Tibet

Traveling to Tibet we took the route by air, choosing to go part of the way back by train. We had heard that the scenery on the train was quite good and it would be pretty cool to ride on THE HIGHEST train line in the world, but the ride itself was more than 24 hours. So, we flew in. 

The first day of course we were thinking about the altitude. At nearly 4000m it was roughly the height of Mt. Fuji, or much of the Rocky mountain’s taller peaks. We could feel it pretty much right away as it was a bit hard to breathe. The first afternoon/evening we had no plan, so we walked around the neighborhood at the speed of a geriatric, breathing heavily and dragging our feet. Over the next few days we felt better, but the few days we were there were not enough to totally adjust and so we constantly had a short of breathe, slight headache feeling which made it hard to do much physically or to sleep well. 

    

The second day we visited two temples and that took up much of our day. We we were accompanied by not only our guide but a couple from Sydney. It was nice to have them along as the husband had a good knowledge of Buddhism and had a lot of good questions to ask as we toured the temple. Of course, as will happen with anything you are unfamiliar with, especially when the names/places are in a different language, just about everything went over our heads and didn’t stick. We were often asking the same things the guide had explained earlier or generalizing information. I feel bad for the guide and it is certainly not a job I would ever want to repeat things over and over! Then again, I'm a teacher so... maybe. 

After lunch we watched as some of the younger monks had a “debate”. It was interesting as they were all speaking at the same time, but of course we had no idea what they were talking about. Our guide told us they were debating buddhist teachings, but they could just be telling each other off, as I suspect some of them were based on their facial and hand expressions. 

Perhaps because of the heat and/or the altitude and/or the time spent walking we were beat by 5pm. We decided that since we were already out we would grab dinner and then head back. As we were on the 3rd floor of the restaurant we could see many of the surrounding rooftops, including the one where there were police literally hanging off the side of the roof watching the street below. This would become a familiar sight over the next few days as we crossed check points and passed armed patrols. 

A big question in itself, Tibet’s autonomy from the Chinese government is basically nil. Since 2008 when there was an uprising across Tibet against government forces, there has been a largely increased presence of Chinese forces in Tibet and a much more restrictive atmosphere. Part of this also has to do with the Dalai Lama as he fled to India in 1959 and lives there still, in opposition to the Chinese government in Tibet. Nowhere did we see pictures or mention of the current Dalai Lama, but people do say his number in the line of succession. 

The following day we were on our own with the guide and we visited Jekhon temple in the center of Lhasa. We had passed by there a couple of times already as it is in the heart of the city and the touristy area. As we arrived in the morning there were many people outside doing their adulation. They would basically do a burpee without the jumping. Our guide told us that they do 100 of these, then take a break for tea or whatever. Inside the temple the crowds were thick, but none thicker than when we were right in front of the statue of Sakyamuni buhhda, which was brought to Lhasa by a Chinese princess. People were wishing to pray to it, I didn’t care, but that is the route. I tried to just walk by as fast as I could, which is to say at standing pace since the people in front of me weren’t moving. To get my attention, as obviously I wasn’t moving fast enough, the crowds behind me kept pushing me. I did, oddly, receive a couple jabs and pushes in this and other temples from pilgrims. I bet they are kind of tired of tourists just hanging out and blocking their way, but I am pretty conscious of keeping out of pathways. I think maybe I was just a target for mild aggression.

After this encounter we had a quick coffee at KFC and then headed to the Potala palace. This beautiful building was home to the Dalai lamas from the 5th all the way to the 13th, the one that escaped to Tibet. It is a huge place, but so are the crowds that wish to see it, so we were given one hour for our guide to whisk us through the place and see this and that room. Apparently there are 999 rooms, but I don’t think we saw all of them, just 998. Kidding aside, it felt that way as we walked hurriedly from place to place.

The following day we were packing off to the train station and taking the highest altitude track from Tibet to Xining. You can take a train all the way to Beijing, but it takes about 48 hours and we thought that 24 hours on the train would be plenty to see the best sites. Many people take the train ride the other way, to acclimatize, but our schedule dictated the other way and probably as a consequence of that we did not encounter many western tourists or tourists in general. The train trip had some quite beautiful parts and here and there we did see some wildlife along the tracks. Again though, I was struck by China’s grip as especially leaving Lhasa and then every couple of miles or so along the track there would be a lone outpost of a police or guard sentry, sometimes saluting as the train went past. Who or what were these people keeping the train safe from?