After the Yangze cruise, we decided to spend a few days relaxing in Chengdu, but first...
Chengdu is the easiest place to get the entry permits required for travel into Tibet and, as we'd both always wanted to go and had just trekked across China to get here, it seemed a shame not to try and get to Lhasa. As it turned out, it was pretty straightforward (but expensive!). We visited many travel agents who all told us we had to go on a tour and who mysteriously all quoted the same price for said tour, which included: one-way flight, accommodation, insurance, tour guide and "foreigner's entry permit". We even tried to buy air tickets at the China South-West airline office but they would not sell us one unless we had this wretched permit. And where do we buy a permit? You can't, you have to join a tour group. So we went round in circles for a while before simply finding a cheap tour to join. We got the above mentioned bunch of stuff from this company when all we really wanted was the air tickets. And the all-important permit? A scrap of a photocopy with our names in biro. No one was interested in it once we had the air tickets.
Anyway, much to Steve's horror, another internal Chinese flight - this time trying to land on "The Roof of The World" at 3700m right next to the Himalayas - great! We made it though, with only a 2 hour bus ride from the airport to downtown Lhasa. Probably much more risky than the plane journey but a good opportunity to see some of the countryside.
The Tibetan plateau lies at 4500m and is surrounded by some massive mountain ranges including the Himalayas, Karakoram and Kunlun. Within this plateau, the capital Lhasa sits in a basin surrounded by its own mountain ranges. The scenery is very reminiscent of Mongolia. Barren, dusty and inhospitable looking mountains surround Lhasa. An overnight snowfall on our first night made them look even more inaccessible yet much more picturesque. It's easy to tell you're pretty high, the sky is a deep blue, the clouds fluffy white and the sun vicious. There's none of the pollution we've become used to in China either.
With only 4 days, it's impossible to see much of this country although many of the major sights are in and around Lhasa. Not for us the 4 day jeep trip to Everest Base Camp (a toilet apparently) or cycle trips to the Nepalese border - maybe next time. We did, of course, visit the Potala Palace which is the icon of Tibet and features in every picture of Lhasa. Justifiably too! It's majestic on the outside sitting atop a rocky outcrop 200m above the city and awesome on the inside. A whole bunch of ex-Dalai Lamas are entombed here in huge gold Stupas (a kind of pointy, vertical sarcophagus) the largest of which is made from 3700kg gold and thousands of gems. All the rooms are gloriously decorated with embroidered hangings, intricate murals and some amazing 3 dimensional mandalas. Again, we were reminded of the Mongolian temples - much more impressive than anything we'd seen in the rest of China. Other than the tour groups, there are many Buddhists visiting here. It is clearly still a place of great importance.
Perhaps of even more religious significance is the Jokhang Temple, built by King Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century. It's considered the holiest temple in the Tibetan Buddhist world. Thousands of Buddhists come here to pray, prostrate themselves in front of the building and make clockwise circuits of the chapels spinning prayer wheels and chanting constantly. They are amazing to watch and do not seem to mind our being there as long as we don't mind being pushed out of the way as they race from icon to icon. The pungent aroma of the yak butter lanterns is all pervasive. In the evenings, monks in purple robes meet to chant in the main hall - this is Tibetan Buddhism at home and it's quite a moving sight.
We found that many of the temples were laid out along similar lines. A large central room forms the monks' debating chamber. It might be from 20m to 100m square and supported by tens if not hundreds of closely spaced red wooden columns. The light would be predominantly red and very dim - filtering down from a few high windows. Rows of very low burgundy padded benches are laid between the rows of columns where the monks will sit cross-legged and chant or debate. At the back of this room large doors open onto a square - generally with a stunning view. On each of the other three sides will be doors leading to chapels of varying sizes. Each chapel with have a large central gold or gilt Buddhist figure. Large could be up to 20m! Generally this figure will be surrounded by lesser figures or helpers - sometimes thousands of small idols. Small denomination notes will be lying everywhere thrown by pilgrims and the whole place will be dimly illuminated by the yak butter lanterns.
We'd heard that the Ganden monastery was well worth visiting. It's 45km from Lhasa and is a 2 hour journey [strange inconsistency there!]. We tried to book a car to take us but couldn't find the man. We'd heard of the pilgrim bus and decided to give it a go. This involved getting up at 5:30 and jamming into a rickety old bus with 50 Tibetan pilgrims. After the mandatory shouting, false starts, shouting, reversing, getting off the bus, shouting and getting back on the bus, we set off towards Ganden. The first hour of the trip involved picking up more pilgrims around Lhasa, following the highway out of town and being stopped by the Chinese army who would mysteriously enter the bus and look at everyone in their most scary 18 year old gaze before waving us on ostentatiously. The second hour of our pilgrimage was spent trying to keep most of the bus on the winding dirt track which led impossibly up the side of a mountain to the monastery. Steve tried whistling the theme tune to the Italian Job to remain sane. Finally, at 4500m we chugged into Ganden Monastery and at least one of the party had run out of prayers already!
The monastery is pretty significant to the Tibetans (it was built in the 1400s on a site used by Songtsen Gampo; the most important Tibetan king in history). It's perched on the side of a mountain peak and, in the rarefied air, the gold roofs glisten in the beating sun. We visited some of the monastery buildings along with our pilgrim friends but our main interest was to walk the Kora which is the traditional clockwise circuit round the outside of the monastery. The views out over the surrounding mountains were absolutely stunning. Snow-clad peaks shone in the distance and the scale seemed all distorted by the mountain air. Yak grazed all around us as we circled the mountain. We tried scampering up and down the slopes to get a good Yak photo but the lack of Oxygen made it rather difficult.
Whilst on the mountain, we came across what turned out to be a Tibetan Sky Burial. We feel extremely honoured that the deceased's family insisted that we watch this sacred Tibetan ritual. We'll not be describing what occurred, those who are interested can find out about the ceremony for themselves. Suffice to say, not many Westerners have witnessed a Sky Burial and we feel very privileged.
Rather subdued by the preceding events, we decided it would be propitious to walk back down the mountain and meet our fellow pilgrims in the village at the bottom of the hair-raising dirt track we had ascended earlier that morning. Of course, this had nothing to do with the scary nature of the road!! We did trudge down the mountain - in the burning midday sun; accompanied by a young yak-herd who attempted to teach us Tibetan and with whom we shared our lunch. Once in the village, we had to wait an hour for the bus and, of course, all the local children came out to "play". This involved pestering us for food and trying to get into Megan's rucksack which seemed much more interesting than Steve's for some reason. Eventually the bus came and we trundled back to Lhasa. It must have been a successful day's pilgriming as there was much singing and hilarity en route.
Whilst we only spent 4 days in Tibet, we did see quite a bit of what was going on. The tour we had booked put us in a pretty depressing hotel so we moved immediately to a Tibetan run place where the staff were extremely helpful and friendly and this attitude seemed to be typical of the Tibetan people. They seem like an ever smiling bunch which is surprising all things considered. Also, they don't spit, although one or two seem to be picking up the habit.
There seem to be city dwelling Tibetans and nomadic types, the latter identified by very colourful clothing; rather Aztec looking in some cases. On the pilgrim bus, there were women in their finest with hats and shawls, men in blazers and trilbies alongside nomads with long ponytails and cowboy hats. Of course, in the towns at least 50% of the population is Chinese not indigenous Tibetan and whole areas of Lhasa (and the surrounding countryside) look more like the China we've become used to than anything inherently Tibetan.
The monks and pilgrims all seem very devout and spend many hours touring monasteries. A typical visit involves making a clockwise circuit of every available icon, chapel and room in the monastery. In each room will be at least one statue of a Buddhist figure. Small denomination notes will be thrown at the figure or given to the monk tending that room. Each room will have Yak butter lanterns burning and each pilgrim will add some butter from a packet. All this occurs in very dim light below the enigmatic gaze of Maitreya (Future Buddha) or some other significant figure and to the sound of monks chanting in a low murmur. After visiting every nook and cranny, the pilgrim will make the outside clockwise circuit - the Kora we did at Ganden - spinning the prayer wheel and hanging the prayer pendants.
On a more domestic note, we subsisted on Western food - a welcome change from the Chinese stuff we'd been living on. Megan was particularly fond of the Yak steak. Yak in many varieties seems to be a staple. Yak butter tea is disgusting (Steve) / lovely (Megan). We saw more Westerners in Tibet than we'd seen in all our time in China. This was surprising but shows that the place is firmly on the tourist circuit now. It wasn't just backpackers; there were American tour groups too! Most people seemed to either bounce in through China (maybe via Hong Kong or Beijing) or come from Kathmandu.
The usual practice of trying to rip off tourists occurs here too although it's probably a little more justified. We suspect that few tourist dollars end up in the locals' pockets. Most is syphoned off in ludicrously overpriced 4wd trips out into the countryside. Hardened by 6 weeks in China, we were not really susceptible to this overcharging. An example would be the 300 Yuan charge for visiting Ganden which we did for 40 on the bus. It might have been a bit more comfortable and slightly less scary though!
During the day the sun was scorching but cloud would begin to build later in the afternoon. By about 8 or 9pm we'd be in the thick of a massive storm with the most awesome lightning over the surrounding mountains. By daybreak it would be hot and dry again with only the snow covered mountains showing what had happened over night. We were hearing stories from travellers who'd been trying to travel to outlying areas only to be turned back by the snow. It's peak Everest climbing season and we often wondered how people were faring out there - not so very far away really.
Now we're back in Chengdu and there will probably be one more China instalment covering the scorching food of Sichuan, the crazy karst scenery of Guilin and the wallet numbing excesses of Hong Kong and Macau before we fly to Bangkok (now on 24th June).