Tibet Part 2

 After our tea we went to finish our lap of the Jokang temple. There were so many things to look at and vendors selling all kinds of interesting things.

At the front of the temple were these poles with prayer flags wrapped all around. Similar to the prayer wheels, the Tibetans believe that when the wind flaps the flags, the prayers written on them go up to God. There were so MANY layers of flags wrapped around the base!

 The kids and I in front of the Jokang Temple.

There was a ceremony in the Temple during the early part of the day so we browsed and enjoyed the people. The Tibetan people are absolutely beautiful. Their faces lit up with smiles when they saw us - especially the kids, but when we said "Tashi Deleg" (hello) to them their smiles would break into these huge Tibetan grins. The older people especially were so sweet to us. We went out for lunch and then we saw all these monks leaving the Temple. We were not allowed to take pictures of them though. Finally we were allowed to go inside. It was painted very much like our hotel - tons of detail, tons of colors.

We were allowed to take pictures of all the outside areas but not the inside. The inside was full of that amazing incense + yak butter lamp smell. So unique. It was very ornate with one big area for services in the center, lots of little side rooms, and lots of Buddha statues. After exploring the inside we went up to the next level:

 This level was really neat because it had these big gaps so light could get through to the bottom levels. The kids were fascinated. "Hey what if I fall down there...?"

 Walking around the main part of the Temple on level 2:

 Then we headed up to the roof. We had gorgeous day and a beautiful view of the Potala Palace.

 We hung out up there taking in a birds-eye view of all the pilgrims spinning their prayer wheels and making their circuit.

 These 2 women were doing it by body lengths. They would actually stretch their arms above their heads pressing their faces to the ground with each move forward.

So much to take in:

 Jeff on the roof:

 That night we had a cool dinner in a little place Nam-gil took us to. Tibetan food is really interesting. Lots of Yak meat, rice, naan, and something called Tsampa. They grind barley into flour and then mix it with a little bit of Yak butter tea. It forms a firm dough that they shape into little nugget size pieces and that's it! No cooking required. I tried it and for something that's just basically raw dough mixed with tea it's not bad. Good food for the Zombie Apocalypse anyway...

The next day we headed to the Potala Palace. This this is pretty darn impressive to behold. The red areas are where the current Dali Lama SHOULD be living.

 We joined the crowd waiting to get in. It wasn't a horribly large crowd because of the partial closing of Tibet. Most of the tourists were Chinese because they can just go there without a visa. There were very few westerners and no big tour groups. The palace was built a long time ago with very traditional methods. This guy was repairing a section of wall by pounding small pieces of wood into a tight area. Then I guess the whole section is painted over?

 One of my favorite pictures of the trip. Nam-gil and Teddy became very good buddies over the course of our 3 days together. He showed Teddy a mandala you can do with your fingers. It's a meditation you do with your hands that represents clarity and harmony in the universe. So Teddy was always making this mandala. We were resting on the steps because we were up HIGH so climbing up the millions of stairs to the actual palace left us gasping for breath! Teddy was making his mandala and these 2 monks went past and rubbed his head with big smiles and affirmation. It's a little blurry because I whipped the camera out so fast but I still love it.

 We got to the top and got ready to head inside. There was a short line of people waiting to go in. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside which is a bummer because it was very interesting. Lots of ancient books and scrolls, many rooms with living areas, tombs, intricate models, you name it. It's hard to describe. There's a website that shows some of the interior if you want to see more. Click Here for that. The best thing about being on the inside was not seeing the actual interior. It was seeing the look on the faces of the Tibetans who were touring. For many of them it's a once in a lifetime trip so what's just another tourist site to us is a dream realized to them. Many of them had brought their own containers of yak butter and they were taking spoonfulls and adding it to every yak butter lamp we hit (and there were a lot of them) as a form of offering

 After the tour we ended up on the backside of the Palace. There was a beautiful park and a pedestrian lane with more large prayer wheels lined up. And just like at the Jokang, there were many pilgrims walking clock-wise around the palace with their prayer-wheels in hand.

Video in part 3, I promise....