Adventure on the Roof of the World
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caption : Mt Everest with it's reflection on the lake
Date : 24/09/2009 - 17/10/2009
It was 22 years ago when I first stepped foot on the Roof, therefore this trip is partly to reminisce the past, partly to see the changes in Tibet and partly to visit the western part of Tibet that was almost impossible to reach in the early days.
I had initially wanted to name the title as "Journey to the Roof of the World" but this trip turned out to be more of an aventure than a journey. So armed with 2 idiot proof camera (Panasonic Lumix TZ7 (20x optical zoom) and a Sony Cybershot DCW 90 (3x optical zoom), we began our adventure.
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20X zoom
I liked the photo you posted before editing it... gorgeous.
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Originally posted by Kuali Baba:
20X zoom
I liked the photo you posted before editing it... gorgeous.
caption : Yamdrok-tso
it's panaroma of Yamdrok tso, that will be gone by 2017 if they don't do anything to it. Yamdrok tso is a closed lake with no inlet and no outlet. They have build a dam and hydro power station and created a 800m dropped outlet to drive the turbine. Scientist believed that if nothing is being done, the lake will be gone before the next generation can see it.
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you're back ! ....
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haiz..tibet..haiz.. my nepal trip..haiz..i havent got my refund back from silkair yet..
it's $740!!!
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caption : Potala Palace rising above the mountains
The whole trip was fraud with uncertainties. firstly, the brushes with the China Embassy in Singapore. Then 3 days before setting off, news came that they are barring all foreigners from entering Tibet 1 week before their 60th National Day until further notice.
Why? Why all the sudden changes for this year National Day but not last year? Well, I failed to even comprehen the Chinese culture. 60 years belongs to 1 cycle of the sexagenary calendars (甲å�) therefore they became pretty excited and cautious about the stability in Tibet.　
http://www.sgforums.com/forums/1769/topics/344059?amp%3Bpage=3&page=3
Furthermore, different newspaper presented different reports on the barring policies. Our local SPH saying all will be banned if you are not in Tibet before this date and foreign newspaper report that if they had issue the Tibet permit before this date, you will be allowed to enter and the Nepal Agency claiming "no problem". I have a cause to concern, having booked the air tickets and paid up part of the fare.
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caption : An aerial view on the snow capped mountains in Tibet
Leaving with no choice but to hope that all will be well, we left for Nepal, the southern gateway to Tibet. Once in Kathmandu, we had to arrange for the China visa (we already have all the other permit approved with the exception of the visa that required our passport) and only receiving news that the China visa was approved at 9pm (how did they manage to get it done at such unearthly time? Your guess is as good as mine
) and to fly off to Lhasa at 9am the next day.Still, I refused to pay the rest of the money to the Agency until I get all the document at hand and checking in at the airport. I even offered to hand over the rest of the money to their Chinese counterpart on their behalf. (just to play it safe that I get entry into Tibet before parting with the money).
Luck seems to be with us as we finally fly into Lhasa and landed at Gongkar International Airport without any obstructions. The Chinese immigrations were very strict with our luggages and all were throughly searched while checking out from the airport. We were caution from bringing any photos or objects of the 14th Dalai Lama but unknown to me, the handy Lonely Planet was also a barred item as there was a foreword from the 14th Dalai Lama. Many were stopped , questioned and have items confisticated by the Chinese immigration officers while I managed to slip the book thru without even knowing it was a barred item.
caption : Could this be Mt Everest peeking thru the cloud?
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caption : some of the "self arising" rock painting by the famous Bengali scholar Atisha (Jowo-je) from the 11 century.
The first changed I have noticed is the road have improved greatly and the course of the river have also changed along this stretch of the road. As I remembered, these rocks were sitting across the river but today the road were right infront of these rock and this place is being converted to a picnic park by the Chinese.
Where once were dry and barren land, today thousands of new houses sprout everywhere. You can tell that these houses are for the Han ethnics by their design. All Tibetian houses have a black frame around their windows while the Hans have either a white or frameless windows. Lhasa have probably change greatly (in culture and landscape) in the last 20 years than in a thousand year before.
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caption : Yamdrok-tso
it's panaroma of Yamdrok tso, that will be gone by 2017 if they don't do anything to it. Yamdrok tso is a closed lake with no inlet and no outlet. They have build a dam and hydro power station and created a 800m dropped outlet to drive the turbine. Scientist believed that if nothing is being done, the lake will be gone before the next generation can see it.
wow nice calm lake ... -
caption : Potala Palace - Lhasa
It's history lesson time!!!
The origin of the Tibetan people are not clearly known but Chinese historian claim that there was a westward migration and the Tibetan peole originally migrated from the Qinghai-Gansu plains and were the descendents of the Qiang. However it is not possible to trace the single origins of the Tibetan.
But the Tibetan people have a mystic stories of their origin. According to the legend, the earth were covered by vast oceans and eventually the water receded and land appeared in the present Tsetang area in central Tibet. A monkey and an ogress first inhabited this land. They were later identified as the emanations of Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of Compassion) and the goddess Tara. The first people were the descendents of the union between the monkey and the ogress and give rises to the Tibetan people.
As early myth of the origin of the Tibetan people suggest, the Yarlung Valley was the cradle of the civilisation of central Tibet. In the 7th century AD,Songtsen Gampo, a local ruler of the Yarlung Valley unified Tibet and build his Tubo dynasty. Tubo dynasty stretched from Sichuan (Dun Huang area) to even large extend of India Ladhak, Bhutan and Nepal region. Under the rule of Songtsen Gampo, even the great Tang dynasty was at its mercy.
Lhasa became an important admistrative centre in the 7th century AD when Songtsen Gampo moved his capital to Lhasa and build his palace at the site Potala now sit. At that time, the major religion was Bon po, a local sharmanistic folk religion of spirits, ghost and demons.
However with inter-marriage between Tang dynasty and the Nepali kingdom, his new bride Princess WenCheng and Princess Bhrikuti bought Buddhism into Tibet. Buddhism then flourished and reached great height. There are great many stories/fables about Buddhism taming of Tibet and I will share with you some as we go along.
With the breakup of the Yarlung empire some 250 years later, the centre of power shifted from Lhasa to Sakya, Nedong and the Shigatse. However, between 1617-1682, the 5th Dalai Lama defeated the Shigatse kings with the help of the Mongol support and moved the capital to Lhasa. Eversince then, Lhasa has alway being the capital of Tibet. Submitting to the Mongol, Tibet flourished. However it becomes the sticking point when Communist China used these as an excuse to "liberate" Tibet as part of China in the 1950s.
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caption : The Barkhor
One of the most interesting street is this quadrangle street that surrounds the famous Jokhang temple and some of the old buildings adjoining it. It is an area unrivalled in Tibet for its fascinating combination of sacred signifance and the push-and-shove market place. This is both the spiritual heart of the Holy City and the main commerical district for the Tibetans.
Pilgrims from all over Tibet would come here and do their kora (pilgrimage circuit) doing full body prostration with every steps they took and tourists would stop to finger the jewel encrusted dagger at the street stalls looking for a bargain. The air in Barkhor is filled with fragrance from the burning of Juniper offering thrown into the sangkang (incense burner) that will calm even the most restless mind.
caption: fragrance from the Juniper leaves filled the air
Barkhor is also the focus of most of the political unrest and have been the scene of pitched battles between the Chinese and the Tibetans. During our visit, there was a large presence of riot police with electric truncheon and grenade launcher ready for action to any disturbance that may arise.
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Originally posted by Fatum:
you're back ! ....
yes....but I have left some of my bodily parts over there.....5kgs weight and losta blood -
Nice pics.
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Nice pics.
thank you. more pics and stories to come. -
Originally posted by SevenEleven:
thank you. more pics and stories to come.Looking forward to your post.
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caption : backstreet of Barkhor
With the constant sweeping by both the stallholders and road sweepers, Barkhor street seems too clean to my memory. Perhap the real Barkhor can be found in the little lanes and backstreets like this one above. This little lane leads to a small but beautiful Anitsang Kung Nunnery.
caption : Little pots of flowers can make the difference to this Anitsang Kung Nunnery
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caption: Stone Slab of The Jokhang - 大æ˜å¯º
It's history lesson again!!!
By the 1949, The Mao Zedong Communist People's Liberation Army have defeated the Kuo Ming Tang Chiang Kai Shek Army and liberated the Mainland China, leaving Chiang Kai Shek to flee to Taiwan. One year after the communist takeover of Mainland China, 40,000 battle harden Chinese troops attacked Central Tibet and defeated the poorly equiped Tibetan Army. That signal the begining of an occupancy of Tibet by the Chinese.
Several attempts uprising by the Tibetans were met with bloodshed and finally in 1959, the current Dalai Lama fled to India. That effectively sealed the fate of Tibet as the Chinese abolished the Tibetan government and set about reordering the Tibetan society based on the Marxist principles.
Several other disastrous decisions such as altering the crops without fully understanding the terrain and altitude lead to failure and mass starvation by 1961. In August 1966, Mao implemented the Culture Revolution (文化大�命) in an attempt to remove capitalism and to cling on to power. The idea was to remove the Four Olds - Old Customs, Old Cultures, Old Habits and Old Ideas. This lead to massive destruction of mosques, temples, churches, monastaries, cemetries, practices such as fengshui etc throughout China.
In Tibet alone, more than 6,000 temples and monasteries were looted and destoryed by the Red Guards (student activities). By July 1968, Mao offically ended the Culture Revolution by claiming success in the Cluture Revolution.However, the destructions were so massive that many of the historical records and monuments is being lost forever.
PS : It is TS view that history record the success and often the mistakes of the past. What that had been done cannot be undone, therefore it is TS wish that mankind will learn from his mistake and never to make the same mistakes again.
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caption: The Jokhang - 大æ˜å¯º
The Jokhang was constructed between 639 to 647AD by King Songtsen Gampo to house the image of Mikyoba brought to Tibet as part of a dowry of his Nepali wife Princess Bhrikuti. Another temple the Ramoche (å°�æ˜å¯º) was built at about the same time to house the image of Jowo Sakyamuni brought by his Chinese wife Princess WenCheng. During the death of Songtsen Gampo, the Jowo Sakyamuni was moved from Ramoche and hidden in the Jokhang to protect it and have since remain in the Jokhang.
How was it known that the Jokhang was build for his Nepali wife? The answer lies in the facing direction of the temple. The Jokhang was built with a east-west direction facing toward Nepal and few of the 7th century Newari style carving pillars still remain today.
The Jokhang did not escaped the fate of the Culture Revolution and much of the interior was desecrated by the Red Guards and there were claims that a section of the temple was use as a pigsty. However since 1980s, the Jokhang had been restored to its former glory and it will take an expert eyes to tell the difference.
caption : A very chinese style painting presenting the 4 guardians 风調雨顺
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Caption : Demoness Subduing Temple
As promised, here is the first story
Buddhism's interaction with the pre existing Bon - a shamanistic folk religion of spirits, ghosts and demons. The story of an early introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. It was said that a vast supine demoness whose body straddled across the high plateau.
It was Princess WenCheng who divined the presence of the demoness through Chinese geomantic calculation and established that the heart of the demoness lay beneath a lake in the centre of Lhasa, while the torso and limbs lay far away in the outer dominions of the high plateau. Like all fables, the demoness is the symbol of physical hardship as well as the hostility of the Bon religion towards Buddhism, both have to be tame in order for Buddhism to take root in Tibet. It was decided that the demoness would have to be pinned down.
The first task was to drain the lake in Lhasa of its water (refer here to be the blood of the demoness) and to build a central temple to replace the heart of the demoness. This temple was to be the Jokhang. Due to the size of the demoness, a stake through the heart was not enough to put the demoness out of action therefore a series of lesser temples in 3 concentric rings was to be build to pin the extremities of the demoness.
There are 4 temples in each of these rings pinning down the hips and shoulder of the demoness. Two of these are the Trandruk monastery in the Yarlung and Katsel along the way to Drigung. The second group pin the knees and the elbows on the demoness. Bunchu monastery near Bayi in eastern Tibet and the last group are found as far away as Bhutan and Sichuan. Other of the temples were not known even up to today.
PS: This story can be found in the internet.
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Caption : Potala Palace - the landmark of Tibet 布达拉宫
Potala Palace, is one of the great architectural wonder of the world. Potala Palace comprises of 2 parts, Karpo Potrang (The White Palace), a 9 storey structure was constructed in 1645 and the Marpo Ri (The Red Palace) a 13 storey 130m awe-inspiring structure was completed in 1694.
Potala was shelled in the 1959 uprising but the damaged was not extensive. However it did escaped the Culture Revolution due to the intervention by Zhuo Enlai, the Chinese Premier who deployed his own troops to protect it.
In my memory, there was a small village at the foot of the Potala. This was came to be known as the Shol (the base of). It once housed a red-light district, a prison, a printing press and some government offices. Today all is gone and what is in place is a "Tian An Men" style square, save the Mao Zedong's style statue.
Unlike the Jokhang, Potala Palace although awe-inspiring, is like a lifeless museum. Today, it is being invaded by chattering Chinese tourists whose fore-father seek to destroy it. What remained inside Potala Palace are just tombs, books and artifacts that is history but that nobody will ever read it again .
caption : Ever wonder how the building was painted in the early days? Our theory was that they must have tied up the people on rope, lowered them and letting them splashed the white wash on the wall.
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Nice write up.
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With the current political climate in Tibet and XinJiang, I doubt it would be safe to visit the place now, might just end up as bird feed for the vultures.
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Originally posted by deepak.c:
With the current political climate in Tibet and XinJiang, I doubt it would be safe to visit the place now, might just end up as bird feed for the vultures.
well, even the vulture rejected me when I offered myself at the skyburial site. It's not really that tense in Tibet. In my opinion, the suitation in Tibet as compared to 22 years ago is so much more mild. The younger generation are so much more Hans than Tibetan. With the taste of material gains and pop culture, sad to say, the Tibetan culture is pretty much lost, just like our next generation not being able to communicate in dialect any longer. -
caption : Another history lost!!!
Nice picture? Well, I won't be able to reproduce this picture on my camera anymore. Half of this lake had been land-filled to create an exercise park thus robbing an excellent scenery.
The lake was created during the construction of Potala Palace. The earth excavated were used as motar for the palace. Lu (naga) a dragon like spirits were thought to have live in the lake. In order to appease the dragon spirits, a temple, The Lukhang (Chapel of the Dragon King) was build in the middle of the lake.
The Lukhang is celebrated for its mural arts dating from the 18th century on the 2nd and 3rd storey. The 2nd storey mural tells the story made by Tibetan opera, while the 3rd floor depicit the various yogic and meditation postions. You will need a powerful torchlight to see the pictures on top of a fee to get the caretaker to unlock the door. No photography was allowed but you can still get to see the mural art from the book (The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple: Tantric Wall Paintings from Tibet) in the library.
Caption: The Lukhang - Chapel of the Dragon King
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Pics are beautiful.
Feels really peaceful just looking at them.