TRAVELOGUE – PART 2: LHASA, THE CRUCIBLE OF TIBETAN CULTURE AND RELIGION

On September 18, 2016 late in the evening at around 9 PM our Sichuan Airlines flight from Chengdu landed in Lhasa’s Gonggar Airport. The airport is located 62 Km  south west of Lhasa in Gonggar County of Shannan province of Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and at 3,570 meters / 11,713 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest airports in the world! The Yarlung Tsangpo River, which

Gonggar International Airport, Lhasa

we in India call Brahmaputra, flows by the side of the airport and its runway is built on the wide southern banks of this river. As we crossed the immigration and customs our team was greeted by the a smiling Tibetan gentleman Lopsang La. He was our designated guide for this trip and he recognized us by our black and white duffel bags, which were given to us in Kathmandu by Yatra.com. An air-conditioned bus was waiting for us to transport us to Lhasa and this blue bus with its Chinese driver was to be our companion throughout the trip.

The road trip to Lhasa was fun. As we drove by the side of the mighty Brahmaputra river we realized that it was not all that cold and a wind cheater was a good enough protection. Sri Mirle was at his spiritual best when he sang a Shiva stuti and in our Hyderabadi friend Bhaskar he found a true sole-mate. These two gentlemen took upon themselves the responsibility of keeping our spiritual quotient at the highest level, though I must hasten to add that for a few others spirituality came in liquid form in cans and bottles and their contribution too was no less!

Our guide Lopsang said that it was dark and so he is unable to show us a special temple north of the highway and a giant carved Buddha, the Nietang Buddha nearby. For the first time we were sorry that our plane landed late! Before entering Lhasa we stopped in a Police station and Lopsang collected all our passports and they would be with him in his file for the rest of the tour. He went inside and got our credentials verified and once back in the bus he advised us to always leave the front right seat vacant as from the next day we would be accompanied by two policemen all throughout our trip. We then turned left from the highway and entered Lhasa.

Lhasa is a unique city with spiritualism seeping out of every old building. Dotted in between however were the new structures – the modern shopping malls and branded apparel and footwear stores. One has to admire that after thousand years of vicissitudes the city has managed to retain its ancient palaces, temples, relics and streets while simultaneously embracing modern society! We drove along

Potala Palace brilliantly illuminated at night

the Beijing Middle Road and were greeted in the Potala Square by a brightly lit and massive Potala Palace. This palace is sacred to the people of Tibet as this is where His Holiness the Dalai Lama stayed and preached. The palace is situated on the Red Hill of Central Lhasa and is the highest ancient palace in the world reaching 3,767 meters / 12,360 feet.

Potala Palace is named after an ancient hill in South India and in Sanskrit means ‘abode of Avalokitesvara, Buddha of Mercy’. It is made of two parts – red palace in the centre and white palace in its two flanks. The Red Palace or Potrang Marpo is dedicated to religious study and Buddhist prayers. The White Palace or Potrang Karpo once served as the office building of Tibet and residence of Dalai Lama. There are Buddhist Logic School, seminary, printing house, gardens, courtyards and even a jail inside the palace! Its architecture is awe inspiring with many culture relics such as murals, stupas, statues, thangkas and rare sutras. Liquids, oxygen bags and hats, sunglasses and cameras are not allowed inside the palace.

Late in the night we reached our hotel, Lhasa Mansarovar Hotel. It was a luxurious hotel situated in Building A Yangchen Square on the Gongbutang Road, a walking distance from Potala Palace. After checking into our rooms with our partners, I was with Tanmay, we went down to the large dining

Lasha Mansarovar hotel lobby

space which had a wall to wall mural of what else but Potala Palace! A hot Indian vegetarian dinner, the first of the many that would follow in the subsequent days, was awaiting us and we devoured it. Lopsang told us that we leave for city sightseeing next morning at 9.30AM and so breakfast will start from 7 AM. Back in our room I had a good night’s sleep but my partner remained sleepless because of my snoring!

September 19, 2016 – The day started with yoga for Sri Mirle, Ghule and Tanmay but more leisurely for the rest of us. We made a very peculiar discovery, which we will subsequently see in many other hotels in Tibet, the floor rug on the lift floor was changed every day because the days of the week were written boldly on them! A quick breakfast complete with Bournvita and Horlicks for those who cared was followed by a

Lhasa Mansarovar Hotel

photography session outside our beautiful hotel overlooking the snow capped Himalayan ranges. When it came to photography our Selfi-queen Smita with her phone camera mounted on a selfi stick was always at the centre with Tanmay barging in at the last moment and eclipsing a few faces. Sardarji, Rajive Arora was his most beloved victim and he in no time christened the perpetrator with a new name!

Potala Palace in the morning.

We sat in the bus and off we went to see Lhasa in full daylight. The city streets were clean and wide and the traffic very disciplined. The city is very well laid out with lots of open spaces, parks and greenery. We drove past the Potala Palace which looked majestic on the red hill basking in sunshine. Our forenoon destination was NorbulingKa, which means ‘Treasure garden’ in Tibetan. It served as the traditional summer residence of successive Dalai Lamas and was built by 7^th Dalai Lama, Kelsang Gyatso, in mid 18^th century and renovated later. The park is in 36 hectares of land, bang in the centre of the city and has breathtaking flowering gardens and rows of old trees. It also houses several palace complexes including Kelsang Potrang, Chensel Potrang, Druzing Potrang, Takten Migyur Potrang and Shabtan Lhakhang. Since December 2001 NorbulingKa has been designated as UNESCO World Heritage site and it remains the largest horticultural park in Tibet. It boasts of the most characteristic Tibetan royal

NorbulingKa

The beautiful floral beds in NorbulingKa

architecture in complete harmony with nature with chapels, murals, Buddhist statues and Thangka interspread in the most visually delightful manner. A 4 Km walk all around this beautiful garden palace also reassured us that none of us were unduly bothered by walking this distance at an altitude well above 11,500 feet!

We returned to our hotel for lunch and a quick nap and at 3.30 PM we were back in our bus, this time for a visit to old Lhasa and Jokhang Temple. Our bus dropped us at Barkhor Street, which is a very

Barkhor Street

ancient round street surrounding Jokhang Temple. Barkhor Street turned out to be a magical place, a living gallery of art and culture of old Lhasa. Permanent shops on both sides and floating street vendors all throughout the street offer prayer wheels, long sleeve ‘chuba’, the traditional Tibetan attire, Tibetan knives, artifacts, Tibetan tea, and jewelry made of Yak bones and even mountaineering equipments! Some shops are as beautiful as art galleries with Thangka, the Tibetan scroll painting being both exhibited and painted. Rajive was so impressed by them that he promptly spent a small fortune to buy a beautiful one, with assurance that it will be delivered to our hotel when we return to Lhasa before flying back to Kathmandu. Our fearless leader purchased lots of Tibetan tea and Tanmay turned out to be the best price negotiator buying a fancy sun hat for 20 Yuan and helping Ghule purchase a mountain climbing stick for 35 Yuan.  Barkhor Street turned out to be a place with a religious atmosphere and full of exotic articles!

Barkhor Street led us to the Jokhang Temple. Our guide told us that the first Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo built this temple in 647 AD. Due to its magnificence it soon attracted thousands of pilgrims as a result of which a trodden path appeared and this was how the Barkhor Street started. The temple is located in 6 acres of land and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The temple was built on a site which originally was a lake. 1000 goats carried soil from a far away mountain site to fill up the lake and then the temple was built. This temple brought Buddhism into this land and is today an inseparable part of Tibetan history and culture.

Jokhand Temple

Venu, myself, Sri, Smita, Tanmay and Shyam in the courtyard of Jokhand temple

Jokhand Temple is a four storey timber complex with a golden top. The main hall is 1,300 years old and is the oldest shrine of the complex. Above the main entrance is a Dharma Chakra flanked by two deer. The halls are adorned with many statues of Buddha but the statue of Sakyamuni at age 12 in the middle hall is the most precious. On the top floor there are four gilded bronze tile tops and in the ground floor there are four massive statues two on either side of the entrance to the central sanctorum. We all went to the roof for shooting some photographs but rain soon followed us and so

Sharmila ji with her chosen Chinese beauty

we had to come down. Once outside the temple Sharmila ji was most lucky, she was charmed by a bewitching Chinese beauty and promptly shortlisted her to be her daughter-in-law! I walked across the temple courtyard which had beautiful floral decorations and fountains to a narrow street which was lined with Tibetan eateries and was pleasantly surprised to see a team of lamas with strollers in their one hand and mobile phones in another hailing a transport to rush to the station!

We enjoyed our evening, despite a brief spell of showers and walked back to our bus. It had been a long day and we had to pack our bags for the next leg of our journey. We reached our hotel and were promptly greeted by Masala chai, prepared by our Yatra cooks. The evening was spent in packing and planning. Lopsang told us that we will be leaving for Shigatse tomorrow at 8.30 AM sharp and our duffel bags should be put out of our room by 7.30 AM as the porters will take them to the bus. We had a leisurely dinner – daal, chawal, sabji, poori, sweets and warm water. Sri Mirle had a painful left shoulder with gross limitation of movement, but to his credit he kept on exercising to the best of his ability. He announced his yoga session at 7 AM sharp and went to his room. A few of us were left to chat first in the dining hall and then in the hotel lobby till late in the night.

I once gain had an excellent sleep, but so did my partner. I guess he slept first much before he could hear me snoring, though I must hasten to add that I do not believe I snore because I have never heard myself doing so!

Ready fora busy day - Surajit, Nagu, Ghule, Bhaskar, Sharmila, Shyamsunder, Sri, Smita, Shyam, Sudipta, Venu and Rajive

Next morning, the rug on the lift floor was changed to the one which had ‘Tuesday’ written on it. By the time I was ready Tanmay had already returned from the yoga session! We had a quick breakfast and we were back in the bus for our 270 Km trip to Shigatse. Lhasa was indeed an excellent destination, worth a second visit!

In the next part I intend to cover our journey from Shigatse via Saga to Mansarovar and all the way to Dharchen, the base camp of Kailas.