Lhasa to Gyantse – Yamdrok-tso and Gyantse monastery

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Travis

On the fourth day, now acclimatised to the high altitude, we left Lhasa and headed towards the Nepal border. The day’s sights would include Yamdrok-tso lake, two mountain passes, Kamba-la pass and Karo-la pass, and the day-end destination town of Gyantse.

Yamdrok-tso lake

Yamdrok-tso lake is interspersed between the mountains and we seemed to be following it for the majority of our journey from Lhasa to Gyantse. The beautiful scenery was a nice change from the three-days of monasteries and Buddha statues.

Mountain passes

A pass is a track or road over a mountain used to get to the other side, the tip or highest point of the track is known as the pass. We had already experiences a few ‘minor’ passes in Kyrgyzstan and the ‘major’ Tanggu La Pass at 5072 metres on the train to Lhasa. Passes are fun, they provide amazing views, and may even break your personal-best highest elevation. In Tibet the passes are marked by prayer flags, locals selling knick-knacks and sometimes an elevation marker or small chorten. The passes we went through were Kamba-la pass at 4700 metre, Karo-la pass at 4960 metres and Simu-la pass at 4280 metres. They were not snow covered, which was a surprise as this had been the case for the lower elevated passes in Kyrgyzstan.

Gyantse

Gyantse monastery – very similar to the many previous monasteries we had visited, for an unusually small fee we were permitted to take photos, below are photos the Buddha books (books with literature of all things relating to Buddhism, the usual Buddha statues and protector statues.

Gyantse Kumbum (100,000 Buddha images) – a large chorten (or stupa), which is usually a large circular shaped building that tapers up, the architecture has specific Buddhist meaning, as well as the structure in general. What made the Kumbum so unique was as its named suggested, the hundreds of Buddha images found in the many small rooms circulating the chorten. Each room was filled with beautiful Buddhist murals and a statue of a Buddha or a protector. After about the first two floors, having entered all the rooms so far and made an effort to study the murals, we started to skip a few as it was starting to take a little while and the themes were very similar. At the top we had a view of the courtyard where our guide was patiently sitting, now we understood why he elected to wait for us, as explaining all the murals and statues would have been tiresome.

Gyantse Dzong – the Gyantse skyline included the Gyantse Dzong, a fort-like structure sitting on the city’s overshadowing mountains, unfortunately, it didn’t seem open to tourists.

Ganden Monastery kora, Lhasa Tibet

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Sonya

This monastery is located about an hour away from Lhasa. It was one of my favourite places, not so much because of the monastery itself, but its location. It is set high up on a hill above the Kyi-Chu valley and offers beautiful views. When we arrived we started with the kora, a pilgrimage circumambulation walk around the monastery. Some areas heading uphill were quite steep and difficult but once we got into the swing, the kora provided some wonderful scenery of the surrounds as well as colourful prayer flags strung everywhere imaginable. We were joined by pilgrims murmuring as they walked along side us. One side of the mountain is known for sky burials, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual where the dead are placed for birds, usually vultures, to eat the flesh. We quietly watched as some monks prayed for the deceased who had been through the rituals earlier during the day.

On our way back around the monastery, we passed by Tsongkhapa’s (founder of Gelugpa sect) meditation chamber before heading to view the Ngam Cho Khang chapel, Assembly Hall and Chapel of Jampa. We also saw the debating courtyard. There didn’t seem to be much activity as it was supposedly a holiday for the monks. We had a simple lunch of thugpa (noodles) at the Monastery Restaurant next door.

The Winter (Potala Palace) and Summer (Norbulinka) Palaces of the Dali Lama, Lhasa, Tibet

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Sonya

Norbulinka (Summer Palace)

Norbulinka is known as the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lamas. We had previously watched the Tibet featured films Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet and were keen to see how well the films represented the living quarters of, in particular, the current fourteenth Dalai Lama. Our guide told us that during summer and the yoghurt festival, the Norbulinka is full of picnicking Tibetans.

Our first stop was the most recent addition to the complex, the ‘New Summer Palace’ and also known as the Palace for the most recent fourteenth Dalai Lama. It was built in the mid 1950’s, just a few years prior to his exile to India. Inside, we were able to view the audience chamber, the Dalai Lama’s private quarters (even his bathroom), and assembly hall. The rooms were exactly as he had left them so many years ago, and it was a little surreal walking through the palace.

We then visited the palaces of the eighth and thirteenth Dalai Lama. The eighth had some beautiful thangkas (Tibetan silk paintings) and the thirteenth had some interesting vehicles used by the lamas including bicycles, carriages and buggies.

Potala Palace (Winter Palace)

After Nobulinka we headed to the Potala Palace, the once Winter Palace of the Dalai Lamas. The lines were long, with foreign tourists, Chinese and Tibetan pilgrims. Due to its popularity, not only are a limited number of visitors allowed to enter the Palace per day (two thousand), there is a time restraint of forty-five minutes per area. The walk up to the Red Palace was quite exhausting. At over three-thousand metres high, walking up all those steps was challenging! Inside the Red Palace we saw the Chapel of Jampa, King Songsten Gampo’s meditation chamber (the oldest room in the Potala) and a number of tombs for the previous Dalai Lamas (thirteenth, eighteenth and nineteenth). Many of the rooms were closed to the public. We also were able to walk on the roof of the White Palace and view the throne room (where the Dalai Lamas could receive guests), meditation room and bedroom of the Dalai Lama.

Tibet Museum

We had some time in the afternoon to visit the Tibet Museum afterwards, which had some beautiful Thangkas, Tibetan Opera Masks, scriptures and musical instruments.

Barkhor walking tour

Later we did a walking tour of the Barkhor area which included some interesting sites including the Muslim Quarters and the Sangkhung Nunnery.

Barkhor circuit
Tromsikhang Market
Gyüme Lower Tantric College
Meru Sarpa Monastery
Eizhi Exquisite Thangka Shop
Karmashar Temple
Dropenling crafts centre
Ancient Art Restoration Centre
Muslim quarter
Islam Restaurant
Ani Sangkhung Nunnery
thangka workshop
Lho Rigsum Lhakhang

Sera Monastery, Lhasa, Tibet – Debating Monks

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Sonya

Sera monastery is a few kilometres from Lhasa. We headed there mid afternoon with the intention of watching the debating monks. Every day (except for Sundays), the Sera Monastery’s monks undertake a one-on-one (or sometimes two-on-one) debate on the philosophies of life (so we’re told). As we waited until 3pm, quite a few dozens of monks gathered in the courtyard in pairs or teams, and began discussing a particular topic. Usually, one monk was seated on the ground cross legged (or on a mat) with his partner standing above him. The standing monk would pose a question (so it seemed), or make a statement and as he completed his sentence clap his hands whilst at the same time stamping his left foot. It was a fascinating thing to watch, though we had no idea what was being said as it was in Tibetan. Our guide advised that even he didn’t understand what was being discussed as the debate topics were related to their Buddhist studies. We watched the debates for over an hour, intrigued and at times amused, as some monks were quite intense and serious (oblivious to the tourists watching one), others appeared to be joking around with each other. It was certainly an interesting afternoon.