Lhasa – another step towards the roof of the world

At the stupidly anti-social hour of 5.30am we got up to catch our flight from Chengdu destined for Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, or as the Chinese have branded it: the ‘Tibetan Autonomous Region’. The short two hour flight took us over some spectacular mountain scenery and the views over the Tibetan peaks on the approach into Lhasa airport were sensational – a taste of things to come!

Our orders upon arrival in Lhasa were to take it easy and relax to allow us to acclimatise to the staggering 3,683m altitude we had arrived at. We took a brief stroll around the ‘Tibetan’ district of the city where thankfully there still remains some of the traditional architecture that has been so crassly stripped from the other areas of the city and replaced with the usual unattractive modern Chinese style. We visited the Barkor Square and market which encircles the Jokhang Monastery and also acts as a Kora around which locals, pilgrims and tourists alike circumambulate in a clockwise direction. This proves quite awkward for forgetful shopaholics like Gremelin because once she has walked past one market stall selling beautiful things, she has to walk all the way around the square again before she can revisit the same stall – hilarious!

Besides being the spiritual capital of Tibet, Lhasa is also a traveller’s mecca and for those in our group lusting after western food and other home comforts this is the place to take stock – as we have been fully warned it is rice and noodles all the way to Kathmandu after this! Much scoffing of burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, cakes and coffee understandably ensued.

We stepped up the pace a little on our second day and went back to school for the morning for our Tibetan language class. I think we all grasped the basics – ordering a beer, ordering two beers and then finding out the Tibetan for ‘where’s the toilet’. Gremlin and the girls were of course more concerned with ‘how much?’, ‘give discount’ and ‘that’s expensive!’.

Later that day we made a flying visit to the Ani Sang Nunnery, the only working nunnery in Tibet and then Gremelin hit the shopping hard and by 5pm, after a full injection of Tibetan retail therapy, we visited the Jokhang Monastery.

Each day at the entrance to the monastery a collection of the Buddhist faithful prostrate by placing their hands together, touching them against their head, then throat, then heart before falling to their knees and finally extending themselves flat on their stomachs and then repeating this ‘cleansing’ process again and again. The most devout perform this ritual at every step of their pilgrimage to Tibet, often taking months to reach their destination. The Jokhang was fascinating and housed a staggering collection of Buddhas, Bhodisthattvas and related Buddhist items. We clambered up on to the roof and enjoyed excellent views over Lhasa with the Potala Palace in the distance.