Lhasa - Sonya and Travis

Jokhang Temple and Barkhor square

Our first day in Lhasa started with a visit to the Jokhang Temple, walking through the bustling Barkhor Bazaar to the Barkhor square.

By the time we arrived, there were already many pilgrims outside the temple, performing prostrations whilst two large incense burners omitted strong smoke of juniper.

As we lined up amongst the tens of Tibetan pilgrims, we couldn’t help but notice the strong smell of yak butter which we later found is used to burn offering candles. The Jokhang Temple is quite a large complex. We entered courtyard first and our guide Demdah advised that this was the place where important examinations (e.g. to determine the highest lama) sat by Gelugpa Iamas are held.

After the courtyard, we entered the inner prayer hall which is surrounded by a number of chapels. The prayer hall contained six statues – two of Guru Rinpoche, three Jampa statues (Maitreya, the Future Buddha) and the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara. We would learn later that these statues would be seen repeatedly across many of the monasteries in Tibet.

As per Buddhist tradition, we encircled the surrounding chapels clockwise. Inside the chapels, we were also required to encircle the room clockwise. There were numerous chapels, including the Chapel of Tsongkhapa (the founder of the Gelugpa order, probably the most renown of the four orders), Chapel of Chenresig, Chapel of Jowo Sakyamuni (said to be the most important shrine in Tibet, as it houses the Present Buddha image at age twelve and is thought to have been brought to Tibet by Princess Wencheng, the Chinese wife of King Songstan Gampo – the founder of Tibet). After visiting a number of chapels, we headed to the roof of Jokang to view the surrounding areas, including views of Barkhor Square and Potala Palace.

Drepung Monastery

After Jokang, we headed to Drepung Monastery, located about 8km from Lhasa, stopping by Potala Palace to pick up tickets for the next day (there is a 2000 limit on ticket numbers per day for the popular attraction). Drepung was founded by one of Tsongkhapa’s disciples in the 15^th century and is part of the Gelugpa order. It has a number of key buildings, we visited Ganden Palace, the main assembly hall (with a large Jampa statue), the kitchen (used to cook the lamas meals) and a meditation hut where we were told some monks meditate for years on end. It was our first monastery and I enjoyed walking around and admiring the beautiful deep red and white buildings with their wispy white curtains. We had a lunch of rice and vegetables at the Monastery restaurant next door before heading to our next destination.

From Xining we caught a train to Lhasa, Tibet province in China, we chose the hard-sleeper, and even though it was the most we had paid at 500 Yuan (plus 200 Yuan booking fee), it was the worst seats we had, with six bunks per room. Naturally, we were left with the middle beds that were so low you couldn’t even sit upright. Fortunately, this then meant we would spend most of our time outside the room which meant we spent a lot of time looking at the beautiful scenery. The train to Lhasa is the world’s highest elevated train, reaching 5072 metres above sea level over the Tanggu La Pass.

Tanggu La Pass

When of the requirements when entering Tibet is all foreigners must have a guide, because of this we booked our first multi-day tour with Tibet Highland Tours. We booked a nine day tour of Lhasa, then Everest Base Camp to Nepal border for 10,650 Yuan (the majority of this cost was the cost of the four-wheel-drive driving as around one thousand kilometres from Lhasa to the Nepal border.

On arrival at the Lhasa train station we were greeted by the Chinese SWAT and police who made sure that our guide was there to meet us (we learnt that the entry and exit were the main formalities, travelling around Lhasa could be unaccompanied). We met our Tibetan guide Demdah who gifted us with traditional white silk scarfs (Khata), and introduced us to our driver before heading to our hotel.

The below photos were the best we could take from our train’s dirty window.