With light comes fright

We woke up bright and early our first day in Lhasa. Ryan and I were both excited to see what the city had to offer. Ryan took a tour around the Dalai Lamas former summer residence while I walked the streets. I was curious to see how the people lived and what I could differentiate from the Tibetans and the Chinese.

First, there are a lot of Chinese in Lhasa. Most of the small streets I wandered were occupied by migrants or peasants, just live every other big Chinese city. The Tibetans are easy to pick out though, especially the pilgrims.

Since Lhasa is a sacred place, pilgrims come from hundreds of kilometers away to pay tribute to the city. Almost all of them had a prayer wheel, something that resembles a tin can on a stick, that they twirl in a clock-wise motion. They are dressed in country clothes and big hats and, the scary thing, is that they looked to be all over 60. Our tour guide guessed that in 20 years there would be no more pilgrims. They have hard, brown, beaten faces. They are much larger than the average Asian, but somehow they maintain a friendly glow. They follow certain routes around the city and I found myself following them to see what it was all about. They stopped at small temples that were packed with people being blessed by monks. Around another corner they rubbed their knee on a rock. The rock had been rubbed by so many knees that it was indented and shined a polished black. The route led to the old city, and that was where things got scary.

There are armed guards stationed on every street. By armed guards I mean 17 year-olds with rifles, pistols, bats, and shields. They marched the streets in lines of fives in order to 'keep the peace'. There were cameras watching from all the small alley intersections. On buildings men with sniper rifles would patiently score the scene. I have to say this took away the general "Tibetan feeling". The whole time we were there it felt like there was someone or something watching us. Saying that, the old city was, overrated. The streets are lined with merchants selling the exact same crap that is sold all over China. The buildings, all about four stories, were peeling and crumbling. Because of the riots in March tourism was down and this made the touts even more eager to sell their rocks, silk, and other tourist paraphernalia.

We were given a tour of the holiest temple in all of Tibet, which was again repetitive. The tombs however, were of great interest. Some of them were so huge and so valuable it was amazing to see how accessible they were. Although it would be a good heist, I think getting out of Lhasa with a 10 ton tomb would be difficult. I did learn about the different type of Buddhisms though. And I took a special interest in the Red Sect, where they use sex to get to higher levels of spirituality.

Lhasa

Just from the amount of security on the train we imagined that Lhasa would be a prison. Sure enough, as soon as we got off the train, we saw the army of armed guards stationed outside the station. Our 'tour guide', who we were forced to pay for, picked us up at the airport and gave us a 'traditional' white scarf. He said that it was a cultural gift from Tibet to welcome people into their homes. We drove to the 2 star hotel that was included in our package (an outstanding 2500 RMB(350USD) for 3 days) and our guide warned us not to shower because of the altitude. I have to admit that the first days in Lhasa, even though we had been slowly acclimatising in Qinghai, were hard. It was like eating psilocybin. My head felt like it was slowly being crushed. My body was heavy but I still felt like I was flying. Any kind of strenuous effort would leave me breathless. However, we drank as much water as we could and went all the way up to 5300 meters without suffering too bad. That night we caught our first glimpse of the Potala Palace, the Dalai Lamas former residence. I need to add that to the list of jaw droppers.