Tibet Part 3 + Video!

 Tibet Video: CLICK HERE!

In going through the video we took in Tibet I forgot to tell you my favorite thing about the Tibetan people. They spontaneously burst into song. Like all the time. Anytime there's a lull, they just start singing and it's kind of awesome. This of course comes from someone who was pretty immersed in collegiate acappella so I'm very fond of people who burst into song but still. We first noticed it flying to Tibet on the airplane. The guy next to Ted and I sang every time the turbulence got bad. I thought it was just to calm his nerves but it turns out they are a nation of singers. Namgil was always singing, and in the restaurant part of the video (the first part) you can hear our waitress singing as she drops something off at the table. Seriously though, wouldn't the world be a better place if we all went around singing all the time? I think it would be...
After the Potala Palace we decided to rickshaw it back to our hotel. Rickshaw rides in Tibet are for adrenaline junkies. Car vs bike is always interesting.

 Then we hit a little restaurant near our hotel for some lunch. We had some kind of Yak meat stir fry which was amazing and the kids had Hawaiian Pizza (?)

 We also got a Yak mean pie. It was SOOOO Good! Thin flaky pastry with tender yak meat in the middle with spices. Jeff and I were stoked.

 And so were the kids. Because this crazy cat pretty much owned the restaurant. He was hysterical and spent the first part of our meal attacking some Chinese tourists. Then he came and attacked my bags. He was full-on. He would hide behind couches and leap out and attack people and actually made one woman run away screaming. He is heavily featured in the video at the top of this post....

After lunch we headed back to Barkor square just because there was so much to see and do there and we loved it. We did a couple of laps, took some time to chat and barter with the locals and just kept looking at everything and listening to the singing.

 For dinner the boys got Yak burgers!

 And then we headed back to the hotel for our last night in Lhasa. Jeff and I shared some Lhasa beer as we packed.

One thing we really wanted to do was go on a hike but we had to leave it until our last morning for 2 reasons. The first was that with Jeff and the kids suffering from the altitude the longer we waited, the more acclimatized they got and we knew that hiking was out of the question the first few days. We barely made it up the steps of the Potala Palace! The second was that the Chinese military had the trail heads around Lhasa heavily supervised and Namgil said it would not be good for us to try to hike on any of those trails. So we got up early on our last day and went for a hike on our way to the airport. We found a trail that went up out of a little village and started up!

 The village from below:

We passed all these broken stones that had writing etched into them. They were really cool and I never found out what they were.

 Across from the hill we were climbing was a monastery perched on a hillside. You can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance behind it. It was really beautiful.

 We spotted a bunch of prayer flags high on the hill above the village and decided that it was as good a destination as any. Also there was sure to be a trail there as each village has a spot like this where they climb up frequently to hang new prayer flags. The higher they put them the more the wind blows the flags, so this is why you find them up high. We found a trail that seemed to lead up there from the village and started climbing.

About mid-way up we found this little thing with prayer flags attached:

The climbing was HARD! We got up to 13,000ft which is definitely the highest the kids have ever hiked. So breathing was tough but they never gave up. At one point Jeff suggested that he and the kids might hang back if I wanted to finish the climb myself but Teddy said "I want to go all the way up there to that thing with you... because I think when we get up there it's gonna be cool!" Love that!

 We made it up and this crazy structure had prayer flags all over it in various states of disrepair. I'd love to know how old the ones buried deep in the center of it are. It was really cool. We had Fiber One bars at the Top so the kids were STOKED!

 I love this pic because you can see that little monastery through the flags....

 My burly hiker!

On the way down Teddy and Namgil took off like a pair of mountain goats even thought it was really steep. I think they were trying to get out of earshot so I they would no longer hear my pleas for them to "be careful!" Jeff, Sasha and I took a much longer time picking our way down the steep section and when we caught up I took this picture of Teddy and Namgil having a chat on a little hill. It was such a beautiful scene and it made me so sad knowing that we had to leave this place in less than 2 hours. But we truly used every minute of our time in Tibet - we got to the airport in the nick of time with dirt in our shoes! I hope we can go back there someday and see more of the country. And I hope that when we do go back that life has gotten better for the Tibetan people.

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....

Tibet Part 1:

Tibet is going to have to be a 3-parter. I have so many photos and a ton of video to edit so I'll get to work. We were very excited to finally be flying to Tibet. Whether or not we would be able to go there was up in the air for a long time as Tibet usually closes to foreigners in March and then re-opens but this year it was only a partial re-opening. We met a lot of people in Beijing and Xi-'an that wanted to go but got shut down. Since we were all one family and all one nationality we got through where larger tour groups didn't and then when they lost our visa I thought we were done but the China Travel Company got us there. Our first views of the mountains!

When we landed we got these silky white scarves as a symbol of welcome. Click HERE to find out more about them. It was much colder than in Chengdu.

We met our driver and guide, Namgil and headed toward Lhasa. Here's a picture of the river that turns into the Brahmaputra River farther down.

Namgil told us that we would be stopped by the authorities a few times before getting to Lhasa and that we should never take pictures of Chinese soldiers because we could all get in a lot of trouble. The military presence was very heavy when we were there. In fact most Tibetans can't even go to Lhasa anymore because they don't have the right papers. It's so sad because it's a pilgrimage that most of them want to take. Apparently the Chinese do not want the Tibetans getting together in large groups because they are worried about revolts. But the Tibetans are non-violent toward others for the most part. When they protest, they usually do it by hurting themselves so it seems pretty unnecessary if you ask me. Here's Namgil with our Tibetan permit trying to get us past the first check-point.

Our hotel was AMAZING! It was hand painted in incredible detail - this continued through the stairways and corridors and even into our room. It was traditional and such a close walk to Barkor square. Right where you want to be.

Detail view of the ceiling:

Teddy in front of the hotel front doors:

At this point Jeff and the kids started to feel sick. We were warned about altitude sickness but I was like "That's not gonna happen to US right guys?!? ... um guys??". Jeff said it felt like 5 beers + a hangover at the same time. They thought they needed food so we headed out to get some. We found this cool restaurant with a view of the Jokang Temple and I ordered traditional Yak butter tea. Soooo weird. Like funky tea with curdled something. Not awful but something that you'd have to grow up with to appreciate. Then the kids started puking. Talk about a Tibetan buzz-kill....

So I got our food to-go while Jeff and the kids beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel. When I got back they were all down for the count looking horrible and quietly moaning. I was seriously considering calling for a chopper evac or something. But they all fell asleep and I took our food to the roof and celebrated my first night in Tibet with some Yak meat and a view of the Potalla Palace.

The next morning everyone was feeling a bit better. Not fully better but definitely on the mend. So we knew that the only thing we could do was wait for them to acclimatize and keep the pace slow. We set out to explore Barkor Square. The smells of Tibet! I wish these pages had a scratch and sniff. I will always remember that unique smell of Yak butter + incense.

We started at the front of the Jokang Temple. Tibetans are DEVOUT. Humblingly devout. They have so much less than we do and their religion means so much to them. It's so unjust and frustrating that many of them are unable to come to these holy sites to visit when it clearly is important to them. These people were repeatedly prostrating themselves in front of the temple.

Part of the pilgrimage is to walk around the temple (which is Barkor Square) in a clock-wise direction. They pray, chant, and spin prayer wheels as they go. The prayer wheel is a very important religious item. Many Tibetans are illiterate but there are prayers written down inside the prayer wheel. They believe that as it spins the prayers on the outside and the prayers written on paper inside go up to God. Most people walk this route. But the truly devout do it one body length at a time, prostrating themselves all around the entire outside of the temple. We saw many people doing this. It takes them hours. So the square road around the temple is part church, and part market place with everyone moving in the same direction. You have to go clock-wise around.

Prayer wheels and incense.

Tibetan women all wear these colorful striped aprons. Their clothes are very beautiful.

The route around the Temple in the morning. Not very crowded yet. Kind of like Fantasyland at 10am....

We ran into Nam-gil's father in law and son! He was so proud to introduce us to his little-guy!

Nam-gil was amazing, and by far the best guide we had on our trip. He figured us out very quickly and realized we didn't want to go do Touristy things as much as we wanted to see the real Tibet. He took us down a side street to a temple tucked away. It was packed and there were NO tourists there at all. We could not take pictures inside but I got a bit of video you'll see later. The temple was completely full. It was very dark and there was row after row of people sitting on the ground, spinning their hand-held prayer wheels and chanting. The smells of incense and yak butter candles were intoxicating. And the sounds were mesmerizing. What Nam-gil told us next had me completely floored. He said that people come to this temple to pray for world peace, an end to hunger and world-wide conflict. Wow. So how do we pray? I don't know about you but I'm pretty selfish about it. I usually have a laundry list about cares and loved ones and all of it is about my family and my life. These culturally rich but economically poor people were spending hours of their time praying not for themselves but for the rest of the world. It literally brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. So remember the next time you're having a bad day - a Tibetan is praying for you.

Spinning the larger prayer wheels on our way out.

When we got back to the Temple square it was getting busier. And I needed some time to process what I had just seen. Namgil took us back into the maze of side-streets to a Traditional tea-house.

On the way we passed these women making and selling flat bread similar to naan. The kids love that so we bought some for pennies and then went inside the tea house to sit down.

The tea comes in these metal milk jug looking things and it costs just about nothing for a large container. And it tastes amazing. Like the milkiest, creamiest chai tea you've ever had. Nothing I've tasted really compares but a good chai comes closest to describing it.

We ate our bread with our delicious tea and just tried to digest our first morning in Tibet.