Part 3 - Lhasa (Jokhang, Potala, Drepung, Sera)

Part 3 - Lhasa, 3674m (Jokhang, Potala, Drepung, Sera)
                                                                                                  
Tibet, especially the big cities like Lhasa, experience a big influx of Han Chinese, who change Tibet significantly. Protests and unrests since 2008 have caused the Chinese government to significantly increase the control over Tibet. In 2007 we could move freely in and around Lhasa, could travel by public buses, could hire a Landrover to the Nepalese border and travel there without a guide. The border station to Nepal was open for tourists.

This time we had to hire a state assigned guide, who accompanied us to all sights and later on to Tibet's West. 

Phurbu was a very knowledgeable young Tibetan  guide, who helped us in every aspect, had profound  knowledge of the Tibetan culture, and was a valuable translator, as there are still very few people in Tibet (and in the rest of China) who speak at least some basic English.

But to be fair, the Chinese government seems to have changed its attitude towards Tibetans to some extent: Tibetans seem to be relatively free to live their traditional way of life and participate in their ancient Buddhist ceremonies. Moreover there are visible efforts to restore ancient holy sites (undoing to some extent the brutal damage done to the cultural sites by the Red Army during the years of the Cultural Revolution ). 

Of course these activities are very much motivated by economic interests. Tourists should be attracted, but monks in monasteries are tightly controlled. Travelling overland  becomes  quite tedious when being stopped by police and army every 50-100 kilometres at checkpoints. 

                                                                                              

The main sights are the Old City with the Jokhang Palace, the Potala, the Drepung and Sera monasteries and the Norbulingka (the summer palace of the Dalai Lama, which we did not visit this time)

Lhasa Old City

Although Lhasa is now a Chinese City with typical Chinese living quarters, Chinese owned hotels and big shopping centres, the central parts of old Tibetan Lhasa are still astonishingly  well preserved  (apart from the fact  that every shop and public  building needs to display the Chinese flag). 

Our good old Yak hotel is located in the very centre of the old city, close to the Jokhang temple.

 

We bought new glasses in a Chinese shop of the new town and this is the team that attended to us. Phurbu, our guide, is to the right.

Jokhang Temple and Kora 
Unesco World Heritage Site

Tibetans consider the Jokhang as the most sacred and most important temple in Tibet. It is maintained by the Gelug school, but they accept worshippers from all sects of Buddhism. The temple's architectural style is a mixture of Indian Vihara, Tibetan and Nepalese design. The temple was founded ca 640 AD.  Has been attacked by the Red Guards in 1966 and restored from 1972-1980 (Wikipedia).

View of the Potala, from the Jokhang

The Kora, the pilgrimage path around the temple

Police and camouflaged video cameras permanently obsere the movements on the kora ...

... dangerous Tibetans like him?








Burning incense



The Potala
Unesco World Heritage Site

The main residence of the Dalai Lhama until 1959, when the current 14th Dalai Lhama had to flee from Tibet. The construction started in 1646, overlaying the remains of an older fortress built in 637. The palace covers 15 000 square metres , is 13 storeys high, contains more than 1000 rooms, 10 000 shrines and 200 000 statues (wikipedia)

     



The number of visitors is now restricted to 2300 per day - Phurbu was able to provide us with tickets. We are allowed to stay in the palace for exactly 90 minutes, otherwise the guide has to pay a fine ...


        









A 3 dimensional mandala






View of the Jokhang from the Potala, with wafts of burning incense



The (Chinese) Peoples' Park built exactly in front of the Potala



Drepung Monastery



Drepung is the largest of all Tibetan monasteries and is located ten kilometres west of Lhasa's old city. Founded in 1416. In the 1930s it  housed 7,700 monks, but sometimes as many as 10,000 monks. Since the 1950s, Drepung Monastery, along with its peers Ganden and Sera, have lost much of their independence and spiritual credibility in the eyes of Tibetans since they operate under the close watch of the Chinese security services (wikipedia)











40% of Drepung were destoyed by the Red Guards, major parts have been restored in the meantime, but the rest is slowly taken back by nature.


 


Sera Monastery

The Sera Monastery was founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chojey, a disciple of Je Tsongkhapa. It is located 5km north of the Jokhang.

During the 1959 revolt in Lhasa, Sera monastery suffered severe damage, with its colleges destroyed and hundreds of monks killed. After the Dalai Lama took asylum in India, many of the surviving monks fled to India and established a parallel Sera Monastery in Mysore., including the Sera Me and Sera Je colleges where now 3000 monks  are living. 

Sera is noted for its debate sessions.

(wikipedia)

see this video on the debating practice during our visit

Norbulinka (visited in 2007)

The summer residence of the Dalai Lama, built from 1755.

               

     



All photos by the author, apart from those marked with 'www', which were taken from various internet sources.