House of Shambhala Lhasa

... the temple being built. I tried to get some photos of it, but they didn't turn out too well because of all of the people.
After we visited Jokhang Temple, our guide took us to visit Barkhor Street. It wasn't a far walk, because it is a round road that surrounds the temple. I had a lot of fun there. It was packed with tourists, Buddhist Monks, and pilgrims. It was a really neat mixture of peoples. Many of the ...

... to visit, if you are having trouble breathing.

However we had to visit the Potala palace. This is or was the ancestral home of the succession of Dalai Lamas. The palace is currently empty but kept in good repair, while the current Dalai Lama lives in exile. We struggled up the huge steps and through the main entrance to finally step inside what must be one of the wonders of the world.

The Potala is the winter palace of the Dalai Lama and is now a World Heritage Site. You ...

Geschafft !

nach der Ankunft in Chengdu - mit dem Taxi zu Sim´s Cozy Garden Hostel. Dort sollte mein permit auf mich warten....
Der Typ an der Rezeption hat auch gleich so wissend getan und gemeint - alles schon arrangiert - um 10 ist Abfahrt zum Flughafen - dort bekomm ich mein permit.

Hat mich dann doch etwas stutzig gemacht, und hab nach dem Frühstück dann doch nochmal nachgefragt ( lernt man hier relativ rasch... ) .... und plötzlich wusste dann ...

... wall there was 1000 Buddhas, 16 Arhats and the present Buddha in the middle.


On the way out we saw three guys playing a game with dice, shells and coins. They were really into it. It looked like fun!

We went back to the hotel and I used the internet for 1 1/2 hours. Bill hung out in the room nursing his headache. He is feeling so badly that he could not finish a can of coke (well, almost could not).

We walked to a walk through the Muslim ...

... for the vultures to eat, thus carrying the body in parts back to the sky. I believe the remaisns are then burnt as we encountered heaps of ash rather than bones on this site. Next day we enjoyed the dirt road ride back to Old Tingri. We had a bit of convincing to do for Lobsang and Jampa to drive us to the Tsamda Hot Springs Hotel. This is a fairly basic affair with a rather grotty outside hot bathing pool frequented by happy Tibetans. We negotiated 2 double rooms ...

... au-vent het tibetaans museum. De Chinese propaganda is hier nooit ver weg en de Tibetaanse bevrijding van 1949 wordt alweer de hemel ingeprezen ... Na dit blitzbezoek is het tijd om mijn goedheid boven te toveren en bezoek ik samen met een paar andere goede zielen een blindeninstituut. Blinden worden in chinese samenleving weggemoffeld. Het wordt gezien als een straf voor slechte daden in een vorige leven. Bovendien denkt men vaak ...

... to him for the tour, he said this was fine. Our guide and driver then picked us up in order for us to start our tour of the Potala Palace, which is the most famous and awe inspiring structures that we have ever seen. It is the former seat of the former Tibetan government, and is a famous symbol of Tibet and of Tibetan Buddhism. It is built on a hill close to the centre of the city of Lhasa and majestically towers over the city. Our guide, Tashi, who is very knowledgeble ...

... verdient?? Das Everest-Base-Camp ist auch geschlossen aus Angst, dass es Proteste geben koennte, da im Mai das olympische Feuer dahin kommt. Und damit man auf Nummer sicher geht, sperrt man lieber jetzt schon mal alles ab. Wie ihr seht geht es hier mit polizeistaatlichen Mitteln zu. Das macht das Reisen nicht gerade einfacher und angenehmer. Morgen fahren wir zum Nam-Tso (See) auf 4718m, der von uebr 7000m hohen Bergen umgeben ist. Melde mich dann die Tage wieder.

... and to the Barkhor streets where hundreds of people are preying around the Jokhang temple moving around the streets in the same direction. In Tibet thousands of Tibetans go to Lhasa each year to prey and seeing it is quite impressive, the way they prey is that they walk for a few meters then put there knees on the floor and slide there hands forward to prey then they get up and repeat the process again. They would do this for hours and it was quite ...