India's position as heavyweight champ of crazy signage is secure, but Lhasa can claim a championship belt for it's store signs. Enjoy.
Our tour of Tibet finished in the capital, Lhasa. At an altitude of 12,000 feet, Lhasa is one of the world's highest cities and was the highest capital in the world when Tibet was an independent state (the highest capital now is La Paz in Bolivia, at a slightly a lower altitude than Lhasa).
The most famous landmark in Lhasa - and indeed the whole of Tibet - is the Potala Palace, built by the 5th Dali Lama and the winter home to all incarnations since. Even more sacred is the Jokhang - Lhasa's Buddhist 'cathedral' - the most sacred building in Tibet.
Sadly, large sections of Lhasa are now indistinguishable from many other Chinese cities. This seems a great shame when so many visitors were captivated by it's uniqueness only 50 years ago, before the invasion. However, even without the occupation, it's difficult to imagine that Lhasa could have escaped the 20th century completely and some development must inevitably have occurred. While the ancient culture and way of life may have seemed a living Shangri-La to Western visitors, for many Tibetans their feudal existence was a life requiring ceaseless toil just to survive. While we lament the passing of a traditional way of life, there are many benefits for the local people. Much the same can be said of the Sherpas in Nepal.
Despite the homogenized sections of the town, the old Tibetan quarter is still a unique place to visit. All day, every day, thousands of townspeople and pilgrims walk around the Jokhang in a clockwise direction (Buddhists drive on the left) using the circular Barkor road. This act of worship is accompanied by the turning of prayer wheels, gently circling within a circle.
Social, economic and religious life in Tibet revolves around monasteries. Gompas have also been the focus of Chinese efforts to systematically destroy Tibetan culture and Buddhism. During in the Cultural Revolution period alone, over 95% of Tibet's religious buildings were destroyed. However, some Gompas were spared and others have begun to be rebuilt under periods of comparative religious tolerance. We visited 5 of the most important monasteries as we drove through Tibet to Lhasa.
Although all Buddhists hold reincarnation as a central tenet, one of the defining features of Tibetan Buddhism is the practice of actively identifying reincarnated individuals. This is done after a prominent monk dies, when a search party is sent out to look for his reincarnation in a new born child. The practice is sometimes called 'Lamaism' and the individuals identified in this way are called 'Lamas'. The most famous is the Dali Lama himself, who's current incarnation is the 14th. One of the Gompas we visited was the base for the Panchen Lama, second only in Tibet's religious order to the big man - the DL himself.
Tashilunpo Monastery - the Panchen Lama's traditional home - was spared the worst ravages of the Cultural Revolution because of the Panchen Lama's controversial and problematic relationship with the Chinese Government. Unlike the Dalai Lama who fled into exile, the Panchen Lama welcomed the Chinese as the only practical way to reform and modernise the closed, feudal society of Tibet. He died in mysterious circumstances in 1989 and the search for the next incarnation began.
Discovery of 11th Panchen Lama has great political as well as religious significance. The Panchen Lama has traditionally confirmed the recognition of the reincarnated Dali Lama, and vice-versa. If the Chinese government could select and control the Panchen Lama, they could also select the next Dali Lama and be free of the embarrassment and irritation caused by the Tibetan government in exile.
Consequently an attempt by the Dali Lama and the monks of Tashilunpo to name the new Panchen Lama resulted in his arrest by the Chinese government. The infant boy and his family immediately disappeared and their whereabouts are still unknown, more than 10 years later. Amnesty International calls the Panchen Lama the "world's youngest political prisoner". The Chinese Communists then selected their own Panchen Lama, who is also under virtual house arrest in Beijing and rarely visits Tibet. Since the controversy, photographs of the Dali Lama and his selection for the 11th Panchen Lama have been banned throughout Tibet.
It seems incredible that a modern government could feel so threatened by a pacifist religion such as Tibetan Buddhism. A measure of the control and paranoia displayed by the Communist Government is that this blog is banned in China and Tibet! Along with BBC News and Wikipedia, little picotrip is unavailable and cannot be read here. I can only think that this is because of my post about the Tibetan government in exile but it's amazing to think that such a comprehensive screening system exists.
Finally after much reading, speculation and anticipation, we have arrived in Tibet. Tibet is intensely different from Nepal, or anywhere else - a unique land made fascinating by impenetrable Buddhism, Chinese occupation and the collision of the two.
Our entry into Tibet was not without incident. Mary and I hooked up with Ros and Paul in the Khumbu and after two days relaxing in Kathmandu, we crossed the border overland into the Tibet Autonomous Region, as it is called by the Chinese. The day of our departure from Nepal was marked by a Bund - a general strike called by Maoist insurgents. The Maoists have been waging a bloody campaign against the Nepali government and monarchy for many years, which has left over 10,000 Nepalis dead. Although they have been promised fresh elections this year the Maoists like to remind everyone who is really in charge by declaring a Bund and bringing everything in the country to a halt. The Maoists have never targeted tourists, since the main source of income in many of their rural strongholds is trekking. However, they are brutal to government forces and their favorite treatment of a captured Nepali policeman or soldier is skinning alive.
To avoid the makeshift Bund roadblocks we left at 3am but our driver still had to weave around a barricade of burning tyres and negotiate with local activists - often just kids. Once across the border our second day on the road started at 2am in order to traverse Chinese roadworks which are slowly turning the rocky, precipitous tracks though the mountainous border into paved highway. Our Land Cruiser had from only 2am until 4am to negotiate the tracks before work closed the road again.
Namhla was our Tibetan guide, a serene but earnest chap whose own story is a microcosm of Tibet itself. At the age of two Namhla was identified as the reincarnation of a high Lama in his home village and his parents risked everything to smuggle him across to the border to study with other exiles in Dharamsala, India (see our Dharamsala post). As an adult Namhla decided not to take his monastic vows and instead return to Tibet. He was immediately arrested by the Chinese and spent 12 months in solitary confinement in a Lhasa prison.
Tibet is a vast, high-altitude desert and scratching a living is a tough job. The desolate terrain reminds me of the American West and the land is just as dusty, lifeless and unforgiving. It's amazing that anyone can live here, much less build the fabulous monasteries and their great variety of beautiful religious artifacts. Everything - from buildings to religious icons - is literally made from dust and mud.
Difficult to describe, I'll leave it to our hotel in Shigatse to leave you with a lasting impression of Tibet:
"You come, letting you leave the fine recollection in snow the area plateau of the beauty".
Mani Rimdu is the highlight of the Buddhist calendar in the Khumbu. It's a festival celebrated at 2 monasteries (Gompas) at different times of the year. The Thami Gompa is favoured because of the abbots more liberal attitude to drinking and dancing in the evening. The second day of the festival coincided with a rest day we had on the way back from Gokyo (more in another post) and so I decided to go along.
A measure of our attitude to walking after 5 weeks of trekking is that although the festival was a five and a half hour round trip with some moderate climbs, this counted as only a 'medium' in our new trekking lives. So I decided to toddle along. I couldn't persuade Mary to join me. I suspect her vague interest in Tibetan Buddhism may have been offset by the 11 hours walking the previous 'big' day. No matter. Incomprehensible ritual and religion awaited and nothing could stop me!
The best way to describe Mani Rimdu was a cross between a dance festival, music recitation and pantomime act - complete with comedy sketches. The Gompa is populated with monks and lamas and it was the lamas who danced and performed for the excited Sherpa audience. Lamas are important spiritual leaders and set apart from the other monks by heaving been identified as the reincarnation as previous Lamas, so that the current Lamas are several generations removed from the 'original' Lama, while being exactly the same person. Hope you're following. I'll try and explain a little more about Tibetan Buddhism when we reach Tibet. Sherpas were Tibetans not so long ago incidentally, hence the practice.
I sat between two old Sherpa geezers during the performances who seemed to enjoy proceedings immensely, laughing and rolling around at all the best jokes. One of them took the trouble to explain to me the meaning of each dance and ritual in great detail. I'd pass on this wisdom as a detailed description to each picture, except that he was speaking in Nepali.
I stayed far too long at the festival which meant a moonlit walk home to Mary in Namche Bazaar. A moonlit walk alone though a Nepali forest is an interesting experience, but I've still managed to avoid becoming Yeti fodder!
Gokyo was the second destination of our extended trek in the Khumbu. The Gokyo valley lies to the east of the Khumbu valley where Everest Base Camp is located. It is incredibly picturesque and home to 6 lakes which lie at increasing altitude above 4800m.
Gokyo Ri (5300m) was a local peak which we climbed for just stupendous views of Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyo - the works. The pictures are pale imitations of the view, but the best I can do until Google invents something better.
