Tibet

TIBET - May -1996

This trip starts and ends in Kathmandu, Nepal, we are going to visit a land that has captured my imagination for a number of years. Tibet is in the heart of Asia and on the roof of the world. It is linked to the outer world only by rugged highways and has limited airline service to its Capital, Lhasa. This service comes from China and Nepal. Tibet has a population of 1.9 million and an area of nearly half a million square miles, and it is one of the most sparsely inhabited places anywhere in the world. Most of Tibet is above 15,000ft.

I left Boise, Idaho on May 11^th and arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal, on May 13^th, I lost a day traveling. When we arrived I was delighted to see all my old Nepali friends who met us at the airport with flower leis, I always feel as if I have come back home when I return to Nepal.

The next few days are spent sight seeing in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur while we wait for our Chinese Visas to be issued. While in Kathmandu I always stay at the Potala Guest House, this is where Peter Owens our trip leader has a permanent residence.

On every trip, Peter gets everyone up at five a.m. and we proceed to walk all over Kathmandu. Always first, we go up to the Monkey Temple (Swayambhunath) with its hundred of steps. We see Durbar Square and the Temple of the Living Goddess and the five-storied Nyatapola Temple and the marvelous wood carvings like the Peacock Window in medieval Bhaktapur. We see much more in the next few days including the cremation ghats.

While our passports were at the Chinese Consul, he for some reason cancelled my Visa which will take me into Kashgar, China, after I leave this trip. He allowed me to have only one Chinese visa at a time, so I got the one for Tibet. Peter Owens came with me the next day to see if we could work this visa problem out, but no luck, so I will have to address this problem when I get to New Delhi, India. To-day, I walked to the Indian Airlines and made sure my ticket and reservations were all in order for my flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi.

This afternoon we start our 600 mile Bus trip to Tibet, what a rough road we took, and when we went past the turn off to Jiri, I knew I was in new territory. We stopped at five p.m. in Tatopani (Tato–means Hot Pani- means Water), I think there should be a hot springs for bathing around here. We stayed in a rustic guest house “Sonam Lodge” the beds were hard wood and each of us had a small pallet; most of us were really cold in the night.

The next morning we go through the Nepal border and cross the Friendship Bridge into Tibet, we head for our Chinese hotel where we will join the guide supplied by the Chinese government... In the next few days we are crossing passes at 16,600, and as we head deeper into Tibet the land changes completely. It is such a barren, desolate yet very dramatic country. All brown, dust and some wind and all the time, far off in the distance, you see the snow capped peaks. The people are mostly Tibetans who live outside the small cities, and they build on hillsides reached by steep switch backs, you would assume everything would fall of the hills they are so steep.

They live a life of survival and then right around the next mountain you will find a Monastery built into a much steeper hill and manned by a few Tibetan Monks.

Each major peak in Tibet is the home of some deity and Everest is believed to be the abode of the Five Sister Goddesses. Its name in Tibetan is Jolmolungma which means ‘Goddess Mother of the World.’

The architecture of the buildings is completely different, what I thought was a design around the top of the houses was actually Yak Dung made into various shapes and was laid in such intricate patterns that it actually fooled your eyes.

We have stopped and visited several Monasteries on the way. We went to visit the Sakya Monastery, the center for the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded in 1073 and is located in a small valley by the Choate Loma River. Sakya has the largest inventory of images, frescoes and texts.

We are nearing Lhasa the Capital of Tibet; it was founded some 14 centuries ago about the time Buddhism was introduced to Tibet. The elevation for Lassa is less than 12,000 ft and we will stay there for the next four nights in a modern Tibet Hotel, we are told the rooms are all furnished in Tibetan style.

We arrived in Lhasa late in the afternoon and we had a quick overview of the town and then checked into the hotel. It is the first time we have had a quiet time, as our days have been long and strenuous, always having to reach the next accommodation before dark. We are delighted with our Tibetan style

rooms with lots of rugs on the beds and painted furniture and it is the first time we have stayed where we have a toilet that works.

To-day we visited two exciting Monasteries and had interaction with the Monks, ages 9 and up. We saw three large “Mandelas” about twelve feet in diameter. A Mandela is a work of art made out of colored sand in wonderful designs, and made on the floor. They were being made for an upcoming festival that will last 15 days and when the festival is over, the Mandela is swept up and the sand is scattered someplace holy. Some of the Monks working on them spoke a little English and they were eager to explain.

At another Monastery, I saw Monks in a debate session (they were learning). We were in the right spot at the right moment to watch this debate, it was very exciting. One Monk sits on the floor and the other stands facing him. The one who is standing is shouting very loudly with lots of arm waving and then he gives a big hand clap and the one seated then stands to respond. It was very noisy and lots of action, there were six debates going on simultaneously. In front of all the monasteries are the dogs and the Monks take very good care of these dogs.

The story goes; the dogs are Monks reincarnated as dogs, because they did not live up to their vows.

In the next three days, we go on a tour of the Potala Palace and Drepung Monastery and the Sera Monastery. The Potala Palace, was the official residence of the Dalai Lama since 1653, it dominates the city of Lhasa and it is a magnificent building. It is 13 stories high, has 1000 rooms and 20,000 images. It is on top of Red Hill and can be seen for miles around.

The Sera Monastery was established in 1419 and belongs to the Gelukpa sect and by the 1800^th century it had become a monastic university with 7000 monks known for their cleverness and athletic ability. Drepung Monastery was established in 1416 and is also associated with the Gelukpa or Yellow Hat sect. It too, was a monastic university and it is the largest of the monasteries in Tibet.

Lastly we get the opportunity to shop along the Barkhor, which has many small shops.

What I will not miss, is the food. The chinese food served in Tibet is not at all like the chinese food at home, I will not miss having deep fat fried intestines or chicken feet and whatever else I could not identify. I think I lived on hard boiled eggs. The true Tibetan meals we had were marvelous with lots of variety. Peter brought several big fruit cakes along so we did have something good to eat.

This is our last day in Tibet and we drive two hours to the airport to catch our flight back to Kathmandu. This was a great flight; our plane flew between Makalu and Kangchenjunga, the world’s fifth and third highest peaks.

We have a fantastic dinner on our last night, my friends Pete and Norma Walker stay, they are going on the 'Tibet trek around the Holy Mountain' for the next three weeks. I am off to New Delhi, India, and then on to Uzbekistan and the Karakorum.

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