Tibet 2006
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The Potala
Posted on September 4th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
In the spirit of saving the best until last we decided that we should do this in our last couple of days in Lhasa. This was well worth the trip and even the queue for the tickets as they only allow a maximum of 2500 people a day because they are worried that it might collapse under the pressure of mass tourism and to be fair this is the most visited site in the whole of Tibet.
So you need to queue to book the tickets a day or so in advance and they give you a one hour visit time slot, you have no choice in this. Most of the travel agencies have used their quotas months in advance so if you haven’t got a ticket you will need to take your passport along with you so they can tie the ticket to the individual so no ticket touting is likely.
Once your time slot arrives you take the ticket and queue by the front gate to ensure you are the individual who is supposed to arrive for that time slot you then pass through for the security check and xray. Then off up the hill to the top where the ticket office is. One couple I heard on a previous trip were 20 yuan short of the entry fee and had to run down from the top of the Potala to the bank and back up again to ensure they got in within their time slot, still having newly arrived in Lhasa and suffering from altitude sickness!
This trip was definitely saving the best for last, however once inside no photos were allowed.
In 637 Songtsen Gampo built a palace on the hill. This structure stood until the seventeenth century, when it was incorporated into the foundations of the greater buildings still standing today. Construction of the present palace began in 1645 during the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama and by 1648 the Potrang Karpo, or White Palace, was completed. The Potrang Marpo, or Red Palace, was added between 1690 and 1694; its construction required the labors of more than 7000 workers and 1500 artists and craftsman. The Potala Palace is was the home of the Dalai Lama until 1959.
Click picture to open album
Tibetan Medicine
Posted on August 30th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Well after way too much Yak it seems that I have developed something of a “delicate” stomach so it seems like a short (very short) trip to the local Tibetan medicine college is in order to further the bounds of science and to see if they can identify the problem.
Mind you if you look at some of the street scenes I’ve included in this photo album you can probably see what caused the problem for yourselves!
Anyway after a short taxi ride I am greeted by an English speaking guide who shows no surprise at my appearance and proceeds to answer all my questions on Tibetan medicine. It appears that the diagnosis is identical to Chinese medicine, it is just the treatment that differs. They offer 3 forms of treatment, massage, herbal medicine and what seems from her description like bloodletting! The Thankhas on the wall of the hospital had pictures of medical issues instead of buddhist ones which was unusual but interesting I think I caught some of these on camera.
Some of the herbs I readily recogonised from Chinese medicine, including ginseng, red dates, liquorice, deer horn and deer penis (yes, they have both of these in stock and are prepared to ship these abroad I have the telephone number if anyone wants it!) and many more, but they also use many typical plants and minerals local to Tibet that are not common in regular Chinese medicine, the minerals I’m not too sure on but they include these in their pills and also yak penis!
OK now time for my check up! The doctor was a doctor professor and one of the most senior in the college who had been practicing for 38 years. He proceeded to take my pulses and look at my tongue and then told me that my condition wasn’t good and I had severe digestive problems amongst other things. Well he hit the nail on the head there, his office was a bit far from the loo for that particular morning but I was holding in there! So after asking some not so subtle questions about the state of my wallet he prescribed me some pills.
Well on getting home I took these as prescribed, which was take with hot water and chew well. DO NOT EVER follow this advice as these were the worst tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth and the taste stayed with you for hours. (I never knew yak penis tasted like that!) I decided that I’d swallow them straight, but since each felt like the size of a half-brick it isn’t easy. Oh well off to the pharmacy!
If you click on the following image you’ll be taken to the photo gallery
Shotun Festival
Posted on August 30th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
The Shotun or Yoghurt Festival is one of the most important in the Tibetan calendar. It is held in the first week of the seventh lunar month. The referance to Yoghurt is the offering the local population give to the monks as they are not allowed to leave the monastry during this period.
We chose Drepung monastry as the site for our Pilgrimage as this offered the best Thankha to go and see as well as the main point for the Lhasa people.
We joined thousands of others moving from Lhasa up the hills to the monastry passing through plenty of peoples requesting alms, many of these were fake monks, even though the locals seem to know this they didn’t seem to mind, we also passed from cloud to cloud of thick smoky insence, made from buring piles of juniper or sage pretty much for most of the day.
Once we reached the monastery we did visit some of the temples and assembly halls but we were drawn away by the sounds of chanting and the long tibetan horns being played from the hillside.
Above the monastery in the photos you will see the massive buddhist Thankha which everyone came to pray before and to throw their recently bought white scarves over from the top as an offering.
Me..? I came to see the music…horns, chanting and one other instrument which I was offered in the Barkhor a woodwind instrument played through a small reed a bit like a clarinet.
This event was reported all over the Chinese news and there were a few cameras about on the day I’m sure my hat must have been in shot somewhere.
Sand dunes and Paddy Fields
Posted on August 29th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
After Gyantse we took a cross-country trip back to Shigatse on our way back to Lhasa through the Qebgyong valley We saw some of the most beautiful summertime scenery in Tibet. We passed through submerged potato fields (apparently these don’t grow too well here due to the altitude) and out into desert and sand dunes. on the far side of the sand dunes we saw cultivated flowers that we couldn’t identify and made it through to the one village in this desolate valley. This was one of the highlights to our trip. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Gyantse Dzong
Posted on August 29th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Bright and sunny the next morning we headed for the dzong (the fort which towers over the town) and sat outside for 45 minutes as the appeared to be working to “flexible” working hours! This was one of the most fun places to visit as the government were using it to show that the rule before the “peaceful invasion” was one of tyranny and despotism under Gyantse’s previous rulers.
The fort itself has pretty much nothing in it except the life size plastic models of prisoners, tax inspectors and a courtroom, with a bailiff sitting on the prisoner as he is being whipped. However you do get a feel for the place and what it must have been like to live and fight here as you can climb over the whole complex and get into most of the empty and decaying rooms. We did however see signs of renovation, hopefully in preparation for more plastic models I couldn’t quite get enough of those!
There is also a monument to all those who threw themselves off the cliff called “jump of cliff” during the British attack on the fort.
I’ve included some photos of the streets of Gyantse as this was quite a bustling town but in contrast to Lhasa the main mode of transport was a mix of truck and horse!
In addition to the dzong is the anti-British Imperialists museum now re-located to the town which gives a sadly hilarious account of the British invasion in 1904. (Did you know we invaded Tibet? Apparently they refused to trade with us!)
Pelkor Chode
Posted on August 29th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Pelkor Chode monastery in Gyantse we could see from the river before we reached Gyantse. We could see the high walls of the monastery, the kumbum and the dzong towering over both (I’ll explain the terms in a minute!)
The monastery was founded in 1418 and is unusual in that it was once a group of 15 monasteries which brought 3 different orders of Tibetan buddhists within the walled compound in a rare show of tolerance. (elsewhere they used to send the boys in to solve doctrinal disputes using a specially trained group of heavies) We climbed all over this one and went right up the hillside to see if we could get into the rarely visited building you will see at the top of the monastery, the highest building. It was a climb and was open, but typically it was empty however the views from the roof were spectacular
The other unique element of this monastery is the Kumbum which means 100,000 images which is the stupa or chode which contains 100,000 buddhist images (I didn’t count them) on 6 floors subdivided into tiny rooms. This did take us a little time to go through, stooping through each doorway into unlit rooms attempting with our guide to determine which deity, buddha image or lama the individual icon was meant to represent. We became quite good at working out past, present and future buddhas, the Tara’s as well as the god of power etc but some of the others you would need to be an advanced lama to know about, I did enjoy the pink elephants though!
The last unique feature is the fort or Dzong which overlooks and protects the valley and monastry, more of which later.
Down hill from Everest
Posted on August 26th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
After Everest I didn’t want to head straight back to Lhasa so decided on a side trip to Gyantse which was an extra 200km out of the way. Our first stop was in a one horse town - Latse and after checking out a few of the local hotels finally found one with running water and settled in for the night.
Just outside Latse I’d heard mention of a local hot spring which I thought would be worth a visit. Neither my driver or guide had heard of the place but we located it on a map and set off. Within 1/2 a mile we came across a checkpoint with barbed wire strung across the road. Aparently no one was allowed past for no specified reason! Neither our Tibetan guide or Chinese driver could make him budge.
We were directed the long way round off-road through fields and rivers until we passed through a tiny village, at the end of the village we seemed to have a large welcoming party waiting for us…very nice….erm..with a lot of farm implements!…..OK…no they’re big sticks! Alright we’re now being told that we can’t pass with out paying a special village toll fee. OK my decision now, do I tell the driver to run all 30 of them over, after all a Toyota Landcruiser will still make a good size dent in a small village let alone a few villagers!..How much will it cost? …10RMB - less than 70 pence! OK here you go boys and good luck with your private enterprise!
We weren’t the only ones caught with this as there was several cars sighted coming through the “road” behind us. Eventually the path led us back to the road about 50 meters the other side of the check point. I guess we can figure out which village the checkpoint guard lives in!!
Anyway after another few kilometers we finally come across the hot springs sanotorium. As you can tell from the photo it looked a little like a building site, however we decided to ignore this fact and soldier on …through the builders. Apparently the site is being rebuilt but is in occasional use so we were led round some of the older buildings. The complex consists of public and private baths of different sizes charges range from 5 RMB to about 20 RMB if I fancied a private room. The water actually did look very appealing even if the surroundings were not. I’d left enough time to spend an hour or so here, however I decided that it would perhaps be a bit better to come next time… once the towels were ready!
One curious monument left at the site was a large field gun, not entirely sure what this is for but perhaps the hot springs are destined to be a major tourist attraction!
After this the rest of the trip to Gyantse was as much fun as before, in that we spent a lot of time off road due to road construction. Sometimes parking at the side of the road was great fun to watch all the overloaded trucks and vehicles suddenly being diverted off the hard top road on to a surface that really wasn’t meant for anything other than a goat. You may have seen pictures of vehicles in China transporting goods on ther back of them piled up to 3 times their own height. In one place someone was obviously moving house and had 3 trucks piled really high, so much that you could see that at anything more than a 15 degree angle and the driver would lose it. There were a lot of nervous people waiting for the trucks to topple over on their cars.
In one place they had a token passing system running where two cars were allowed to go through then pass the tokens to the next two cars heading in the other direction. OK so maybe I’m the only one old enough to appreciate this as I have seen this in action on British Rail in the dim and distant past in the depths of Kent.
Base Camp
Posted on August 23rd, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Arriving at base camp we had a perfect view of Everest as the sun descended, this apparently is very rare as it is usually wreathed in cloud.
We wandered around a few of the hotel tents which we shared with the family for the night, they provided food cooked on the wood burning stove, well sometimes incense burning sometimes manure burning!
Just a further note on altitude sickness…in two days we have gone up from 3600m in Lhasa to 5200m at base camp fortunately in Shigatse we picked up some heavy local drugs which helped but symptoms persisted and we were walking around like emphysema sufferers for a while with a nasty persistant headache.
Anyway back to my point, an inability to breath, a dung burning stove and the air heavily laden with incense not happy! However it was a little on the cold side and stepping outside into the night air helped.
Facilities were reasonably basic, washing…stream outside the tent, toilet…next to the stream outside the tent.
We did find the toilet in the morning once it got light but we quickly saw why even the locals didn’t use them.
Food was basic but good, tibetan/nepali type with the essential “su you cha” yak butter tea!
Now I’ve tried this in Lhasa and the thought of pouring down greasy hot (it had better be hot you never want to try this cold!) rancid yak butter based tea on top of altitude sickness…hmm not the best idea for a peaceful night. However with my new drug fuelled body I felt pretty good so thought “when in Rome” and for the first time really enjoyed it, no rancid taste still salty but very good almost finished an entire flask.
The next morning we saw the mountain in its typical glory…covered in cloud couldn’t see a thing so we spent the morning eating pancake, drinking coffee and slowly walking off our morning headaches around the base camp.
I did run into two Czech guys who had paid the necessary fees to ensure the local boss was be asleep when they went past the checkpoint to head further up the mountain. There is a fine of US$200 if you go past without official permission. They spent 5 days getting to camp 3 and back and said the view from 6000m was awesome if a little painful on the head! They saw no one while they were there - 5 days away from everyone, on the Chinese side there isn’t even a rescue force if you get into trouble.
I have to come back and make time to get to camp 3
The road to Qomolangma
Posted on August 23rd, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Qomolangma is the tibetan for Mount Everest. The road from Shigatse to base camp is about 12 hours. From Lhasa to Shigatse was pretty good hard top roads all the way, the roads from Shigatse to Everest were very different, single track and often under construction. We spent a considerable amount of time off roading round road workers building the new Chinese funded highways in traditional dress!
All across China and still here everyone still uses the horn as an indicator, i.e. get the heck out of the way I’m coming past!
We stopped at Shegar (don’t bother trying to pronounce this it’s nothing like the horse even without the extra “r”) to buy tickets for the national park…yes it is protected land! More Sichuan food and off to the park.
On arriving at the foot of the road to base camp it was apparent that we either took the local horse and cart or we walked! The driver elected to stay with the vehical and sleep at the monastry at the bottom of the hill until we returned. It turned out later he had to sleep in the car becfause they wouldn’t let chinese stay there without a westerner, a role reversal from Lhasa!
The horse and cart trek was about an hour and a half with occasional gtlimpses of the peak along the way. We arriveed in amongst a host of tents which was our hotel for the night!
Tashilhunpo
Posted on August 23rd, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
On the start of our first trip outside of Lhasa we left early in the morning with a guide and a driver all aboard the ubiquitous Toyota Landcruiser. This was to be a five day trip with the ultimate aim of seeing everest base camp. Our aim for the first day (after some discussion) was to reach Shigatse and see the Tashilhunpo monastry by the end of the first day. The views on the road were stunning as we were heading into the Himalayas.
We reached Shigatse by lunchtime and had a really nice Sichuan lunch of spicy pork ribs and a whole queue of people with their noses pressed against the restaurant window watching the Weiguoren eat!
The monastry was founded in 1447 and is the seat of the Panchen Lama. One of the unique things about Tashilhunpo is that it managed to avoid most of the the depredations of the Cultural Revolution, so is much as it has been for hundreds of years. It is essentially a walled town with cobbled streets.
The first thing that hits you when you enter the first chapel is a 26m guilded image of Jampa the future buddha made in 1914 which took 900 artisans 4 years to complete. This was the largest buddha image in China until a larger one was erected recently in Hong Kong.
The remains of the Panchen Lamas are also held here and it isn’t until you look up into the faces of the Panchen lama in their funeral chorten that you realise that that isn’t a statue that is actually him! …guilded! ….mumified!
Sera Monastry
Posted on August 21st, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Although I’ve spent more time in the last week in monastries than the last 10 years put together I certainly haven’t been bored.
The Sera monastry is one of the more important monastries in Tibet and used to house over 5000 monks. It is now reduced to a few hundred but is one of the few places monks are still allowed to do their daily debating sessions which are very vocal and physical. These sessions held in the debating courtyard involve debates over some of the more abstract areas of buddhist dharma. Every time one of the monks poses a question he stamps and claps his hands and waits for a response from one of the others seated in front of him.
One other area that was wonderful to see was the printing shop where we could see each page of the buddhist scriptures being reproduced one by one.
The Norbulinka
Posted on August 16th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
The Norbulinka is the summer palace of the Dalai Lamas and has been used as their summer venue since the seventh Dalai lama in 1755. This is a lovely cool area with a view inside the Dalai Lamas private residence including bedroom and toilet, sadly there are no photos of this edifying event as photography is not generally allowed inside temples and religious buildings!
Jokhang Temple
Posted on August 16th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
The Jokhang Temple is the heart of Tibet. The temple dates back to the 7th century although little of the original structure remains. As a first visit to a Tibetan temple the first experience is of the smell of Yak butter candles mixed with incense and the movement of pilgrims murmuring mantras as they make their way clockwise through the temple.
The temple houses the buddha image of Sakyamuni brought to Tibet during the 7th Century by Princess Wencheng the Chinese wife of King Songtsen Gampo
The roof of the temple offers some great views of Lhasa and also houses the private quarters of the Dalai Lama. The the pathway around the outside of the inner sanctum houses a complete circuit of prayer wheels.
And yes that is a new hat!
Wandering around the Barkhor
Posted on August 16th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
The Jokhang is the first stop for travellers to Lhasa as this temple is regarded as the spiritual heart of the whole of Tibet. The Jokhang is situated in the centre of the Barkhor a sprawl of streets surrounding the Jokhang around which pilgrims travel in a clockwise direction whirling their hand held prayer wheels and in many cases stepping around the prostrating devotees in the middle of the streets.
The streets themselves are crowded with shoppers haggling for a variety of tourist and religious objects from the hundreds of stalls providing everything from musical instruments, to traditional Tibetan clothing.
It is a fascinating place which is both the spritual centre of the city as well as the main commercial district.
Altitude Sickness
Posted on August 15th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
After an enjoyable few days in Beijing eating, drinking coffee and generally relaxing. I jumped on a plane to Lhasa the roof of the world! Before leaving I did a little research on altitude sickness or AMS Acute Mountain Sickness and found all sorts of horror stories. However many people visit every year and very few of them die (well on average only one person a year!)
Lhasa is at 3600m which looking it up on the Everest base camp website:
Definition of High Altitude
- High Altitude: 1500 - 3500 m (5000 - 11500 ft)
- Very High Altitude: 3500 - 5500 m (11500 - 18000 ft)
- Extreme Altitude: above 5500 m
So Lhasa just scraping in as “very high altitude”. I’ve been higher than that before and with some fairly extreme exertion so no problem! ……Wrong, wrong wrong!
Certain normal physiologic changes occur in every person who goes to altitude:
- Hyperventilation (breathing faster, deeper, or in my case both!)
- Shortness of breath during exertion (exertion you must be joking!)
- Changed breathing pattern at night
- Awakening frequently at night
As you ascend in altitude, every breath contains fewer and fewer molecules of oxygen. You now have to work harder to obtain oxygen, by breathing faster and deeper. This is particularly noticeable with exertion, such as walking uphill. Being out of breath with exertion is normal, as long as the sensation of shortness of breath diminishes with rest. The increase in breathing is critical. It is therefore important to avoid anything that will decrease breathing, e.g. alcohol! damn! Despite the increased breathing, attaining normal blood levels of oxygen is not possible at high altitude.
Landing at Lhasa airport you arrive immediately at 3600m with no aclimatisation. Got off the plane feeling dizzy but not too bad and got to a hotel eventually, after the one I had booked turned out not to take foreigners after all!
Once I managed to deoxyginate my blood sufficiently about 30 mins after having got off the plane, the above symptoms set in.
The best bit is to have jet lag and AMS and just as your body tries to drop off to sleep your brain says that you are suffocating due to lack of oxygen and wakes you up. The overall effect is the feeling of a really bad hangover with what feels like emphysema thrown in for good measure. Should have taken the drugs Acetazolamide (Diamox) used to stimulate breathing was recommended. However taking it easy and the local herbal recipe seems to work.
Anyway enough dramatics Lhasa is beautiful and I’ve been able walk around some of Lhasa today and have a load of snaps to upload which I’ll try and do tonight. The famous site of the Potala Palace I’ve decided to wait until I come back to Lhasa after Shigatse and Everest Base Camp as there are way too many steps and I’m not above a slow walk yet.
Everest Base Camp should be interesting to see if I’ve judged my acclimatisation properly! If it turns into nausea, vomiting and coughing up blood I’ll let you know from my hyperbaric chamber
Got to Beijing!
Posted on August 12th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.
Well despite all the travel concerns with the security alerts at Heathrow I’ve made it to Beijing!
By the time I arrived at the airport it was 17.30 and inside the terminal it was heaving with people, all attempting to politely negotiate their trolleys through the overcrowded check-in hall. Everone did seem to be surprisingly patient. We were organised into queues by the extra staff hired by BAA and made it the check in desk after an hour and a half which was the longest part of the process. Security had a long queue but only took about half an hour to get through - had my shoes swabbed and a hand search, but no real delays or body cavity searches. It seemed very well organised in light of the sheer number of people crowding through the airport. The hardest part for most people was getting their heads round the idea of no hand luggage - “what do you mean I can’t take this book through the security check?” Many people were sent back to recheck in with their belongings.
The fun part was after security when everyone was buying all the things they weren’t allowed to bring through the check point, chocolate, alcohol etc. Every one eyeing each other’s see-through plastic bags as if to say “Are we going to be allowed on the plane with this lot?”.
There were notices in the bookshop about not buying books if you were flying to the US as they wouldn’t be allowed on the plane. I guess GWB wants to keep everyone at his literary level!
I hopefully bought a book as 10 hours on a flight with the possibility of no personal screens for movies would be hell and took the risk of having it taken from me at the gate, however it proved to be no problem at all. We left an hour and a half late as we were waiting for passengers from a connecting flight.
After checking in to my hotel, one I’ve stayed at before the Tian Hong Plaza, which is out to the western part of town. I jumped into the shower and got a taxi to a traditional Thai massage place. It came recommended as a “no funny business establishment” which definitely helped to remove all the kinks that Air China had spent 10 hours putting in.
Next door to the Hotel is my favourite Sichuan restaurant which I spent an hour or two in reacquainting myself with Shui zhu yu, which is steamed fish in a large bowl of boiling chilli oil, big sesame balls and some very nice jiaozi (dumplings) in hot sauce. Naturally washing this down with some of the house Mee Jiu (rice wine) helped ease me into my first evening in Beijing. The Mee Jiu in this restaurant is server in a bamboo flask and tastes a little like coconut juice but has a sneaky way of creeping up behind you and giving you rubber legs when you try and stand up afterwards.
I was in bed unconscious by 9.30pm …. and of course my body clock woke me at 01.45! Ah well, enabled me to catch up on some reading and have two hours for training this morning. So I’m definitely on holiday!