Hi,
It is my privelege here to write a blog and share my experiences that I had with my wife travelling to Tibet.
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Spectacular Holiday in the HimalayasRECENTLY my wife and I went to Tibet on a two-week holiday. We flew from Kathmandu to Lhasa. After spending three days there, we drove back to Kathmandu visiting Samye. Gyantze, Shigatze. Everest Base Camp, Shelkar and Tingri on the way.
At an average height of 5,000 metres above sea level, Tibet is sparsely populated. The landscape is rugged and the temperature ranges from 13{+o}C to minus 5{+o}C even in summer. Tibetans are devout Mahayana Buddhists. All the monasteries and temples have statues of Mahayana deities, like Sakhyamuni (Buddha), great teachers like Padmasambhava revered as Guru Rimpoche, great Tibetan kings and Lamas of various schools who are revered as reincarnations. Ornate decorations and artistic gilt work embellish the statues, which are embedded with precious stones.
Tangkas and murals adorn the walls of the monasteries.
As soon as the flight from Kathmandu to Lhasa takes off, you get a beautiful view of the high Himalayan peaks that are only a few metres below. The flight lands in the afternoon and after adjusting watches to local time, (two and quarter hours ahead of Kathmandu) a slow walk brings you to the airport terminal. Immigration and customs formalities are dealt with speedily and efficiently after which a minibus takes you to Lhasa, a distance of 100 km.
Lhasa has a number of hotels, which cater to diverse needs. They provide Chinese as well as Nepali vegetarian food. Rice, noodles and pasta are available. Since Chinese vegetarian food does not use too much oil or spices, it is light on the stomach. Yak tea a thick concoction of butter and
tsampa (roasted barley) is very filling and gives one the energy to withstand the rigours of cold and altitude. All Chinese meals end with a hot soup. Contrary to popular perception, it is not difficult to be a vegetarian in Tibet.
Lhasa and its environs have a number of monasteries and other places of interest. Tibet's holiest of holies, the Potala, is the administrative and spiritual citadel. Dominating the Lhasa skyline, it is approached by a steep climb. The palace is divided into two halves distinguished by their exterior red for temporal and white for spiritual.
It served succeeding Dalai Lamas till 1959. It was protected even during the Cultural Revolution by the Red Army on orders from Zhou En Lai himself. As a result, it is one of the few monuments in Tibet which has remained virtually unchanged. The Potala consists of many chapels which hold bejewelled and ornately clad images of deities, teachers and lamas.
The Jokhang shelters the statue of Jowo Sakhyamuni, Tibet's most revered image. Opposite the entrance, one can see a number of Tibetans young and old prostrating themselves. The temple is crowded with a number of people, most of them with "Om Mani Padme Hum" prayer wheels in their hands, circumambulating the sanctum.
Drepung is famous for its prized 114-volume set of the "Kangyur", the famous discourses of the Buddha. The Sera monastery sits below the brow of a hill on which Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa sect, meditated. To the west is a debating garden where monks gather to argue points of doctrine.
The Norbulingka was designated as a summer retreat for the eighth Dalai Lama, and was not completed before the reign of the 14th Dalai Lama. It was from here that he fled when the Chinese invaded in 1959. It is a long drive from Lhasa to Samye. After driving for 100km to Lhasa airport, the road meets the Tsang-po (the Brahmaputra) and crossing a bridge takes a U-bend towards Samye. Here one encounters the bleak landscape for the first time. The gleaming faade of Samye monastery is a contrast to this arid setting. Founded 770, after Trisong Detsen invited Santharakshita, it was in Samye that it was decided that Tibetan Buddhism would follow the Indian school.
From Samye, the road to Gyantze climbs through a series of hairpin bends passing stone buildings with
swastikas, sun and moon symbols painted on their walls similar to the Vaishnavite
Namam.
At the head of the trade route from Sikkim and Darjeeling, Gyantze is the most Tibetan of cities, where the two-storeyed houses look Tibetan and its markets sell goods which the nomads use as they go about in their traditional robes.
The approach to the monastery is like that of a typical South Indian temple town with street hawkers following you with their wares. The
dzong (fort) is on top of a hill with a spectacular view across the plains. The Pelkhor Chode temple has survived relatively unscathed and has a tantric chapel with a mural depicting sky burials and death. The sky burial of the Tibetan dead is similar to the Parsi ritual where bodies are exposed to the elements to be eaten by vultures.
One of Tibet's architectural masterpieces is the multi-tiered
Kumbum Stupa whose protective painted eyes look down on the townspeople as well as devotees as they climb up the hill. Built in the shape of a 108-sided
mandala it is distinguished by many 15th Century murals painted by Nepali artists.
The next stop was Shigatze where the Tashilhumpo monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lama, is located. The monastery has a 26-metre tall Buddha and a huge
tangka wall in the background. Worthwhile bargains can be had in the carpet factory.
A long drive (232 km) and many high passes lie between Shigatze and Shelkar. From Shelkar, we motored to the Everest base camp en route to Tingri. Even though the weather was bad, we got a clear view of the high Himalayan peaks Everest, Makalu, Lhotse, Cho-Oyu, Shishpangma and Gaurishankar. The view is so clear it is as though these peaks are within reach.
A day's motoring where the road descends from 3800 m to 1300 m through scenic Himalayan landscape filled with gorges and waterfalls brings one from Tingri to Kodari, the Nepalese border town. From here, it is a four-hour drive to Kathmandu.
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