30, so i headed out to the barkhor around 8:30 and completed a kora around the jokhang with that morning's pilgrims… just for kicks. i was disheartened to see a few tibetans randomly stopped and asked for their ID papers by PLA soldiers, but that's the world we live in. after my 15 minute circle, i started poking around backstreets to look for the traditional tibetan breakfast that dikri had recommended: barley noodles in broth and sweetened, yak milk tea. i peeked into a tiny place that only had a tibetan family and some friends sitting inside, and felt so lucky to be invited in to sit on a couch next to the oldest two ladies. i asked for whatever everyone else was having, and then tried to eat inconspicuously while the ladies told stories and everyone laughed and ate and blew their noses from the chili we put in our noodles :)

my morning at potala with dikri was indescribable. the palace has over 1,000 rooms, but visitors can only go through a handful. they stamp your ticket with the time when you enter and if you do not exit within an hour, they take away your tibet permit!!! the security is airport-level and the admission is sky-high, but it is all worth it. i was almost glad photography was prohibited, because i didn't want to waste a minute with my eye behind the lense. every new room left me speechless… incredible textiles, solid gold statues, coral, jade, pearls, turquoise, mandalas, thrones, you name it. by far my favorite thing i have visited here.



we had a simple yogurt/nuts lunch in the park and watched tibetan opera being performed for the festival. then we went to sera monastery, just 15 minutes out of town. sera is one of tibet's three largest, "pillar" monasteries… at one point it had 6,000 monks. it was a great day to visit because the younger monks were being examined by their teachers in the assembly hall. this was a surprisingly noisy and violent affair… so much fun to watch! but outside the hall, the monastery was peaceful, quiet, all built into the mountainside that rises out of lhasa's urban area.



when we got back into town, dikri took me to her agency to fight with her boss over (1) wrestling my permit out of his hands so i could go to nam-sto lake with a group today, about 4 hours out of lhasa, and (2) paying a ridiculous service fee for a train ticket with the WRONG destination on friday! but train tickets are impossible to come by here so i had to take it. ah! my time at the internet cafe is running short so maybe i can detail this story later, as well as my quest to get to nam-sto today (i am going! but i spent 4-10 pm yesterday running all over town with a chilean student, a tibetan guide, a crazy chinese travel agency, and chinese international travel services). perhaps more on these shenanigans later, i have to go pack an overnight bag to nam-sto and then i might be back. love from lhasa :) rooftop of the world!