Tibet Hongshan Hotel Lhasa

... was getting late we settled on a restaurant and had a Tibetan meal there. Wayne ordered yak and potato curry with tsampa and butter tea , a very traditional Tibet meal and I had a plate meal of yak meat , veges and rice with chang- barley beer. Well Wayne did not like the fatty butter tea but I thought it was ok whereas the chang was one drink I will not repeat. Our yak was tough but tasty and the doughy tsampa ( made by yak butter and barley) was stodgy but understandable fare in ...

... local dances. They wanted me to join in. At first, I wasn't comfortable doing it, but seeing how much fun they were having I decided to give it a go. We were all laughing so hard, that we could hardly dance. I really hated to leave. It was a really wonderful experience. <br><br>I had been warned by many people about altitude sickness. I was concerned about it, but didn't have too much of a problem. I did experience ...

... br><br>The ground floor is full of new and restored icons and murals tracing the entire Tibetan history. Unfortunately the light makes it difficult to see these clearly. Still you can always buy the book. Why they do not let you take photos , saying the images are religious, but still seem quite happy to sell books with the same image in is beside me. Commerce rules with religion as well it seems.<br><br>The local guide walked us around the temple visiting chapel after chapel ...

Warning: I have poltical views. Just because I have an opinion.<br><br> There were oxygen tubes in the train to alleviate altitude sickness, and I did not have to use it. I had a minor headache but no biggie.<br><br> I stepped out of the train and I felt that my heart was falling out of my chest. It was going crazy, or I was, I suddenly have this massive headache. My chest felt it was being squeezed. I have heart murmur, and this time, it felt like ...

... into 500 and did not have enough food to eat. Avalokitesvara helped out again and provided five grains that produced much bounty. They were able to feed themselves and as a result they lost their tails and hair and eventually formed a civilization.<br><br>There are also a statue of the future Buddha. Along another wall with a mural of the story of the building of Potala Palace, an important meeting of the 14th Dalai Lama and Tunzin Palace with the moat. There is a thankgas ...

... es dann daran ging dem Guide sein Trinkgeld zu ueberreichen, hielt die Daenin (die mit den 5 Yuan) eine kurze Ansprache, wie toll er doch war und was er fuer einen guten Job gemacht hat (und das alles ohne rot zu werden und recht glaubwuerdig! ...and the Oscar goes to!). Danach lichtete sich das Feld aber auch schon und nach ein paar Lhasa Bier (serviert in einer kleinen Schuessel anstatt im Glas! Ich bevorzugte wie die meisten dann doch die Flasche) ging es zurueck zur letzten Nacht ins Hotel.

... to marry and father a child. He died age 51 in 1989 after ongoing resistance following his release after 16 yrs in prison. The Dalai Lama then sanctioned the 11th Pamchen Lama, a Tibetan boy who was imprisoned the next day at age 6 and remains hidden away by the Chinese (if he's still alive), thus making him the youngest Chinese political prisoner. Instead the Chinese appointed a Panchen Lama of their own, a son of Tibetan communist party members. He is largely ...

They greeted us with two white silk scarves. I finally got one. We are shown to a new mini van and away we go on our one and half hour ride into Lhasa. The new road made for the torch run was nice, we went through a 3km tunnel where all only have their parking lights on - no headlights! We pass small villages with large fields inbetween. The growing season is over and we see some plowing their fields with yaks. We ...

... better days: today they face much of the same religious and economic isolation as Tibetans, without the romantic figure of a Dalai Lama to give them a voice abroad. But in the late first millennium they were wealthy Buddhists, who generated the cosmopolitan doctrines - influenced by Christianity, Islam, Manicheism - that became Tibet's Kalachakra teachings. Somewhere among the Uighurs was the Tibetan Shambhala. Our trusty Tibetan driver had gone back to his homeland and we hired a taxi ...