Lhasa Mysteries Revealed

 

The Potala Palace is Lhasa’s most stunning site: a 13-story red-and-white fortress-like castle atop a hill overlooking the city. It became every Dalai Lama’s home base starting with the 5^th Dalai Lama in the 1640s. We have a view of it from our hotel window, and it takes my breath away every time I see it. Our first morning, we visited it, beginning with a view from a big square in front of it, reflecting in a pool.

In the middle of the square is a monument to the “peaceful liberation of Tibet.” Paul posed with it.

Climbing the 13 stories of the palace was no picnic, especially since the air here has about 70 percent of the oxygen we’re used to. We couldn’t take photos inside, where it has a medieval feel, although it is not as dark and musty and reeking of yak-butter candles as it was when Paul and I visited it in 1987. In addition to the Dalai Lama’s private chambers, we saw the throne room, assembly hall, tombs of many previous Dalai Lamas, and many Buddhist statues and scripture halls and chapels. Most of the explanations were too hard for me to understand, since I’m not that familiar with Tibetan Buddhist terms, even though I eavesdropped on some English-speaking tour guides (our guide, who is Tibetan, speaks to us in Chinese.)

Here is a picture of the smaller building within the “white palace” where the private chambers of the Dalai Lama are. We saw his bedroom and private meditation room; it was sad to see them empty and unused after 50 years in exile.

In the afternoon we toured the Tibetan museum, where I saw hand-written scriptures in the Tibetan language dating from the 7^th century A.D. – far earlier than any English writing I’m aware of! It’s amazing, given how remote and mountainous Tibet is, that it has a culture dating back so far.

We ate dinner at the Mad Yak restaurant! (Would you dare?) Our first and only Tibetan food. For all its rich culture, Tibetan food is mainly yak meat, yak-butter tea, barley wine, and champa, which is a barley powder/paste. They fixed it up a bit to make it more edible for foreign tastes, then did a little song and dance show. Inspired by Emily and her friends, who did the same at a Tibetan restaurant in Beijing last February, I joined the dancers as they wound their way around the restaurant. It was fun!