Tibet free no more

Okay!! Finally finished posting on Tibet! Check over the last 3 posts for new pictures!

The last part of our Tibet trip brought us to the bigger Tibetan towns of Shigatse, Gyantse and the capital, Lhasa where we had the opportunity to visit some of the most impressive and tragic monasteries in Tibet. They held some amazing statues and chapels where they revere historical figures, high lamas and images of various buddhas. But they are just a shell of their former grandeur.

In all we visited a ton of monasteries and I was beat by the end. We visited the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the home of the Panchen Lama, in Shigatse, Pelkor Choede Monastery in Gyantse, Sera, Ganden and Jokhang monasteries in Lhasa and Potala Palace in Lhasa. That's a lot of monasteries! Though each one was interesting in their own right, I was pretty tired of visiting chapels (the 99 rooms in Gyantse were killer) and smelling burning yak butter. Here are some select pictures of the monasteries but none really capture the grandeur of the statues, the sound of monks chanting, and the reverence of the prostrating pilgrims that permeated each room.

The facade of the monastery at Gyantse. The building to the right is based on a mandala, which is design by the 5th Dalai Lama that is purely symmetrical.

Prayer wheels. They are outside every monastery.

Some monks goofing off at the top of a temple. They were supposed to be doing some construction work but they stopped to pose for our pictures!

The view from the Gyantse monastery. That's an old fort in the background from when the Tibetans weren't so peaceful.

A pilgrim bringing yak butter for the candles. There were pilgrims everywhere and it felt like sacrilage to take photos while these people were worshiping.

A rare photo from inside the monasteries. The monks charged up to 150 yuan to take photos in each chapel. It was way too expensive plus all the chapels started to look alike after awhile.

Monks engaging in traditional debates at Sera in Lhasa. Some of them really got into it and they punctuated each question with a very dramatic clap.

Pilgrams prostrating outside Jokhang monastery in Lhasa. It holds the most holy statue in Tibet and the pilgrims lined up to pay tribute to it. I was lucky to get a view of it!

The nicest Tibetan woman who guided us through Jokhang. She even showed us a small statue of a sheep that looked like it was coming out of the wall. According to her, the statue was very small about 50 years ago and grows mysteriously on its own every year. Fact or fiction, folks?

I got blessed by a monk! The black on my nose is for protection. No laughing!

We were lucky to catch these monks chanting at the Ganden monastery, way up in the mountains just outside Lhasa. Here's one of the high lamas who seemed more interested in posing for photos then leading the monks in chanting.

The main chanting hall in Ganden. I could have sat there all day, listening to the soothing chanting of the monks.

But the monasteries had this tragic feel to it also. Tibet was invaded by the Chinese in the 1950's in what the Chinese called a "liberation" campaign. The Cultural Revolution in 1959 also brought mass destruction to the monasteries, Potala Palace, other cultural sites and the Tibetan way of life. During the cultural and actual genocide (over 1.2 million Tibetans are believed to have died), the Dalai Lama fled into India and has vowed not to return until Tibet is their own once again. It breaks my heart to see how Tibetans have been oppressed and become a minority in their own land. Every where you can see how the Chinese are imposing their way of life on these people. Each house is forced to put up pictures of Mao and other Party officials while possessing a picture of the Dalai Lama is punishable by jail time. The Chinese don't understand the Free Tibet movement. Afterall, they've brought infrastructure, schooling, and commerce to Tibet while dramatically increasing their standard of living. That's true but at what cost? They've lost their land, religion, culture and independence. And its visible at every turn in Tibet, especially the major towns and monasteries, as beautiful as they were.

Each monastery holds only a fraction of the monks they used to house and the cities look more Chinese than they do Tibetan. It makes the first part of our trip, when we journeyed through the small Tibetan villages, that much more unique and precious. Han Chinese continue to stream into Tibet and I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like 5, 10, 20 years from now. So I'm glad to have made it here when I could. Its possible to imagine what it was like before the Chinese "liberated" Tibet and its sad to think it will never go back. You can't help but feel for the plight of the Tibetans and maybe that's at least one benefit from the increased tourism and spectacle the Chinese have turned Tibet into.

The outside of Potala Palace, the former seat of the Dalai Lama. You could feel the intrusion of the Chinese the most here. This is where the Dalai Lama should be, presiding over his people rather than in exile in India. It is so sad.

Here are some parting shots of the Tibet trip. Our Intrepid group was great! We had some laughs but mostly we bonded by huddling together through our altitude sickness. Trust me, you get past the polite stage pretty quickly when everyone is looking haggard and sick together. Our leader, Puskar, was also amazing. Always quick with a smile and reassuring words on such a difficult trip. His cure for altitude sickness? "Think happy thoughts!" Yeah, right. :)

Our group at lunch! Tibetan food leaves something to be desired but at these altitudes, we didn't feel like eating much anyways.

That's me getting attacked by a yak. We went to a Tibetan culture show where we saw some traditional dancing (like this one where the domestication of the yak is celebrated) and had some traditional Tibetan foods like yak butter tea (disgusting) and tsampa, a mixture of barley flour and yak butter tea (also disgusting). As you can tell, I'm not a huge fan of yak in any form.

Okay, I've been in front of this computer for 4 hours and I can feel myself turning to mush. I don't know how I used to spend 15 hours a day in front of a computer when I was working! How am I supposed to do it again???